GM TIGRAN BAGS DUBAI TITLE ON TECHNICAL COUNT
Khaleej Times
May 6 2009
UAE
DUBAI – The final day of the Dubai Open Chess Championship witnessed
quick grandmaster draws as grandmasters went for consolidation
unwilling to take further risks.
In the previous year’s edition youth triumphed over experience as
16-year-old So Wesley won. However, the grandmasters have managed to
stamp their superiority in technical skills and Grandmasters Bocharov
Dmitry of Russia, Kotanjian Tigran and Anastasian Ashot of Armenia
tied for the first place with seven points.
Kotanjian Tigran was awarded the championship title on better
technical counts while Bocharov and Anastasian became second and
third respectively.
Eight players tied for the 4th to 11th place namely Grandmasters
Guseinov Gadir of Azerbaijan, Malakhatko Vadim of Belgium, IM
Sundararajan Kidambi of India, Grandmasters Maletin Pavel of Russia,
Neverov Valeriy of Ukraine, Mchedlishvili Mikheil of Georgia, Volkov
Sergey of Russia and Miezis Normunds of Latvia with 6.5 points. Kidambi
achieved his third grandmaster norm and should become a grandmaster
once his rating reaches 2500.
Anastasian defeated GM Arun Prasad of India in a marathon game lasting
94 moves. Players sought simplification exchanging the pieces early
in the opening.
The Queens were exchanged on the 12th move and the game transposed
into a rook and minor piece endgame. Anastasian had the initiative
and Arun was forced into a defensive mode. Arun gave up his rook
for a bishop and pawn to get a breakthrough. In a tactical motif,
Anastasian forced the king to a vulnerable position and Arun resigned
when he could not prevent the mating threat .
Kotanjian and Bocharov drew their respective games against Guseinov
Gadir and Maletin Pavel in quick games to consolidate their point
positions.
Among UAE players, GM Salem A.R. Saleh defeated his counterpart IM
Hassan Abdullah and came first with â~@¨5.5 points.
FM Alhuwar Jasem, Hassan Abdullah, Abdulkarim Ali and Issa Mohamed
scored 4.5 points each and placed in the same order.
UAE players have not been able to ultilise the oppurtunity and Salem
who made his GM norm last year ended up with 5.5 points.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress