Nodirbek Yakubboev wins Qatar Masters 2023, S L Narayanan third with a 2792 performance
21/10/2023 - The 44th Chess Olympiad Gold medalists - Nodirbek Abdussatorov (UZB) and Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB) won their final round games against Arjun Erigaisi and Karthikeyan Murali respectively. Thus, they both became the only two players to end up with a score of 7/9 each. Yakubboev beat his countryman Abdusattorov in both 5'+3" Blitz play-off games to become Qatar Masters 2023 champion. Abdusattorov was placed second. S L Narayanan had a good chance against Hikaru Nakamura (USA). However, he was unable to seize it and it ended in a draw. Nevertheless, Narayanan scored an unbeaten 6.5/9 with a performance of 2792. He finished third along with five more players including Arjun Erigaisi and D Gukesh. Abhimanyu Puranik was on the verge of handing Magnus Carlsen his third defeat of the tournament. IM Vaishali R and IM Srihari L R scored GM-norms. CM Mayank Chakraborty earned his final IM-norm. Photos: Aditya Sur Roy