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Gupta wins Dubai Open

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
Gupta wins Dubai OpenAbhijeet 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.

Negi

Parimarjan Negi, leading the standings for most of the tournament



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 Gupta vs Negi

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.

Gupta vs Negi

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

Gupta vs Negi

A handshake before the decisive last-round encounter Gupta vs Negi



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



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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

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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