Liem leads favourites in opening round

Sheikh Saoud Al Mualla (centre), president of the Arab Chess Federation, Dr Sarhan Al Muaini (right), president of UAE Chess Federation and Ibrahim Al Bannai, president of Dubai Chess Club, start the clock on top board. - Supplied photo

Top seed GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam, who is ranked 2711, led favourites hurdling their opening round assignments in the 21st Dubai Open Chess Championship at the Dubai Chess Club.
India has sent the largest contingent of 79 players, over half of the 156-man field boasting 31 Grandmasters, 24 International Masters, 18 FIDE Masters, 2 WGM, 8 WIMs and 3 WFM.
GM S.P. Sethuraman is the highest rated Indian at 2624. The other Indian Grandmasters participating are, Aravindh Chithambaram, Chanda Sandipan, M.R. Venkatesh, Vishnu Prasanna, Harsha Bharathakoti and R.R. Laxman. Debashis Das, Deepan Chakkravanthy and Kidambi Sundararajan.
Ibrahim Mohamed Al Bannai, chairman of the Dubai Chess and Culture Club said the organising committee left no stone unturned to maintain the event's status as one of the best organised elite open tournaments in the world and most prestigious in the Middle East.
Al Bannai also explained that the event provides a very good opportunity for up-and-coming UAE players to compete with world class players and that the Dubai Chess Club will always strive to organise such events that will support the training and development of local athletes.
Le used the Sicilian Defense to win in only 28 moves as WIM Tijana Blagojevic of Serbia got her Queen trapped. Le was the 2013 world blitz champion. Second seed GM Maxim Matlakov of Russia made short work of untitled Anish Gandhi of India who blundered a piece in the 27th move of a Queen's Pawn game. Third seed Yuriy Kurubov of Ukraine used the English Opening to win the Knight and pawn endgame against WIM Mila Zakovic of Serbia who was unable to prevent pawn promotion and resigned on the 50th move.
At stake is the Sheikh Rashid bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup and $50,000 in cash prizes. Games in the 9-round Swiss System are scheduled 5:30pm daily with two rounds on at 10am and 6pm on Saturday. Top games are broadcast live on chess sites. Visit chess-rsults.com for round by round results and standings.