Gulf News, United Arab Emirates
August 25, 2005

GRANDMASTER ANASTASIAN CLINCHES MASTER’S CROWN IN ABU DHABI

Grandmaster Ashot Anastasian of Armenia won the Master’s title at the
15th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival that concluded late on
Tuesday.

Anastasian played a quick draw with GM Alexei Federov of Belarus to
finish with a tally of seven points out of a possible nine and
pocketed the first prize of $ 4,000 (Dh14,680).

Grandmaster Dmitry Bocharov of Russia and Uzbekistan’s International
Master Sergey Kayumov tied for the second spot scoring 6.5 points
each.

Bocharov defeated Ukrainian GM Alexander Goloshachapov. Indian
Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly scored a comprehensive victory over
Russian GM Mikhail Ulibin in the ninth round to finish 13th.

Ganguly yet again showcased his superior end-game technique to
outplay Ulibin who played the black side of a French defence game.

Playing the Winawer variation, Ganguly got an advantage in the
opening itself and nurtured it well to win a pawn. Ulibin found some
solace in an exchange sacrifice for some optical attack but Ganguly
was on his guard and timely trading of queens led to a difficult
end-game for black.

Ganguly wrapped up the issue in 55 moves after tying Black pieces to
passive defence. The final round of the women’s category saw another
spurt from Eesha Karavade who beat Grandmaster Vladimir Dobrov of
Russia.

With this victory, Karavade secured another Woman Grandmaster norm,
scoring 5.5 points in the event.