David Howell at the Dubai Open

[LawrenceCooper]

Another dull draw today. David's play has gone rather flat since he crunched Volkov. Just two rounds left, so he needs to win at least one of them for a high prize.

I think his round 5 and 7 games showed the difficulty in beating 2600+ players with black when they play solidly. Round 6 with white is the one game which could be viewed as a below par result. All to play for though.

[Mike Truran]

I think his round 5 and 7 games showed the difficulty in beating 2600+ players with black when they play solidly.

What a patzer. What on earth is his problem?

[carstenpedersen]

About the Dubai Open, NOT about David Howell:

There has been a cheating scandal at the event.

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/18610

Shocking indeed. If true the player has been doing this for a long time. Can he/ will he be banned and/or stripped of his rating and GM title like the French players who cheated at the olympiad in 2012?

According to the Today programme he's got a 15 year ban. Credit to him for getting Chess mentioned on BBC news

[Christopher Kreuzer]

About the Dubai Open, NOT about David Howell:

There has been a cheating scandal at the event.

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/18610

Shocking indeed. If true the player has been doing this for a long time. Can he/ will he be banned and/or stripped of his rating and GM title like the French players who cheated at the olympiad in 2012?

According to the Today programme he's got a 15 year ban. Credit to him for getting Chess mentioned on BBC news

Good. Was that his national federation or FIDE who banned him? Maybe both?

This should have its own thread.

Is this guy (with a name harder to remember than Ivanov) the highest rated player to be caught in this fashion? I suppose the French team chess scandal (I forget the names there) was just as bad, but how long did this guy go undetected for? Will there be a full investigation and report?

Reports (so far) in the Telegraph and Daily Mail.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

This should have its own thread.

New thread here:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7324

[LawrenceCooper]

Another dull draw today. David's play has gone rather flat since he crunched Volkov. Just two rounds left, so he needs to win at least one of them for a high prize.

I think his round 5 and 7 games showed the difficulty in beating 2600+ players with black when they play solidly. Round 6 with white is the one game which could be viewed as a below par result. All to play for though.

His round 6 opponent seems to be performing rather better at this event http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053. ... 984&snr=35 than in Hawaii where he was beaten by Sabrina Chevannes.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Depends on the quality of the moves, doesn't it?

[Tim Harding]

David seems to have a good opening today and is now having his first think, presumably wondering whether 9 d5 will give him a significant plus.
It looked to me as if his opponent yesterday was playing for a draw from a very early stage.

Off topic, Jonathan Trott was out for a third ball duck in the Test Match against West Indies, so he's maintaining his form too.

Edit: Cook out for 11 a few overs later. Same comment applies.

Further edit: after 61 minutes (!) Howell played 9 dxc5 instead to obtain a queenside pawn majority at the cost of some, I hope only temporary, awkwardness (having to play 11 Rf1 to protect his f-pawn). He now has 20 minutes + increments to reach move 40.

Showing his disgust at this development, Ballance has just got out for 10.

Further edit: On reflection, since both Chess23 and Chessdom show Howell having zero time at move 16, I think that neither site has probably taken account of the (approximate) 15-minute prayer break and so Howell perhaps only really took about 45 minutes on move 9.

[Stewart Reuben]

Pge 3 of today's Times. Below is not the report by Alice Hutton, but what I have found out.
Chess grandmaster used phone hidden in lavatory to cheat. This is Gioz Nigalidze GEO GM 2566 (before the Dubai Open April 2015.)
His sixth round opponent Tigran Petrosian had become suspicious of him in the Al Ain Classic in December, but had no evidence. Moreover he won their individual game. His suspicions were aroused because the Georgian several times left the board immediately after his move.
Gioz visited the same partition in the toilet several times. The arbiter then searched it after Gioz left. He found a mobile phone with headphones hidden behind the pan and covered with toilet paper. There is a photo where the arbiter is looking at the phone's screen. It was accessed from Gioz's account.

The incident will be reported to the FIDE Ethics Commission. They can ban a player for 3 years for the first offence and 15 years for a second.
Nigel Short is quoted as saying, 'He should be stripped of his GM title and banned immediately.'
But the Ethics Commission does seek to follow due process.

It is so sad that chess virtually only gets public publicity if there is a scandal.

[LawrenceCooper]

A nice win for David to take him back to equal first on 6.5/8 with four other players.

[Tim Harding]

Stewart, thanks for the info, but there's now a separate thread for Cheating (not in the International News).

Glad to see David came through to win. Grandelius blundered against Safarli: 50...Nxc3 would have been met by 51 Qh7+ Kf6 52 Qe7 mate, but Grandelius would have been been better had he played 47...Qf3. His 47...Qf5?? took away the flight square and enabled White's decisive R sac.

So there are five players on 6.5 of whom David already played two (Shabalov and Solak).
Fedoseev is due White against either Howell, Solak or Safarli.
Presumably David plays either Fedoseev or Safarli tomorrow; since he's top seed he presumably doesn't get the down-float?

[LawrenceCooper]

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053. ... =30&wi=984

[Mick Norris]

Round 9 on 2015/04/14 at 1730
Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 2 GM Fedoseev Vladimir 2674 6½ 6½ GM Howell David W L 2687 1
2 19 GM Solak Dragan 2602 6½ 6½ GM Safarli Eltaj 2637 9
3 8 GM Ivanisevic Ivan 2638 6 6½ GM Shabalov Alexander 2500 35

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Solak (6.5) and Safarli (6.5) drew quite quickly. Ivanisevic (6) looks to be better against Shabalov (6.5), so hopefully only a draw there at best (and Shabalov just blundered, so will be unlikely to win now). This means that if Howell (6.5) can win against Fedoseev (6.5), he would take sole first. Currently at move 34 and may be about to win a pawn. Hopefully he can grind out a win from here.

[Tim Harding]

David played well today but maybe missed the best line (engines didn't like Re8+ much) and Fedoseev got his N to e6 as compensation for being pawn down and two knights versus two bishops. So David had to take it off, giving White a passed pawn. But the time control is made so I would back David to win if White has nothing concrete in the next few moves. In the worst case he ties first as Ivanisevic will probably beat Shabalov.
Very tense now after 44...Bc5. David two pawns up but has to survive White's initiative.

EDIT: They played very fast after the time control. Could be a repetition draw now because of White's mate threats.
Engines showing +5 for Ivanisevic fortunately.

FURTHER: Howell draw as expected. And now Shabalov resigned, so it's a four-way tie.
Is there a play-off?