Sarin and Muradli shine on opening day of 25th Dubai Open Chess Tournament

Top-seed Grandmaster (GM) Nihal Sarin of India and defending champion GM Mahammad Muradli of Azerbaijan won their respective matches with relative ease to lead 27 other players who hurdled their opening-round assignments at the start of the silver jubilee edition of the Dubai Open Chess Tournament on Tuesday at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.

Sarin, fresh from a two-way tie for first place in the Asian Individual Men’s Chess Championships in Al Ain early this month, deployed the Scandinavian Defense against compatriot Fide Master (FM) Akshay Borgaonkar.

The tournament top-seed sacrificed a pawn in exchange for strong pressure against white’s queenside pawns, and then gradually outplayed Borgaonkar in a Queen and rook endgame.

Playing the white side of a Catalan game, Muradli built a sizeable advantage on the board and the clock against Israel’s International Master (IM) Or Bronstein on the way to a 38-move win. Muradli snatched a pawn on the 23rd move and still had over an hour on his clock while Bronstein was already surviving on the 30-second time increment when the game entered a knight-vs-bishop endgame.

The 25th edition of the tournament was inaugurated by Khalid Ali Bin Zayed Al Falasi, Chairman of the Dubai Chess and Culture Club, in the presence of Saeed Mohammed Hareb, Secretary General of the Dubai Sports Council, and Nasser Al Rahma, Assistant Secretary General of the Council.

A documentary film was presented highlighting the tournament’s 25-year history, tracing its development since its inception in 1999 alongside the opening of the club.

Falasi stated: “Thanks to the unwavering support of our leadership and the vision to elevate chess in the UAE, we celebrate 25 years of the Dubai Open Chess Championship—an idea that began with ambition and has grown into a globally recognized event.

“This tournament is a source of pride for UAE sports and for the city of Dubai. It reflects our commitment to intellectual development, mental skills, and nurturing young talent.”

He added: “What sets this edition apart is the high caliber of international participation and the continuous improvements in organization and execution—thanks to our leadership, dedicated partners, and sponsors.”

Reigning Asian junior champion GM Aleksey Grebnev, meanwhile, scored the tournament’s first full point after disposing of Vietnam’s IM Pham Tran Gia Phuc. The 18-year-old from Russia essayed the Rossolimo Attack against Pham and then won a pawn on the 18th move when the Vietnamese missed a tactical blow. Grebnev consolidated his advantage and wrapped up the game on the 36th move.

The second and third seeds, GM Shant Sargsyan of Armenia and GM Aleksandar Indjic, the 2024 European champion from Serbia, were both held to a draw by Indian teenage international masters Jimmy Jubin and Neelash Saha, respectively.

The biggest opening-round casualties, on the other hand, included fifth-seed GM Tin Jingyao, Singapore’s number one player, who lost to 46th-seed GM G B Harshavardhan of India, and former Dubai Open champion GM Abhijeet Gupta, who was outplayed by his Indian compatriot IM Mayank Chakraborty, winner of the category B event in last week’s Sharjah Masters.

A total of 29 grandmasters are taking part in the jubilee edition of the event, which is being contested over two categories with more than 180 players from 34 countries vying for the championships.

In Category B, top-seed FM Sargis A. Manukyan of Armenia was held to a draw by 12-year-old Dmitriy Al Novodvorskiy of Russia, while second-seed IM Anastasios Pavlidis of Greece led the day-one winners after scoring a victory over Indian youngster Shayan Noushad Ibrahim Muhammad.

The tournament offers a prize pool of $52,000 to be handed out to the winners of both categories. Category A, contested by players with a rating over 2300, has a total prize fund of USD$39,500 with $12,000 going to the champion, while Category B, open to players rated below 2300, offers $12,500 in total prizes and $2,000 awarded to the champion.