Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri (background) looks on as China’s Yu Yangyi (right) plays with Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik during their Qatar Masters Open chess tournament yesterday. Yangyi beat Kramnik to win the tournament. Giri finished second ahead of the Russian. PICTURE: Maria Emelianova
By Yash Mudgal/Doha
Chinese Grandmaster and Asian chess champion Yu Yangyi stunned former world champion Vladimir Kramnik to win the inaugural Qatar Masters Open Chess Tournament yesterday.
The 20-year-old Yangyi started the tournament as the 13th seed and rated 2705, but went on to beat top two seeds -- Anish Giri of the Netherlands and Russia’s Kramnik -- in the eighth and the ninth round, respectively, both of whom had shown great form throughout the event, to win the title with 7.5 points and $25,000 as prize-money.
“I am happy with my performance and the quality of chess (at the Qatar Master Open 2014),” Yangyi said during the awards ceremony while speaking through an interpreter.
“I wish to thank my sponsors and also wish to congratulate the organisers for a great event. I faced some strong opponents in the tournament and happy to win the trophy,” he said.
The 39-year-old Kramnik was on a path to a triumphal win, having won six consecutive games after starting the tournament on a low with draws in the first two rounds, but failed to deliver the winning punch yesterday when he needed only a draw to emerge as the champion.
Twenty-year-old Giri, after winning the first six games, lost in the seventh and the eighth round against Kramnik and Yangyi respectively to drop out of contention for first place, but finished the tournament at the second spot by winning his last game against Russian Vladimir Akopian.
Giri also took to twitter to congratulate Yangyi on his win. “Won the wild last game in the very exciting @Qatar_Masters! Taking 2nd place after all, after the sneaky Yu Yangi (congrats)!,” Giri tweeted.
Bela Khotenashvili of Georgia, who finished with 5.5 points, was adjudged the best woman player of the tournament. She pocketed $5,000 as prize-money. Salem AR Saleh of UAE, who finished with six points, bagged the best Arab player award ($3,500).
LAST ROUND IMPORTANT RESULTS
Yangyi Yu-Vladimir Kramnik 1-0; Vladimir Akopian-Anish Giri 0-1; Maxime Vachier-Lagrave-Zahar Efimenko 1/2-1/2; Liren Ding-B Adhiban 1/2-1/2; Samuel L Shankland-Pavel Eljanov 1/2-1/2; Eltaj Safarli-EvgenyTomashevsky 1/2-1/2; Xiangzhi Bu-AR Saleh Salem 1/2-1/2; Yuriy Kryvoruchko-Asif Durarbayli 0-1; Milos Perunovic-Alexander Moiseenko 1/2-1/2; Sanan Sjugirov-Mikhailo Oleksienko 1-0; Andrei Volokitin-Ivan Ivanisevic 1/2-1/2; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov-Dariusz Swiercz 1/2-1/2; Daniel Naroditsky-P Harikrishna 1/2-1/2; Baadur Jobava-David Anton Guijarro 1-0; Nils Grandelius-Hrant Melkumyan 1/2-1/2; Sergei Movsesian-Artur Jussupow 1-0; Andrey Vovk-Aleksandr Lenderman 1-0; Aleksandr Rakhmanov-Bela Khotenashvili 1/2-1/2; Matthieu Cornette-Evgeny Romanov 1/2-1/2; Ivan Salgado Lopez-Mikhail Al. Antipov 1-0; Arkadij Naiditsch-Kamil Miton 0-1; Gabriel Sargissian-Gadir Guseinov 1/2-1/2; Robert Hovhannisyan-Ivan Cheparinov 0-1; Elina Danielian-Ferenc Berkes 0-1; Hovhannes Gabuzyan-Mateusz Bartel 1-0; Stelios Halkias-Romain Edouard 1/2-1/2; Rauf Mamedov-GN Gopal 1-0; Bogdan Belyakov-Abhijeet Gupta 1/2-1/2; Kidambi Sundararajan-Daniil Dubov 1-0; Erwin L’ami-Rui Gao 1/2-1/2; Hicham Hamdouchi-Natalia Zhukova 1-0; Robin Van Kampen-Mohammed Al-Sayed 1/2-1/2; Ivan Saric-John Paul Gomez 1-0; Sergey A. Fedorchuk-Das Debashis 0-1; Yuriy Kuzubov-Chithambaram Vr. Aravindh 1-0; Sundar M. Shyam- Mikheil Mchedlishvili 1-0; Bartosz Socko-Nico Georgiadis 0-1; Alexander Ipatov-Das Neelotpal ) 1/2-1/2; Chanda Sandipan-Husein Aziz Nezad 0-1; Aryan Tari-Jan-Krzysztof Duda 1-0; Yang Wen-Shardul Gagare 1-0; Irina Krush-Wenjun Ju 0-1; Jun Zhao-Ponnuswamy Konguvel 1-0; Qian Huang-Eric Hansen 1/2-1/2; Alexander Seyb-Ehsan Ghaem Maghami 1/2-1/2; Jun Xu-Johan-Sebastian Christiansen 1-0; Inna Gaponenko-Alexander Donchenko 0-1; Fabien Libiszewski-Saad Belouadah 1/2-1/2; Yinglun Xu-Surya Shekhar Ganguly 1-0; Viktor Bologan-Sayantan Das 1/2-1/2; Aleksander Mista-Nino Batsiashvili 1-0; MS Thejkumar-Sebastian Bogner 1-0; Aleksandar Indjic-Rishi Sardana 1-0;