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Dubai Rd. 7: Shabalov and Fedoseev lead, Indians play catch-up

The overnight leaders at the Dubai Open Chess Tournament settled for draws except GM Shabalov of USA and GM Fedoseev of Russia. They won their respective games to set up a top-board clash in the penultimate round. Shabalov and Fedoseev are on 6/7 points!

Amongst the Indian players, IMs Sayantan Das and Rathnakaran lead the way with 5.0/7 while the others are playing catch-up with 4.5/7. GM Sahaj Grover suffered an upset loss to Rakesh Kulkarni (2319) and is left behind at 3.5/9.

You may check out the pairings for round 8 here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=8&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Nakamura and Krush are US Chess Champions 2015!

Red bull = Secret of the US #1!? (pic by Lennart Ootes)

The pre-tournament favorites, Hikaru Nakamura and Irina Krush won the 2015 US Chess championship for Men & Women respectively.

Nakamura was in the lead from the very beginning and ended up with 8/11 points. Krush had to fight her way back to the top and wrestle the first spot from Nemcova who was in lead for most part of the tourney. Krush ended with 8.5/11 points!

Final Standings (Men)

1	GM Nakamura, Hikaru	2798	8
2	GM Robson, Ray	2656	7.5
3	GM So, Wesley	2788	6.5
4	GM Onischuk, Alexander	2665	6
5	GM Kamsky, Gata	2683	5.5
6	GM Akobian, Varuzhan	2622	5.5
7	GM Sevian, Samuel	2531	5.5
8	GM Shankland, Samuel L	2661	5
9	GM Troff, Kayden W	2532	5
10	GM Holt, Conrad	2530	4.5
11	GM Gareev, Timur	2604	4
12	GM Naroditsky, Daniel	2633	3

Final Standings (Women)

1	GM Krush, Irina	2477	8.5
2	IM Paikidze, Nazi	2333	7.5
3	WGM Nemcova, Katerina	2279	7.5
4	WIM Ni, Viktorija	2188	7
5	WGM Sharevich, Anna	2267	6.5
6	IM Goletiani, Rusudan	2311	6
7	WGM Abrahamyan, Tatev	2322	5.5
8	WGM Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	2235	5.5
9	WCM Virkud, Apurva	2132	3.5
10	WIM Wang, Annie	1901	3.5
11	FM Melekhina, Alisa	2235	2.5
12	WFM Yu, Jennifer R	2180	2.5

Bangkok Chess Club Open 2015

The 15th Bangkok Chess Club Open takes place from Apr 12 – Apr 19. Its a 9 round swiss league tourney with average ELO 2095.

Top seed is China’s Wang Hao (2713).

Top Indian players participating are:

Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	2619
Ghosh, Diptayan	2512
Kunte, Abhijit	2477
Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.	2475
Sunilduth, Lyna Narayanan	2464

Official website http://bangkokchess.com/

List of players http://www.chess-results.com/tnr169298.aspx?lan=1

The live games can be followed in Follow Chess App!

Eight players tied for lead at Dubai Open, IM Rathnakaran leads the Indian charge

The 17th Dubai Open Chess Tournament is getting heavier at the top with eight players sharing the lead at 5.0/6.

The Indian’s are having a tough time at this extremely strong open tournament with IM Rathnakaran being the sole Indian at 4.5/6. In a curious case, many Indian players have been pitted against each other for their seventh round games!

You may check out the complete pairings for the seventh round here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=7&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Catch all the action live in your Followchess App.

Irina Krush takes sole lead, Nemcova lost

Krush won, Nemcova lost

In the penultimate round (10) of the US Chess championship, women’s top seed Irina Krush (2477) beat Jennifer (2180), while co-leader Nemcova (2279) lost to (2333). With this turn of events, Krush is on 8/10 with a comfortable one point lead over Nemcova (7/10) & Paikidze (7/10)

In the men’s section, there were no changes in the standings, despite some decisive results.

Nakamura continues to lead, Robson second

The much anticipated encounter between Nakamura and Robson ended in a draw. Nakamura is now on 7/10 while Robson is closely following him on 6.5/10.

Wesley So finally found his mojo and beat Kamsky with the Black pieces. He is on 5.5/10 points.

USChessChamps : Wesley So forfeited!

Nothing going right for Wesley (pic by Lennart Ootes)

The US Chess Championship round 9 turned out to be the most eventful round of the championship so far, albeit in a rather odd way.

Wesley forfeited!

Wesley So (2788) was forfeited in his game against Akobian (2622), for taking notes on his scoresheet! Apparently he was warned twice before and hence the harsh punishment (of losing the game plus valuable rating points!)

More details on this story at Chess.com

Nakamura continues to lead

Nothing else changed at the top of the table and Nakamura is in sole lead with 6.5/9 points, followed by Ray Robson (2656) with 6.

Krush joins Nemcova

In the women’s section, Irina Krush won her 3rd game on the trot, to finally join Nemcova at

IM Sameer Kathmale beats GM Ehlvest, three lead with 4.0/4

GM David Howell, GM Nils Grandelius and GM Yuri Solodovnichenko won their respective games to share the lead with 4.0/4 at the ongoing 17th Dubai Open Chess Tournament, 2015.

The Indians had a fairly good day with IM Sameer Kathmale (2289) of Maharashtra, India managing to win against GM Jaan Ehlvest (2547) of USA. Amongst the other players from Maharashtra state, untitled players Rakesh Kulkarni and Abhishek Kelkar also had good outings as they held higher rated players to draws meanwhile Aniruddha Deshpande won against Egyptian IM Imed Abdelbabbi. The highest seed amongst Indians GM Abhijeet Gupta lost to the attacking Amerian GM Alexander Shabalov.

You may check the pairings for round 5 here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=5&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Holt beats Wesley, Nakamura takes sole lead

Wesley So – not a good tourney so far (by Lennart Ootes)

Holt beats Wesley

Wesley So’s woes continued at the US Chess Championship 2015 when he lost to Conrad Holt (2525) in round 8.

With the Black pieces, Wesley made a potential unsound pawn sacrifice to launch attack at the White King. Holt defended well and ultimately Wesley had to resign due to severe material deficit.

Nakamura in sole lead

Nakamura beat Troff with the Black pieces to grab sole lead again with 6/8 points.

Irina wins again

In the women’s section, top seed Irina Krush beat Melekhina to reduce the gap at the top of the table. Nemcova is in sole lead with 6.5/8 closely followed by Irina on 6.

17th Dubai Chess Open begins with 39 Grandmasters, 31 Indians in fray

The 17th edition of the traditional Dubai Chess Open began at the Dubai Chess & Culture Club in the UAE. Over the years, this open tournament has been a breeding ground for many talented chess-players.

The top seed of the event GM David Howell seems to not have faced any problems after three rounds of play as he shares the lead with eleven other Grandmasters at 3.0/3.

Indians make up for 31 of the total 155 players playing which is even more than the players from the host country! GM Abhijeet Gupta (2629) leads the way for Indians at 2.5/3.

As can be expected, there were numerous noticeable upsets over the course of three rounds. In the following example, young Tamil Nadu youngster and former National U-11 champion Ram L. Arvind finds a cute win.

Black won with 1…Nh3! 2. gxh3 Qh1+ 3. Bg1 Qxf3+ 4. Bf2 Bh2! forcing mate.

You may check the pairings for round 4 here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=4&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Follow the games live on your FollowChess app!

USChessChamps : Ray Robson wins again, leads with Nakamura

Ray Robson (2656) beat Naroditsky (2633) with the Black pieces to join Hikaru Nakamura in lead with 5 points at the end of round 7. Robson had beaten Wesley So in the earlier round.

Wesley So (2788) got the better of Onishcuk (2665) and is in second spot with 4.5/7 points, while Kamsky (2683) beat Holt (2530).

In the Women’s section, Katerina Nemcova continued her winning spree and beat Virkud to lead with 6/7 points.

The US Chess Championship will be played over 11 rounds.