Dubai: Spain’s International Master (IM) Jaime Santos Latasa held on to the pole position after picking up 1.5 points in Saturday’s fifth and sixth rounds of the 19th Dubai Open Chess Tournament–Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.
The Spaniard won his fifth point in a row after withering an ambitious attack and then outplaying Ukrainian second-seed Grandmaster (GM) Alexander Areshchenko in a theoretically drawn but difficult to defend queen and pawn endgame in the fifth round.
Latasa employed an aggressive set-up with pawns on h6 and g5 against the Giuoco Piano opening, but Areshchenko responded with a knight sacrifice that smoked Latasa’s king out of its protective shell in the kingside and into the middle of the board.
With Latasa’s king stranded on e7, barricaded by white pawns on d5 and e5, Areshchenko committed an ill-timed pawn advance to e6 and then to d6, which gave Latasa’s king enough time and space to flee to the queenside and find a safe haven on the a7-square.
With his king now at a distance from the battle ground, the Spaniard cleverly returned the piece to destroy white’s kingside pawn set-up and launch a king hunt of his own.
With roles now reversed, Areshchenko doggedly defended to reach a queen ending a pawn down, but while the position was objectively a draw, it was much more difficult to hold over the board and when playing on increments. The Ukrainian ultimately faltered and resigned on the 79th move.
The win allowed Latasa to maintain his lead going into the sixth round, where he met 2010 champion GM Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela. Playing white against the Venezuelan’s Queen’s Indian Defence, the Spaniard, however, was in a less combative mood as he agreed to a truce on the 32nd move, to up his tally to 5.5 points.
The draw, though, was enough to retain his hold of the solo leadership after the second-board match-up of GM Mustafa Yilmaz of Turkey and GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of India, who both had a chance to catch the lead with a win, ended in a draw.
India’s IM N R Vignesh also needed a win to tie for the lead, but he was stopped by third-seed GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan. Safarli now spearheads the chasing pack of five-pointers in the company of Iturrizaga, Gujrathi, Yilmaz, defending champion Gawain Jones of the UK, who defeated Georgia’s GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili, and IM P. Karthikeyan, who defeated Singapore’s GM Zhang Zhong.
Arab players
The UAE’s GM Salem AR Saleh and the Egyptian duo, GM Bassem Amin and GM Ahmed Adly, are among a GM-laden group at joint third place each with 4.5 points, including Areshchenko and top-seed GM Anton Korobov of Ukraine.
Amin and Adly split the point after they were paired against each other in the sixth round. Saleh found a creative defense to hold the draw in a difficult position against the Philippines’ IM Oliver Dimakiling in the fifth round, before picking up a win against IM Johan Salomon of Norway in the sixth round.
Fide Master (FM) Saeed Ishaq is still on track in his title norm ambition with four points after back-to-back wins on Saturday over Woman International Master (WIM) Suea Maroroa and India’s J. Yohan.
Seventh round
Jones will try to unseat the 20-year-old Latasa from the top as they battle on board one in Sunday’s seventh round, which starts at 5:30 pm.
