Andreikin Wins Strong Abu Dhabi Masters
GM Dmitry Andreikin won a strong open tournament in Abu Dhabi as the only player to finish on 7.5/9. The Russian grandmaster earned U.S. $13,000 (€11,638).
Held for the 23rd time, the International Chess Festival in Abu Dhabi took place August 21-29 in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The Masters (above 2100 Elo) had 130 participants and was pretty strong, with 57 GMs and 63 IMs playing.
The top seeds were GMs Dmitry Andreikin (RUS, 2733), Wang Hao (CHN, 2712), Baskaran Adhiban (IND, 2671), Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS, 2670), Alexander Areshchenko (UKR, 2665), Zahar Efimenko (UKR, 2661), Bassem Amin (EGY, 2654), Hrant Melkumyan (ARM, 2650), Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR, 2639), and Abhijeet Gupta (IND, 2637).
The tournament underway. | Photo Abu Dhabi Chess Festival.
Andreikin started the tournament in the solid style of the old masters, winning three with White, and drawing three with Black. However, dropping 1.5 points by round six is quite a lot for a top seed. But with a strong finish the Russian player emerged as the sole winner anyway.
In round seven, he got White against the 33-year-old Ukrainian GM Alexander Zubov. Inspired by two black games where he faced 6.Bf4 against the Taimanov, Andreikin decided to try out the move himself. It is an old idea played by e.g. the Dutch GM John van der Wiel in the 1980s and it worked out nicely for Andreikin.
Also in the penultimate round Andreikin got the white pieces. The way he treated GM Anton Demchenko's deferred Steinitz was instructive: luring the bishop to e7, pushing d5 but not trading light-squared bishop as it would help Black's development (and Bd7 is badly placed), and then a great way of gaining control over d5.
With one round to go Andreikin shared the lead with his compatriot GM Alexander Predke and GM Baskaran Adhiban of India. The latter was held to a draw by GM Salem Saleh, while Andreikin won his third straight game. It was a long game that wasn't without errors (there was a tablebase draw right at the end), but White was always under pressure.
Tournament victory for Andreikin, who didn't make the Russian team at the Olympiad in Baku. | Photo Abu Dhabi Chess Festival.
23rd Abu Dhabi Masters | Final Standings (Top 20)
| # | SNo | Fed | Title | Name | Rtg | Pts | TB2 | TB3 | rtg+/- |
| 1 | 1 | GM | Andreikin Dmitry | 2733 | 7,5 | 2564 | 50,5 | 9 | |
| 2 | 3 | GM | Adhiban B. | 2671 | 7 | 2599 | 53 | 13,7 | |
| 3 | 7 | GM | Amin Bassem | 2654 | 7 | 2569 | 51,5 | 12,6 | |
| 4 | 32 | GM | Predke Alexandr | 2553 | 6,5 | 2632 | 53,5 | 25,1 | |
| 5 | 15 | GM | Salem A.R. Saleh | 2617 | 6,5 | 2580 | 49,5 | 12,9 | |
| 6 | 5 | GM | Areshchenko Alexander | 2665 | 6,5 | 2577 | 49,5 | 7 | |
| 7 | 19 | GM | Dragun Kamil | 2609 | 6,5 | 2568 | 48,5 | 10,7 | |
| 8 | 27 | GM | Lalith Babu M R | 2575 | 6,5 | 2550 | 46 | 13,9 | |
| 9 | 11 | GM | Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo | 2626 | 6,5 | 2473 | 41,5 | 0,9 | |
| 10 | 24 | GM | Demchenko Anton | 2600 | 6 | 2634 | 53,5 | 15,4 | |
| 11 | 9 | GM | Kuzubov Yuriy | 2639 | 6 | 2567 | 50 | 4 | |
| 12 | 20 | GM | Zubov Alexander | 2606 | 6 | 2555 | 51 | 6,5 | |
| 13 | 23 | GM | Savchenko Boris | 2602 | 6 | 2548 | 46 | 5,7 | |
| 14 | 41 | IM | Aryan Chopra | 2485 | 6 | 2530 | 44,5 | 16,4 | |
| 15 | 2 | GM | Wang Hao | 2712 | 6 | 2524 | 46 | -8,2 | |
| 16 | 21 | GM | Prohaszka Peter | 2604 | 6 | 2511 | 46,5 | 1,7 | |
| 17 | 22 | GM | Adly Ahmed | 2603 | 6 | 2504 | 49 | 1,3 | |
| 18 | 16 | GM | Banusz Tamas | 2616 | 6 | 2492 | 46,5 | -1,2 | |
| 19 | 12 | GM | Andriasian Zaven | 2621 | 6 | 2486 | 48 | -2,2 | |
| 20 | 66 | IM | Krishna C R G | 2401 | 6 | 2446 | 43,5 | 16,4 |
(Full final standings here.)
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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