Grandmaster Romain Edouard of France maintained solo lead after 7 rounds of the Dubai Open Chess Championship as leaders tread carefully to draws in the homestretch at the Dubai Chess Club in Dubai, UAE.
Edouard declined the Queen’s Gambit of GM Sebastian Bogner of Switzerland and an early exchange of Queens on the 9th move led to a drawn Rook and Pawn endgame as they halved the point on the 31st move. The truce kept the solo lead for Edouard at 6.5 points. Bogner follows half a point behind at 6 points together with Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta and GM Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan.
Gupta used the Gruenfeld Defense to reach the Rook and Knight endgame a pawn up against GM Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine when they drew on the 42nd move after a repetition of position.
Ismagambetov essayed the Steinitz Defense of the Ruy Lopez to beat GM Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova. Iordachescu had to give up two Knights for a Rook on the 33rd move and, faced with futher loss of a piece, resigned on the 45th move.
Kuzubov and 18 other players are bunched together with 5 points each, namely Grandmasters Eduardo Itirruzaga of Venezuela, top see Anton Korbov of Ukarine, Hrvoje Stevic, Ante Brkic and Goran Dizdar of Croatia, Zaven Andriasian and Tigran Petrosian of Armenia, Axel Bachmann of Paraguay, Pavel Kotsur and Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan, Aleksandr Rakhmanov of Russia, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran, Csaba Balogh of Hungary, Bassem Amin of Egypt, Mihajlo Stojanovic of Serbia, Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, Gawain Jones of England and IM Nico Georgiadis of Switzerland.
In the penultimate 8th round, Edouard is paired with GM Ismagambetov while Gupta faces Bogner in the top two matches. In the homestretch, leaders take fewer risks and usually tread careful draws.
Top boards are broadcast live at the Dubai Chess Club web site with photo gallery, games download and links to video coverage on Youtube. See results and standings in chess-results.com. At stake is the Sheikh Rashid bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup. A total of $50,000 in cash prizes is up for grabs for the first 16 places with a top prize of $10,000 for the champion.
Games are open free to the public and start 5:30 pm at the Dubai Chess Club in Dubai. Among the 5 pointers, round 8 matches pit (first named play White) Korobov vs. Bahmann, Balogh vs. Brkic, Jones vs. Kotsur, Sojanovic vs. Kuzubov, Amin vs Ghaem, Dizdar vs. Iturrizaga, Andriasian vs. Petrosian, Rakhmanov vs. Rahman, Kostenko vs. Stevic and Dragan Solak of Turkey vs. Georgiadis.
The tournament is scheduled from 7th to 16th April at the Dubai Culture and Chess Club. Top boards are broadcast live at http://www.dubaichess.ae/dubaiopen2014/ in the Dubai Chess Club web site. See results and standings inhttp://www.chess-results.com/tnr130214.aspx?lan=1&wi=821&turdet=YES.
This is a great tournament.
This is a great tournament.
More greater if Nakamura is playing.