Asrian wins Dubai Open

DUBAI, APRIL 27. Grandmaster Asrian Karen of Armenia won the Dubai Open chess championship 2001 on better technical scores while Indian challenge came to an end with most of the Indian players settling for a draw in the ninth and final round.

Grandmaster Asrian tied for the championship title with seven other Grandmasters with 6.5 points but won the championship on better technical scores. Abhijeet Kunte, the top Indian, finished 18th.

Grandmaster Motylev Alexander of Russia was declared runners-up while Grandmaster Minisian Artashes of Armenia was placed third. The top prizes were shared equally among the players.

Abihijit played a fine tournament till the seventh round and could muster only half point from final two games.

Abhijeet will gain 2581 rating points for a performance in nine games. Neeloptal Das also performed below his expected score. He is likely to jettison 10 Elo points.

Dinesh Kumar Sharma, C.S. Gokhale and Sandipan Chanda drew their games quickly. Neeloptal Das attained a creditable draw while Ravi was outplayed by Modiakhi in a Sicilian defense.

India's Rahul Shetty however, managed a victory in the last round.

Abhijit Kunte drew his game quickly against GM Alexander Galkin of Russia to finish the tournament with 5.5 points.

As if taking a cue from his senior teammate double GM norm holder Sandipan Chanda followed suit in just six moves against Aris Ozolin of Latvia.

IM Neelotpal Das tried to make a fight of an irregular opening and sacrificed an exchange against GM Goran Dizdar of Croatia. As the position became extremely complicated Dizdar agreed to the draw proposal after 30 moves.

IM elect T.S. Ravi lost to GM Al Modiahki Mohammed of Qatar from the white side of a Sicilian Alapin game. Ravi played the opening correctly and got a slightly better position in the ensuing middlegame. Modiahki counter-attacked on the kingside and managed to create weaknesses on the king-bishop file. Thereafter it was Modiahki in full swing as he outclassed Ravi on both wings in the queen and minor piece endgame.

Important results (last round): J. Ehlvest 6.5 drew with A. Motylev 6.5; E. Vladimirov 6.5 drew with A. Minasian 6.5; K. Asrian 6.5 drew with A. Aleksandrov 6.5; A. ShariazdaNov 6 drew with E. Ermenko 6.5; S. Shukrat 5.5 lost to Kostur Pavel 6.5; A. Kunte 5.5 drew with A. Galkin 5.5; S. Chanda 4.5 drew with A. Ozolin 4.5; N. Das 4.5 drew with G. Dizdar 4.5; T.S. Ravi lost to Al Modiahki.

- UNI & PTI

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