Gupta wins Dubai Open

Abhijeet Gupta finished clear first at the Dubai Open. The Indian grandmaster scored 7.5/9, half a point more than compatriot Parimarjan Negi, Csaba Balogh of Hungary, Murtas Kazhgaleyev (Kazachstan) and Jon Ludvig Hammer (Norway). Abhijeet Gupta (IND, 2580) wins in Dubai

The 13th Dubai Open, also named the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup, took place April 9-19, 2011 in the Dubai Chess and Culture Club. It was a nine round Swiss with a total of 167 participants and no less than 40 GMs. The time control was 90 minutes for the whole game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move 1.

After six rounds the now 18-year-old Parimarjan Negi of India was in clear first place with 5.5 points. Round 7 saw a number of draws on the top boards but Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway joined Negi in the lead thanks to a win against Egyptian GM Bassem Amin. In the crucial encounter in the penultimate round, Negi defeated Hammer to regain clear first.



In the meantime another Indian GM, Abhijeet Gupta, was in clear second place, and was paired with the white pieces against the tournament leader. The two compatriots fought a sharp battle in an Anti-Moscow, and everything was decided in the following position.

Gupta-Negi Dubai Open 2011

26... Nf6? 26... Qf6 27. Nf3 Ne5 was fine for Black. 27. Nf3! Bxe4 27... Qc7 28. Nxd4 cxd4 29. e5 Nd5 30. Qc4 and the d-pawn drops.



28. Rxd4! This works in all lines. 28... cxd4

a) 28... Bxc2 29. Rxd8+ Rxd8 30. Nxe5; b) 28... Rxd4 29. Nxe5 Bxc2 30. Rxc2; c) 28... Qxd4 29. Nxd4 Bxc2 30. Nxc2.

29. Qxc8 Qd5 30. Qc7 Rd7 31. Qe5 1-0

Photos © official website, more here

WIM Veronika Schneider (2247, Hungary) had an excellent tournament and finished first among the women players, on 12th place and in the middle of GMs and IMs. Her score was 6.5/9 (2570 performance) against 6 GMs (from three countries), so this must have been a big fat IM norm.

Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway fought his way up the standings to a shared second place, after losing in the first round to 12-year-old Vahap Sanal (2200) from Turkey. Sanal scored 4/7 (2524 performance) against GMs and IMs only, but the boy might have suffered a bit from overexposure and lost his last two games to (untitled) Davit Zarkua (2397) from Georgia and FM Krishna Sai (2349) of India, missing out on his IM norm. But there's no doubt that we'll hear more from this Turkish talent.

Selection of games

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Dubai Open 2011 | Final Standings (top 40)

Rk	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	Gupta Abhijeet	GM	IND	2580	7.5	19898	2487	2517
2	Negi Parimarjan	GM	IND	2618	7.0	20446	2556	2577
3	Balogh Csaba	GM	HUN	2601	7.0	20400	2550	2572
4	Kazhgaleyev Murtas	GM	KAZ	2618	7.0	20000	2500	2531
5	Hammer Jon Ludvig	GM	NOR	2606	7.0	19608	2451	2487
6	Miroshnichenko Evgenij	GM	UKR	2670	6.5	20365	2546	2560
7	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	GM	GEO	2629	6.5	20255	2532	2553
8	Amin Bassem	GM	EGY	2596	6.5	20043	2505	2522
9	Fedorov Alexei	GM	BLR	2596	6.5	19976	2497	2516
10	Berg Emanuel	GM	SWE	2612	6.5	19850	2481	2499
11	Akopian Vladimir	GM	ARM	2675	6.5	19839	2480	2510
12	Schneider Veronika	WIM	HUN	2247	6.5	19737	2467	2537
13	Huschenbeth Niclas	IM	GER	2465	6.5	19623	2453	2478
14	Kotanjian Tigran	GM	ARM	2527	6.5	19618	2452	2496
15	Guseinov Gadir	GM	AZE	2584	6.5	19592	2449	2478
16	Arutinian David	GM	GEO	2575	6.5	19071	2384	2397
17	Sasikiran Krishnan	GM	IND	2682	6.0	20384	2548	2563
18	Kuzubov Yuriy	GM	UKR	2627	6.0	19869	2484	2511
19	Pantsulaia Levan	GM	GEO	2595	6.0	19818	2477	2492
20	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	GM	IND	2643	6.0	19734	2467	2498
21	Aleksandrov Aleksej	GM	BLR	2638	6.0	19712	2464	2502
22	Lalith Babu M R	IM	IND	2491	6.0	19649	2456	2482
23	Iskusnyh Sergei	GM	RUS	2481	6.0	19441	2430	2472
24	Halkias Stelios	GM	GRE	2579	6.0	19408	2426	2443
25	Ashwin Jayaram	IM	IND	2439	6.0	19253	2407	2442
26	Carlsson Pontus	GM	SWE	2496	6.0	19115	2389	2419
27	Al-Sayed Mohammed	GM	QAT	2485	6.0	19037	2380	2411
28	Harutjunyan Gevorg	GM	ARM	2468	6.0	18345	2293	2311
29	Malakhatko Vadim	GM	BEL	2546	6.0	18259	2282	2304
30	Shiven Khosla		IND	2391	6.0	17577	2197	2240
31	Volkov Sergey	GM	RUS	2621	5.5	20246	2531	2548
32	Petrosian Davit G	GM	ARM	2480	5.5	20106	2513	2545
33	Narayanan Srinath	IM	IND	2310	5.5	19779	2472	2531
34	Adhiban B	GM	IND	2543	5.5	19733	2467	2505
35	Guliev Sarhan	GM	AZE	2497	5.5	19673	2459	2512
36	Gagunashvili Merab	GM	GEO	2599	5.5	19589	2449	2457
37	Zarkua Davit		GEO	2397	5.5	19571	2446	2494
38	Andriasian Zaven	GM	ARM	2645	5.5	19541	2443	2454
39	Khukhashvili Sopiko	IM	GEO	2421	5.5	19375	2422	2454
40	Kayumov Dmitry D	GM	UZB	2463	5.5	19345	2418	2457

Links

• Official website
• Details at Chess-Results
• Games in PGN via TWIC