Xavi makes the ceremonial first move on the top table involving Anish Giri of the Netherlands (right) and Polish GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw of, which kicked off the proceedings of the third round. Pictures: Jayaram
By Yash Mudgal/Doha
It was a meeting of legends at the Qatar Masters Open yesterday.
Former Barceloan FC icon and Qatar’s Al Sadd player Xavi, who is not known for his interest in chess, paid a visit to the Aspire Zone’s Ladies Club hall, where the event is being played, and interacted with chess Grandmasters and other players, before their third round match.
He also played the ceremonial first move of the third round.
“I am happy to make the first move on the chess table at the Qatar Masters,” said the 35-year-old former Barcelona star.
Xavi set the things in motion on the top table involving unbeaten Anish Giri of the Netherlands and Wojtaszek Radoslaw, which kicked off the proceedings of the third round of the nine-round $130,000 tournament yesterday.
The Spaniard, who plays for Al Sadd, said visiting the venue of the Qatar Masters revived some of his childhood memories of chess.
“I played a little bit of chess during my childhood days, but thereafter football took over and I never had a chance to indulge in the game in the later years of my life,” Xavi said while talking to reporters.
“I happy to know that reigning champion Magnus Carlsen and a number of former world champions are here in Qatar for the championship. It is good for the future of sports in Qatar and for chess in general,” added Xavi, who represented Spain in 133 matches and turned out for Barcelona for an astounding number of 505 matches, during the period from 1998 to 2015.
The 10-day championship, which ends on December 29, features the top-three ranked players including five former world champions and several Grandmasters. Besides Carlsen, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Giri are the top three players of the 148 players taking part.
Giri keeps clean slate, Carlsen beats Aravindh
By Sports Reporter/Doha
World No. 2 Anish Giri and eight others have a perfect score at the end of Round 2 of the Qatar Masters Chess tournament while former world champions and World No. 3 Kramnik Vladimir of Russia drew with Piorun Kacper of Poland.
After a draw in the first round, World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen comforted himself with a win over India’s 16-year-old Chitambaram Aravindh. In an Anti-Sicilian, Carlsen got a pleasant position out of the opening to dispatch the Indian in a strange game. The young Indian is known for some exotic opening choices, but 40 minutes on move four is hard to recommend, and as fate would have it, he eventually lost on time.
On Sunday, reigning world champion Carlsen’s chances suffered a setback as he was held to a draw by Nino Batsiashvili of Georgia. Carlsen is one of the 148 players who are in Doha for the 10-day tournament which ends on December 29.
Seven other Grandmasters along with Giri have won both their matches along with one International Master at the Aspire Dome here yesterday.
The 21-year-old Saint Petersburg-born Dutch star defeated Grandelius Nils played a superb game with black to keep all-win record intact going into the third round.
Others with a prefect all-win score against their names after two rounds in the nine-round championship are: So Wesley (USA), Yu Yangyi (China), Wojtaszek Radoslaw (Poland), Yuffa Daniil (Russia), Li Chao B (China), Howell David W L (England), Swiercz Dariusz (Poland) and Sethuraman SP (India).
Defending champion Yu Yangyi outplayed Benjamin Bok in an endgame to take the full point, and was also joined by his compatriot Li Chao, who beat Alexander Ipatov.
Filipino Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So posted his second straight victory by outclassing American GM Daniel Naroditsky. The 22-year-old So will be gunning for his third straight win when he battles Howell in the third round of the tournament which offers $25,000 to the champion and $15,000 to the runner-up. The other interesting third-round pairings are Giri-Wojtaszek, Sethuraman-Li, Yu-Swiercz, Magnus-Yuffa, and Kramnik-Daniele Vocaturo of Italy.
