Adhiban Finishes Second At Abu Dhabi Masters

Adhiban Finishes Second At Abu Dhabi Masters
By Arvind Aaron

Top seed Dmitry Andreikin of Russia finished strongly with a 3/3 score to win the 23rd Abu Dhabi Masters Tournament that concluded in the United Arab Emirates on August 29, 2016.

Former Indian champion B Adhiban who was in lead and then lost it to Kamil Dragun (Pol) scored 2/3 in the end to finish with seven points from nine games. In his penultimate round game, Adhiban beat Kamil Dragun. Adhiban was the third seed and finished creditable second.

The Russians are not going to forget Adhiban’s stupendous showing. The Chennai boy faced five Russians in his nine games and scored 3.5/5. Adhiban’s rating performance was 2795, his all-time best. His Russian victims included GMs Alexander Raetsky and Boris Savchenko. Adhiban who turned 24 earlier this month remained undefeated and had drawn the top seed and champion Andreikin.

GM Lalith Babu, Adhiban’s Indian Oil team-mate played at 2695 and gained nearly 14 Elo points in his 6.5/9. He started as 27th seed and finished eighth. International Master Aryan Chopra, 2001 born started as the 41st seed and finished 14th thereby clocking a GM norm performance at 2620. He is also gaining 16.40 Elo and crossing the milestone rating of 2500.

Chopra from Delhi scored 2.5/3 from Indians which included a draw against Lalith Babu. He had drawn IM Siva Mahadevan at Riga earlier in August but managed to defeat him with black here. Chopra became an IM at 13 is now already in line to become the next Grand Master.

Final placings: 1 GM Dmitry Andreikin (Rus) 7.5/9; 2-3. GM B Adhiban (Ind), GM Amin Bassem (Egy) 7 each; 4-9. GM Alexandr Predke (Rus), GM Salem A.R. Saleh (UAE), GM Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr), GM Kamil Dragun (Pol), GM M.R. Lalith Babu (Ind), GM Eduardo Iturrizaga (Ven) 6.5 each; 10-22 GM Anton Demchenko (Rus), GM Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr), GM Alexander Zubov (Ukr), GM Boris Savchenko (Rus), IM Aryan Chopra (Ind), GM Wang Hao (Chn), GM Peter Prohaszka (Hun), GM Adly Ahmed (Egy), GM Tamas Banusz (Hun), GM Zaven Andriasian (Arm), IM C.R.G. Krishna (Ind), GM Sergei Azarov (Blr), GM Vaibhav Suri (Ind) 6 each…137 players.