Abu Dhabi: One couldn’t have asked for a more fitting finish to the Abu Dhabi Masters Chess Championship that concluded here at the Sofitel Abu Dhabi Corniche. The final round ended in a five-way tie with all of them on seven points each but Sweden’s Nils Grandelius was declared the winner on the basis of consistent performance and better progressive rating ahead of Martyn Kravtsiv of Ukraine.
GM Baadur Jobava of Georgia, GM Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine and GM Rapport Richard of Hungary finished third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Ukarinian compatriots Martyn Kravtsiv and Alexander Areshchenko were tied on 6.5 points after the eighth round. However, in the decider on Monday, the two erstwhile co-leaders drew by three-time repetition of position in only 20 moves of their Sicilian Najdorf poisoned pawn game. The draw thus allowed three others to share the top cash prizes. Areshchenko had halted the winning streak of sole leader Grandelius and dented his chances earlier by handing him a shock defeat in the penultimate round by using Closed Ruy Lopez and maintaining the initiative with the white pieces to force the former to resign in 57 moves.
However, once Kravtsiv and Arsehchenko dished out a draw, Grandelius’ hopes of a comeback was revived. He crushed the Slav defense of Vladimir Akopian of Armenia in a marathon 83 moves of a minor piece endgame in the final round and took claim of the top spot with his consistency.
Jobava turned back the English Opening of Tigran Petrosian in 37 moves with an unstoppable queening pawn to occupy the third place while Rapport essayed a Queen’s pawn opening against Dariusz Swiercz and won in 72 moves.
UAE ace Grandmaster Salem A.R. Saleh was tied at 6.5 points with India’s Abhijeet Gupta and were the only Asians to finish within the prize money. Peter Prohaszka of Hungary and Gawain Jones of England were also tied with Saleh and Gupta with 6.5 points each. Filipino International Master Haridas Pascua earned a hard-fought draw against GM Gabor Papp of Hungary to clinch his third and final norm to become the Philippines’ newest grandmaster.
