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The Dubai Open celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with 131 players from 25 countries in the tournament with 29 GM/WGM, 21 IM/WIM and 22 FM/WGM seeing action at the Dubai Chess Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Sheikh Rashed Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup shall be awarded to the winner of the 9-round Swiss
Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum with Mr. Bannai (on the left) and I.A. Mahdi Abdulrahim
Open the tournament on board 1
Four Players Tie for First with 7 Points
Wesely So Won The Cup
The world's youngest Grandmaster, 14-year-old Wesley So of the Philippines won the Dubai Open with 7 points out of 9 rounds. The Filipino tied with GMs Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran and Li Chao of China but prevailed in the tie break of higher average opponent rating. Eight other players tied with 6.5 points each. Wesley received a congratulatory telephone call from National Chess Federation of the Philippines President Prospero Pichay. He continues to Indonesia for a match with their champion, GM Megaranto Susanto before returning home to the Philippines for a Battle of Philippine Grandmasters. Local hero FIDE Master Salem Abdulrahman Saleh, Asian under-14 champion, clinched his first GM norm with one round to spare.
4 New International Norm
Salem Abdulrahman from UAE and Zhou Weiqi from China make Grandmaster Norm and and Also Soozankar Mohamad from Iran and Wu Xibin from China made International Master Norms. |