Dubai: Georgian Grandmaster (GM) Levan Pantsulaia completed an unbeaten run to rule the blitz side event of the 19th Dubai Open Chess Tournament on Friday at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.
Pantsulaia, who reigned as the Dubai Open champion in 2007, scored 7.5 points on six wins and three draws, punctuated by a final-round win over GM Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko of Ukraine.
GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan, who led the tournament entering the final round, also had 7.5 points, but was dropped to second place after the tiebreaks were applied. Safarli settled for a draw with Polish GM Bartosz Socko in the last round of the nine-round Swiss system event.
The fourth-seeded Socko, along with the top three seeds – GM Anton Korobov of Ukraine, GM Salem AR Saleh of the UAE, defending champion GM Gawain Jones of the UK – all had fourth points along with 14th-seed GM Sergei Zhigalko of Bulgaria to share third to seventh places.
After the tiebreaks, Salem gave the hometown crowd reason to celebrate after taking the bronze medal, followed by Korobov, Socko, Zhigalko and Jones in that order. Fide Master (FM) Faisal Abdulla Kashwani received the prize as the best UAE player for the second year.
A total of 104 players from 27 countries, including 18 grandmasters, took part in the blitz tournament.
