UAE's Othman Moussa stuns India's Parimarjan

Dubai: UAE's Fide Master Othman Moussa put up a splendid performance to stun India's rising star and Grandmaster Negi Parimarjan in the Dubai Open Chess tournament at the Dubai Chess and Cultural Club.

Moussa, rated 2335, stunned Parimarjan, rated 2514, in just 55 moves from a Pirc defence.

"I have not been playing chess regularly, but it is this kind of victories that tempt me to continue playing," Moussa told Gulf News.

The result of the clash, which ended only at 10pm, was a shattering blow for the Parimarjan, who in 2006 became the youngest Grandmaster at 13 years three months and 22 days. He is still the second youngest Grandmaster in the history of the game after Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine.

Much was expected of Parimarjan, but Othman started attacking the queenside after Parimarjan castled long.

In a rook and minor piece endgame, Othman coordinated his pieces well and placed his rook on the seventh rank, which gave him an undue advantage.

Othman swiped the pawns on the seventh rank and won extra pawns and the game.

Tactical advantage

Twenty players have emerged at the top with two points after the second round.

In another match, FM Moosavian Hameed of Iran, rated 2404, defeated top-seeded Grandmaster Guseinov Gadir of Azerbaijan, rated 2625, in 59 moves from a Sicilian Defence.

Moosavian went for attacking the centre early in the opening and positioned his pieces well. Moosavian penetrated into Black's camp with his isolated central pawn and gained space advantage.

In a tactical melee, Moosavian played brilliantly and delivered a powerful checkmate on the seventh rank.

UAE had a good day with FM Salem A.R. Saleh, FM Alhuwar Jasem and Saeed Ishaq registered fine victories.

Results (round 2): Moosavian S Hameed (2) bt Guseinov Gadir (1), Gelashvili Tamaz (2) bt Sachdev Tania (1), Mas Hafizulhelmi (1) lost to Pantsulaia Levan (2), Ghaem Maghami Ehsan (2) bt D'Cuna Antonio V. (1), Durarbeyli Vasif (1) lost to Kuzubov Yuriy (2), Nasri Ameen (1) lost to Drozdovskij Yuri (2), Li Chao B (2) bt Wang Li (1), Sharma Dinesh K (1) lost to Adly Ahmad (2), Kotanjian Tigran (2) bt Ravi Lanka (1), Hassan Abdullah (1) lost to Kotsur Pavel (2), Neverov Valeriy (2) bt Zhang Jilin (1), Bajarni Ilgar (1) lost to Zhou Weiqi (2), Gleizerov Evgeny (1.5) drew with Nedochetov Mikhail (1.5).

Factfile: History of chess

- There are conflicting claims about the origin of chess but many instances point out that the game started from Northern India around 600 AD.

- Chess is supposed to have come to Arabia via China and Persia. It was adopted in Persia around 700 AD and became part of Arab Culture by 800 AD.

- The words for chess in Old Persian and Arabic are Chatrang and Shatranj.

- The Queen was known as Vazir. But the principles of the game remained unchanged and the primary goal is to checkmate the Malik (King).

- The game got popular in Europe by the end of 15th century. It had to survive a series of prohibitions and Christian Church sanctions.

- Chinese chess borrows various elements of a game called Go, which they used to play in 6th century. So Chinese chess pieces were flat and resembled those of checkers.

- The first book on the various techniques of chess was published in the 18th century written by a chess player called Francois Andre Danican Philidor of France.

- Chess gained in popularity with many royal kings playing it. Henry IV (1553-1610) and many monarchs also played it. Louis XIII (1601-1643) is said to have always travelled with a chess board with spiked pieces. Rulers like Elizabeth I (1533-1603, and James I (1566-1625) too were active players of the game.