Dubai: French Grandmaster Romain Edouard beat top seed grandmaster Anton Korobov of Ukraine to win the 16th Dubai Open Chess Championship at Dubai Chess Club on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old went undefeated throughout the tournament and took an impressive eight points from nine rounds, earning him the Shaikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup and the top cash prize of $10,000.
In the final match, the Frenchman played the black side of a Queen’s Pawn game and sacrificed the exchange of a rook for knight on the 30th move to expose his opponent’s castled king. Faced with a mating net, Korobov resigned two moves later.
Erstwhile leader grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta of India lost to grandmaster Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela. Gupta used the Gruenfeld defence but was squeezed in as Iturrizaga maintained the initiative of the white pieces and controlled the centre. Gupta was forced to exchange queens on the 22nd move and also lost two pawns, which proved crucial in the end and he resigned on the 51st move. The win gave Iturrizaga a total of seven points and a share of second place.
Grandmaster Yuriy Kozubov of Ukraine exacted revenge against Russian grandmaster Aleksandr Rakhmanov to finish in a tie Iturrizaga. Kuzubov crushed the Modern Defence of Rakhmanov in 58 moves.
Gupta finished in a tie for fourth to ninth places at 6.5 points together with grandmasters Zaven Andriasian and Tigran L. Petrosian of Armenia, Hrvoje Stevic of Croatia, Andrei Istratescu of France and Gawain Jones of England.
Andriasian beat grandmaster Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan, Petrosian outplayed international master Ebrahim Ahmadinia of Iran and Stevic and Jones drew with each other, while Istratescu won over Pontus Carlsson of Sweden.
Nineteen players had six points each to gain a share of the $50,000 total prize fund.
A total of 148 players from 39 countries participated in the event, including 38 grandmasters and eight woman grandmasters. Since its inception in 1999, the Dubai Open has been considered one of the major Swiss open-style tournaments in the chess world. Visit chess-results.com for full results and final standings.
