With the trophy guaranteed with a round to spare, Grandmaster (GM) Wang Hao of China agreed to a draw with top seed Yuriy Kryvoruchko of Ukraine in the last round of the fourth Al Ain Classic Chess Championship at the Hili Rayhaan Hotel by Rotana in Al Ain. The victory earned Wang the top prize of $13,000 (Dh47,750) out of a total of $57,000 in cash prizes.
The former Chinese national champion finished alone with an impressive 8 points in the nine-round Swiss system tournament. Kryvoruchko, the former Ukrainian champion, and eight others shared second place with 6.5 points each. In tie break order were runner-up Alexei Shirov of Latvia, Arman Pashikian of Armenia, Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia, Kryvoruchko, Alexander Areshchenko, Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko, Martin Kravtsiv and Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine and Robert Hovhannisyan of Armenia.
Leaders played cautiously with draws in the last round, but the players trailing them barged into the money prizes. Areshchenko beat 2013 Al Ain Classic champion Abhijeet Gupta of India in 54 moves of a Ruy Lopez. Efimenko whipped former World Junior champion, Ahmad Adly of Egypt, in 43 moves of a symmetrical English opening. Pantsulaia laid a beautiful trap to win against Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine in only 25 moves. Hovhannisyan smashed the French Defence of Sergei Volkov of Russia in 28 moves. Kravtsiv crushed the Caro Kann defence of Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova in 41 moves.
At the closing ceremony, Shirov, former World Championship finalist, thanked the organisers for the excellent conditions and for “establishing the Al Ain Classic as one of the major tournaments in the world chess calendar.”
An Al Ain Amateur tournament was held concurrently for players rated below 2,000 with 72 players from 15 countries competing for $7,000 in cash prizes. Anisweud Sasikumar of India, 15, a grade 10 student at the Sharjah Indian School in the UAE, won the tournament alone, with 8 points, followed by runner-up Raffi Ghazayan of Armenia, Marshool Hamdan of the UAE and Saji Adarsh of India, at 7 points each.
In an interview after the tournament, Wang said: “Next year I will finish my Master’s Degree in Communications from Beijing University. I have lived more than 10 years in Beijing and after I graduate I shall move to another city because of the pollution in Beijing. Shenzen is well developed and it has a higher GDP than Hong Kong.
“After I graduate I can do anything I want. I don’t think I have to get a job. I will play in the national league. Since I won the national championship five years ago I have not played in the national championship because of conflict with the federation. Aside from playing in tournaments, I coach amateurs and, one-and-a-half years ago, also a grandmaster. In Shenzen there are lots of kids and it is better for chess compared to Beijing.“