UAE’s Saeed Ishaq upsets Milos Perunovic in Dubai Open Chess Championship

Dubai: FIDE Master (FM) Saeed Ishaq returned to giant-killing ways as the Dubai stalwart felled Serbian Grandmaster (GM) Milos Perunovic in Wednesday’s third round of the 17th Dubai Open Chess Championship at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.

Ishaq won a pawn in a complicated middle game and then nursed his advantage through to a rook-and-pawns endgame to seal the victory and post his second point.

Looking to become the UAE’s third grandmaster, Ishaq, earlier beat ninth seed GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan in Monday’s opener.

GM David Howell, meanwhile, leads 11 other grandmasters with immaculate scores after the English top seed outplayed American GM Jaan Ehlvest on board one.

Second seed Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia also maintained a clean slate after beating Indian prodigy GM Sahaj Grover. Others with perfect scores are GMs Sergei Zhigalko of Bulgaria, Andrei Istratescu of France, Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan, Nils Grandelius of Sweden, Sergey Volkov of Russia, Dragan Solak Dragan of Turkey, Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia, Gabor Papp of Hungary, Yuri Solodovnichenko of Ukraine and Gaioz Nigalidze of Georgia.

Egypt’s International Master (IM) Mohammad Ezat was the highest-placed Arab player and the only non-grandmaster in the chasing pack as he sits on top of a group of 2.5-pointers. The 37th seed held fourth seed GM Mateusz Bartel of Poland to a draw in round three.

Egypt’s IM Imed Abdul Nabbi is in joint third place with two points after beating Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Marina Makropoulou of Greece.

The UAE’s FM Saleh Nabil and Moroccan IM Tissir Mohammad also have two points each, along with FM Mohannad Farhan of Jordan.

The UAE’s Arab Under-18 champion FM Sultan Ebrahim held WGM Ozturk Kubra of Turkey to a draw to up his tally to 1.5 points.