Dubai Open 3 to 11 April 2017

[Roger de Coverly]

I see from the ECF grading database he's a 12 year old from around the Berkshire area so perhaps Roger knows of him?

He's playing for the Maidenhead club, currently in their Berks League B team. I haven't seen him play though.

[Chris Rice]

Round 1 report on the FIDE site. In the photo it's those in the white that are usually responsible for the late starts in round 1.

[Mick Norris]

Oh dear, thanks Mick, hadn't spotted Lorin in the pairings.

That's ok, took me 2 attempts to spot him

[John Upham]

I see from the ECF grading database he's a 12 year old from around the Berkshire area so perhaps Roger knows of him?

He's playing for the Maidenhead club, currently in their Berks League B team. I haven't seen him play though.

See https://johnupham.smugmug.com/Chess/UKC ... /i-F3KpRjB

[Chris Rice]

In Round 2 after a tough defensive effort Lorin lost to Akopian, while Gawain won to go to 2/2. Sue won as well so she's on 1/2 but Gurveen Kapoor lost and is yet to get off the mark. These Opens can be very tough so I hope he doesn't get too down on himself about it. There are currently 38 players on 2/2. In Round 3, Gawain is Black on Board 5 against Argentinian, Alan Pichot. Of our other English players we have the unfortunate pairing:

44 IM D`costa Lorin A R 2390 1 1 WIM Maroroa Sue 2148

and finally:

101 AGM Srihari L R 1922 0 0 Kapoor Gurveen 1666

[Chris Rice]

As I mentioned earlier, this tournament has had more than its fair share of people cheating and now we've got another one: http://en.chessbase.com/post/indian-pla ... dubai-open

[Paul Cooksey]

I see from the ECF grading database he's a 12 year old from around the Berkshire area so perhaps Roger knows of him?

He's playing for the Maidenhead club, currently in their Berks League B team. I haven't seen him play though.

I have to admit I didn't know that Gurveen was playing in Dubai until I saw this thread. He is an improving young player, our junior club consider him very promising.

[Chris Rice]

Gawain lost today against Pichot, looks like that queen sack was unsound but an interesting try nonetheless. Lorin beat Sue and Gurveen Kapoor lost again, he is playing players a lot stronger than him, so its good experience which hopefully Maidenhead will benefit from when he gets back, though I'm sure he'll be a bit disappointed.

Rd 4 pairings:
1 Antipov Mikhail Al. 2586 3 3 GM Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo 2671
2 GM Can Emre 2578 3 3 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2670
3 IM Santos Latasa Jaime 2565 3 3 GM Mareco Sandro 2655
4 GM Fier Alexandr 2562 3 3 GM Yilmaz Mustafa 2614
5 GM Pichot Alan 2556 3 3 GM Adly Ahmed 2597

Others:
22 GM Jones Gawain 2671 2 2 Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad 2337
39 Prithu Gupta 2226 2 2 IM D`costa Lorin A R 2390
74 WIM Maroroa Sue 2148 1 1 Nair Sanjeev 1938
103 Kapoor Gurveen 1666 0 0 Murad Abdulla 1750

[Chris Rice]

As I mentioned earlier, this tournament has had more than its fair share of people cheating and now we've got another one: http://en.chessbase.com/post/indian-pla ... dubai-open

More detail on this incident in a ChessBase report. I would just highlight the following text:

"Further investigation has revealed what exactly transpired.

Jeel Shah, who has a standard FIDE rating of 1764 and seeded 192nd out of 213 players in the tournament, caught the arbiters’ attention because of suspicious behavior during his game against 14-year-old Dushyant Sharma of India.

After closely monitoring his actions, International Arbiter (IA) Mahdi Abdul Rahim, the tournament’s chief arbiter, summoned Shah to the arbiter’s office for an inspection, where he was found to be hiding a mobile phone under the sleeves of his shirt. Shah refused to comply with the arbiters’ request to turn the phone on to check if it was being used to run a chess program, prompting tournament officials to expel the Indian player from the tournament.

The shocker: he is a chess coach and runs a chess academy in Surat, India!"

[Roger de Coverly]

The shocker: he is a chess coach and runs a chess academy in Surat, India!"

Being a chess coach may provide an incentive to cheat, namely to boost his rating and performances. Beyond relative novices and beginners, who would take any technical advice from a player rated 1764?

[Chris Rice]

Today is a rest day and tomorrow will be a double round. There is a sole leader on 4/4, the Spanish IM, Santos Latasa Jaime. Rd 5 pairings but would just highlight:

1 GM Areshchenko Alexander 2686 3½ 4 IM Santos Latasa Jaime 2565
13 IM Shyaamnikhil P 2454 3 3 GM Jones Gawain C B 2671
43 IM D`costa Lorin A R 2390 2½ 2½ Priyanka Nutakki 2084
50 FM Saeed Ishaq 2360 2 2 WIM Maroroa Sue 2148
102 Alem Ali Hussien 1795 0 0 Kapoor Gurveen 1666

[Chris Rice]

Further report on Chess.com by Peter Doggers features the round 4 game which put IM Jaime Santos Latasa in the lead. Also a couple of Gawain and Sue's games are analysed plus the conclusion on the cheating incident:

"Thus, there was no clear proof that the player actually cheated, but carrying a phone with you during a game is against the rules, let alone hiding one."

[Tim Harding]

Double round day; Gawain won this morning to reach 4/5 where there are about 15 players.

Next round at 3pm BST but pairings are not up yet (1130 BST).

Santos Latasa won again with Black and still leads on 100%.
Meanwhile on 4.5 are Iturrizaga, Vidit, Vignesh and Yilmaz.

[Chris Rice]

Rd 6 pairings and well done to Gurveen Kapoor who won in Round 5 against a 1795 rated Saudi!

1 IM Santos Latasa Jaime 2565 5 4½ GM Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo 2671
2 GM Yilmaz Mustafa 2614 4½ 4½ GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2670
3 GM Safarli Eltaj 2680 4 4½ IM Vignesh N R 2411
5 GM Jones Gawain C B 2671 4 4 GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil 2602
25 GM Mastrovasilis Athanasios 2524 3½ 3½ IM D`costa Lorin A R 2390
73 WIM Maroroa Sue 2148 2 2 Siddharth Sabharishankar 1950
96 Odaeva Bibihanapiya 1869 1 1 Kapoor Gurveen 1666

[Tim Harding]

Gawain won again and has 5/6 along with (probably) several others.
Santos was held to a draw but some top games are still running. Yilmaz-Vidit is in a queen ending; if it's drawn Santos will retain the sole lead.