ALEKSEJ TAKES FINAL ROUND TO WIN ABU DHABI CHESS FEST
By Yasir Abbasher, Senior Reporter

GulfNews
August 21, 2009, 22:51

Chess

Abu Dhabi: GM Aleksander Aleksej, from Belarus beat fellow GM Rakhmanov
Aleksander from Russia in the 9th and final round to win the Masters
competition of the Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival.

Aleksej’s win increased his tally to 7.5 points, edging Aleksander,
the previous leader, who remained with 7 points to finish second.

Armenian GM Anastasian Ashot beat GM Dorozdovskij to take third place
with 7 points, the same tally of GM Andriasian Zaven, from Armenia,
GM Savechenko Stanislav, from Ukraine and GM Melkumyan Hrant, from
Armenia, who took 4th, 5th and 6th places respectively after applying
the Swiss tie-breaking system to decide the top five places behind
the champion.

FIDE Master Saeed Ishaq of the UAE led the local players after
achieving a surprise victory in the final round defeating GM Agamaleiv
Gamil from Azerbaijan to increase his tally to 6.5 points taking the
11th place while his compatriot GM Salem Mohammad Saleh lost to Indian
IM Laxman R.R. to finish 28th with 5.5 points the same tally of Jasim
Al Huwar who defeated his compatriot Khalifa Khamis and finished 37th.

"It was a brilliant performance from Ishaq." Hussain Khory, the former
UAE international player and the financial director of the Abu Dhabi
Chess and Culture Club, told Gulf News.

"Ishaq showed great capabilities and tactics and beating a GM of
Gamil experience is not an easy feat. The festival was organised to
[enable] our young players to gain experience and play against some
of the world’s best. Beating Gamil is but one of the early gains
of the event and we hope that more players have benefitted from the
festival." he said.