There was a third consecutive year a big Open tournament in UAE in Dubai the famous capital of shopping centers. Altogether one hundred players took part of whom 40 were grandmasters. The opening ceremony was held in the big and modern chess center which was attended also by FIDE president among other high level local officials. For the post of chief arbiter was invited probably the most highly rated arbiter Mr. Geurt Gijssen from Holland. Among participants the majority was the players from former Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia. It was a pity because the tournament was organized at quite high level and the prize fund 25 000 USD was acceptable.
The local high infrastructure was in very European standard, only two differences influenced the tournament. First the dangerous desert sunshine-the rounds started at 5 pm. and the beaches were tempting but many suffered from casualties, it was plus 36 C in the shade. Actually the rounds started at 5 pm. in other reason. Because the games were stopped at 6.45 pm. for 10 minutes. The religious evening prayer took place. In this time schedule nobody was in time trouble yet. Not any player protested against this procedure.
There was only ten prizes on the competition. So we saw very peaceful last rounds and eight players shared the first place. By tie brake the cup was awarded to Armenian GM Karen Asrian. Other lucky winners were: Alexander Motylov (Russia), Artashes Minasian (Armenia), Evgeni Vladimirov, (Kazakhstan), Pavel Kotsur (Kazakhstan), Alexei Aleksandrov (White Russia), Evgenij Ermenkov (Bulgaria) and yours truly Jaan Ehlvest (Estonia).
There was funny high technology involvement during the tournament. After the local player without rating had drawn against GM Pavel Kotsur from Kazakhstan and next day lost a winning position against IM the computer analyze was called for. It appeared that the local hero repeated exactly the moves recommended by Fritz 5.32. There were no appeals made-the GMs who made the discovery looked at it as fun. Later on Kotsur joined the winners anyway. The Arabic outfit gives for hiding equipment like receiver and sender ideal possibilities.
From the start Russian Valerij Filippov GM Valeri Filippov had some
luck:
Aleksander Volzhin (2528) - Valeri Filippov (2632) [B40]
Second round
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d3 Nc6 4.c3 d5 5.Qe2 b6 It was also played 5...e5! with good game for black. 6.g3 Ba6 7.e5 Qc7 8.Bg2 Nge7 9.0-0 h6 10.h4 g5?! Too optimistic. 11.hxg5 hxg5 12.Bxg5 Bg7 13.Re1 Ng6 14.c4! Ncxe5 15.Nc3 0-0 16.Nxe5 Qxe5 17.Qh5! 17.Qd2 was good but this move is much more aggressive. 17...Qf5 18.Bh3 Qxd3 19.Rad1 Qxc4 20.Rxe6 d4 21.Ne4 Rae8
22.Nd6? [22.Rxe8 Rxe8 23.Nd6 Qc2 24.Bf5 Qe2 25.Bg4 Re5 winning for black but after 22.Nf6+! Bxf6 23.Rxf6 Qe2 24.Bg4 Qe5 25.Rf5 Qe4 26.Bf6 Re6 27.Bf3 Qc2 28.Kg2 white is winning] 22...Qxe6! I believe that Volzhin just forgot this move 23.Bxe6 Rxe6 24.Rd2 Rxd6 25.f4 f5 0-1
Later on Filippov spoiled his tournament with too optimistic play.
Valeri Filippov (2632) - Karen Asrian (2582) [D36]
Fifth round
23.g4?? This is too much.
23...Bd6 24.Rb2 Nf6 25.g5? Filippov still believed his luck as in previous rounds and could not stop. 25...Ne4 26.Nxe4 dxe4 27.Nd2 Ra5 28.Nxe4 Ba3 29.d5 Rxe4 30.Qxe4
Bxb2 31.Rxc6 Qd8 32.d6 Ra1+ 33.Kg2 Qxg5+ 34.Kf3 Qh5+ 35.Qg4 Qd5+ 36.Qe4 Qd1+ 37.Kg3 Qg1+ 38.Qg2 Be5+ 0-1
Yours truly did not make any draws in first six rounds winning five games. Later I followed a recommendation by Tigran Petrosian-three short draws and I picked up 2975 USD as did other winners. The first prize was five thousand USD.
I played some interesting games.
In the first round I out played IM from Croatia.
Srdjan Sale (2378) - Jaan Ehlvest (2630)
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.f4 Nf6 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bb5. My opponent was working as coach in Dubai and this line was their favourite. 5…Bd7 6.Bxd7 Nbxd7. After 6...Qxd7 I did not like 7.exd5 exd5 8.Qe2 followed by 9.Ne5. 7.d3 Nb8!? 8.0-0 Nc6 9.Bd2 Be7 10.Kh1 0-0 11.Qe1 Nd4 12.Rc1 Rc8. The position is about equal but it is difficult to do something active. 13.Ne5 b5 14.Nd1 b4 15.c3 bxc3 16.bxc3 Nc6 17.Nxc6 Rxc6 18.e5 Nd7 19.c4 Nb6 20.Ne3 d4!? Risky move. Black is hoping to exploit the weakness on d3. White has for compensation a space advantage and it is difficult to see how the d3 pawn is weak. 21.Ng4 Qd7 22.Qg3 Kh8 23.Qh3 Na4 24.Rf3 f5! It is time for this defensive move.25.exf6 Bxf6 26.Re1 Rb6 27.Nxf6? Positional mistake. 27...Vxf6 28.f5 Kg8!
White did not see this move, now the initiative is going to black. 29.fxe6 Rbxe6 30.Ref1 h6!? Black is winning useful tempo, because of the weakness of last rank white can hardly do something better than his next move. 31.Qh5 Rxf3 32.Qxf3 Rf6 33.Qa8+ Kf7 34.Re1? After exchange 34.Rxf6 black is definitely better, but after the text move it is not possible to defend the d3 pawn. 34...Nb2 35.Qe4 Qc6! 36.Qe2. Also hopeless was 36.Qe7 Kg8 37.Qe2 Rg6! 38.Rg1 Qe6 39.Qf3 Rf6. 36...Qe6! 37.Qh5 g6 38.Qh4 Nxd3 39.Rb1 Qb6. White resigned.
Jaan Ehlvest,J (2630) - Alexei Fedorov (2590) [B78]
1.e4 The game with talented Belorussian GM was played on the sixth round and had great importance for the tournament outcome. 1...c5 2.Nf3 d6 This was small surprise, I was expecting 2...Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5. 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2 0-0 9.Bc4 I think that this principal move gives white more chances than9.0-0-0. 9...Bd7 10.0-0-0 Qb8 11.Kb1! I was not aware of the game Peter Leko-Aleksei Federov played in Wijk aan Zee this year. Somehow I quickly found interesting idea. 11...b5 12.Be2! White is playing simple chess. Black however mixed the Dragon and Scheveningen. As we know in the latter black pushes first the white knight by b5-b4 and then plays e6-e5. This plan does not suite for Dragon even despite the fact that white lost a tempi. 12...b4 13.Nd5 Qb7 14.Nxf6+ Bxf6 15.h4! Finally white makes this typical move and the opening of h-line is inevitable.
15...Rfc8 16.h5 Nxd4 17.Bxd4 e5! Only defense, after 17...Bxd4 18.Qxd4 g5 19.h6 f6 20.Bc4+ Kh8 21.Bd5 Bc6 22.Be6 Rc7 23.Rh5 white has big advantage in both cases 23...Qb5 24.Bc4 Qe5 25.Qxe5 dxe5 26.Be6± and 23...Bd7?! 24.Bxd7 Rxd7 25.e5 fxe5 26.Qg4 Rdd8 27.Rxg5 Rg8 28.Rg7±. 18.Bf2 Very good was also 18.Be3 Rc6 (18...Be6!?) 19.hxg6 hxg6 20.Bg5 Bg7 21.Qe1 Rac8 22.Bd3 f6 23.Bd2±. 18...Be6 19.hxg6 fxg6 20.Bh4!? Two years ago in Kalkutta I lost against my opponent a decisive game in which I had extra pawn and objectively I had winning position. However the playing initiative belonged to my opponent and I lost that game. In this time I refused to grab the pawn. 20...Bxh4 21.Rxh4 Rc6 22.Rdh1 Rac8 23.Bd3 a5 24.f4! Nothing was achieved by 24.Qg5 Bc4 25.Qxg6+ hxg6 26.Rh8+ Kg7 27.R8h7+ Kf6 28.Rxb7 Bxd3 29.cxd3 Rc2=. 24...exf4 25.e5!? [25.Rxh7 Qxh7 26.Rxh7 Kxh7 27.Qxf4 Bc4=] 25...dxe5 [25...Qg7 26.exd6±] 26.Bxg6 Bxa2+ 27.Kxa2 Rxg6 28.Rxh7
28...Rg7? In time trouble Alexei missed the best defense 28...Qc6! 29.Ka1!? Rxg2! 30.Rh8+ Kf7 31.R1h7+ Rg7 32.Rxc8 Qxc8 33.Qd5+ Kg6 34.Qd3+ with
perpetual. 29.R7h6!! a4 [29...b3+ 30.cxb3 a4 31.b4] 30.Qd6 b3+ 31.Ka3
Black resigned. As we saw human cannot always keep the pressure, so my tactics paid off.
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