Fedoseev Wins Abu Dhabi Chess Festival Masters, Tops Field Of 41 Grandmasters

The Russian-born, recently Slovenian GM Vladimir Fedoseev won the Abu Dhabi Chess Festival 2023 | Masters, which concluded on Thursday. Undefeated, he finished ahead of 40 other grandmasters (and 142 titled players total) with seven points in the nine-round Swiss. He took home $15,000 for his efforts.

GM Xu Xiangyu also attained the same score but placed second on tiebreaks, earning $10,000. 

The 28-year-old grandmaster exhibited a powerful 2792 rating performance across the nine rounds and will gain 13 rating points. He was the fourth seed at the start of the event, behind (in order) GMs Vladislav Artemiev, David Anton Guijarro, and Maxim Matlakov, though all these players were within about 20 rating points of each other.

Final Standings | Top 20

After four rounds, there were just two players with a perfect score: they were Xu and Fedoseev, the eventual winners. They made their first draw of the tournament when they were paired in round five, but it was the furthest thing from a peaceful affair.

Both sides had winning positions at various points; White missed several, while Black missed just one opportunity to win on the spot. Of course, it is easy to observe the mistakes of others at home with the engine on, but many of the lines are so delightful that they have to be shared.

Round seven was absolutely critical for Fedoseev in the tournament. By this point, Xu and GM Chithambaram Aravindh were just half a point behind, and there were 14 players tied on five points right behind them. 

Fedoseev would go on to score his fifth and last win in this round, against the promising young Uzbek talent GM Javokhir Sindarov. The win was perhaps unexpected in the last stage of the game as Sindarov achieved a very equal rook endgame. But Fedoseev managed to squeeze water from the stone with the help of a blunder on move 74.

The win was helpful because it allowed him to take fewer risks. In fact, his last two rounds—against Aravindh and GM Hans Moke Niemann—were relatively quick draws.

Among other notable results, IM and two-time Women's World Blitz Champion Bibisara Assaubayeva came heartbreakingly close to earning her last GM norm but lost in the last round to Uzbek IM Abdimalik Abdisalimov. A draw or win would have sufficed. Eight IMs did make GM norms in this event though.

Despite that outcome, Assaubayeva should still have good memories from this tournament. In round eight, she beat GM Pranav V, the best win of her career in terms of rating. It was a crushing miniature.

It has already been announced that the first prize for the next edition will be doubled.

This year's edition of the Abu Dhabi Festival has just ended, won by Vladimir Fedoseev and Xu Xiangyu who scored 7/9.

At the closing ceremony, Hussein Al Khoori, Chairman of the Organizing Committee, announced that the prize for first place in the next edition will be 30,000… https://t.co/SIbbJ55uE1

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 24, 2023

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