Dubai: British Grandmaster Gawain Jones won Friday’s blitz championship in the 18th Dubai Open Chess Championship at the Dubai Chess Club. Jones finished with 9.5 points out of 11 rounds.
GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista of Cuba placed second with 9 points followed by GM Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia with 8.5 points for the bronze medal.
Ten players finished with eight points each, namely GMs Salem A.R. Saleh of the UAE, Igor Kovalenko of Latvia, Abdelrahman Hesham of Egypt, R.R. Laxman of India, Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova, Baadur Jobava of Georgia, Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan, Boris Savchenko of Russia, Basheer Al Qudaimi of Yemen and untitled Bharathakoti Harsha of India.
Blitz chess is played instinctively with three minutes each on the chess clock plus two second increments per move with each game taking around 10 minutes to complete.
Jones beat FM Abdo Somoff of Lebanon in the opening round followed by a victory against WGM Julia Ryjanova of Russia. He was upset by Egypt’s IM Abdelrahman Hesham in the third round, but scored six straight wins against FM Ap Karthik and IM Sayantan Das of India, International Master Haridas Pascua of the Philippines, GM Baadur Jobava of Georgia, GM R.R. Laxman of India and GM Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia. From halfway, Jones led all the way. He split the points with GM Salem in the penultimate round and finished with a flourish, beating GM Boris Savchenko of Russia in the last round.
A record 128 players from 33 countries competed in the 11-round Swiss System tournament including 25 Grandmasters and 18 International Masters competing for a total of $4,000 (Dh14,692) in cash prizes.
