25th Dubai Open R4: Nihal, Bharath and Rohith in the lead

by Shahid Ahmed - 31/05/2025

GM Nihal Sarin defeated GM Yair Parkhov (ISR) to join the lead at 25th Dubai Open 2025. The top seed, Nihal beautifully transferred his queen from kingside to queenside. His opponent made a desperate rook sacrifice which did not yield anything. IM S Rohith Krishna won against GM Iniyan Pa to move to the top 3.5/4. IM Ilamparthi A R's momentary blind spot cost him dearly against GM Bharath Subramaniyam H. Nihal, Bharath, Rohith, GM Mahammad Muradli (AZE) and GM Aleksey Grebnev are in the lead 3.5/4. IM Md. Imran, FM Sahib Singh and IM Kushagra Mohan defeated GM Pranav Anand, GM Siddharth Jagadeesh (SGP) and GM Momchil Petkov (BUL) respectively. Round 5 starts today at 5 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

Rohith gets the better of Iniyan

IM Nitish Belurkar, FM Vedant Panesar, IM Jubin Jimmy and IM Goutham Krishna H drew with GM Ivan Zemlyanskii, GM Alan Pichot (ESP), GM Yahli Sokolovsky (ISR) and GM David Gavrilescu (ROU) respectively.

Nihal - Yair

Position after 30.Qg4

Black's best continuation was to trade the queens 30...Qxg4 31.hxg4 Rc8 32.b5 Rc7 33.Rxc6 Rxc6 34.bxc6 Kf7 and Black is doing fine. Instead, GM Yair Parkhov (ISR, 2514) opted for 30...Qd6? 31.a5 Bc7 32.g3 Re4 33.Qc8+ Kh7 34.Qa6 beautiful transfer of queen from kingside to queenside to attack both a7 and c6-pawns. Black went for a desperado 34..Rxe3? which does not work 35.Rxc6! Rxg3+ 36.Kf1 Qd7 37.fxg3 Qxh3+ 38.Ke2 Bxg3 39.Qc8 and GM Nihal Sarin (2693) went on to use his extra rook to win the game.

Iniyan - Rohith Krishna

Position after 34...Ne6

GM Iniyan Pa's (2573) position was already dwindling. 35.Rxe6 exchange sacrifice did not help his case fxe6-+ 36.Ne5 Rc8 37.Ng4 Rf8 38.Kh2 e5! to free up the position and also ensure the e5-square is already occupied by queen so that the knight cannot jump there. 39.Qxe5 Qf7 40.Qe3 h5 41.Qh6+ Kg8 42.Ne5 Qxf6 and IM S Rohith Krishna went on to win the game.

IM S Rohith Krishna is in terrific form | Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

IM Nitish Belurkar defended a very difficult game quite well to draw against GM Ivan Zemlyanskii | Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

Ilamparthi - Bharath

Position after 24...Bd4

In an advantageous position, IM Ilamparthi A R (2469) had a momentary blindspot and blundered 25.Nc2?? missing Bxf2+ White obviously cannot take it as e3+ discover attack drops the queen. 26.Kh1 Bxe1 and GM Bharath Subramaniyam H (2556) went on to win the game comfortably. However, if he played 25.a3 Bxe3 26.fxe3 the outcome could have possibly been quite different.

GM Bharath Subramaniyam H is one of the five leaders 3.5/4 | Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

FM Vedant Panesar (pictured) had a quick 18-move draw against GM Alan Pichot (ESP) | Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

IM Jubin Jimmy (pictured) - GM Yahli Sokolovsky (ISR): 0.5-0.5

Pranav - Imran

Position after 29...Qxa4

GM Pranav Anand (2555) needed to launch an attack immediately 30.f5 exf5 31.Rc8+ Kd7 32.Rxh8 Nxh8 33.gxf5 Qxb5 34.Qg5 Qb2+ 35.Kg3 would have been a better choice than playing 30.Kg3 directly put a wrench in White's plans of playing f5 effectively. 30...Qxb5 31.Qc3 0-0 32.Rh1 Qd7 33.Qd3 Rc8 34.Rh5 b5 35.f5 exf5 36.gxf5 Ne7 37.Rg5 f6 38.Rh5 b4 and things started turning in IM Md. Imran's (2472) favor.

IM Md. Imran defeated his first GM of the event in the form of Pranav Anand

GM David Gavrilescu (ROU) - IM Goutham Krishna H (pictured): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

Sahib - Siddharth

Position after 25.Qd2

25...Ng4 needed to be played to defend the h6-pawn. Instead, GM Siddharth Jagadeesh (SGP, 2472) blundered 25...Re5?? 26.Bxh6!+- e3 27.Rxe3 Bxh6 28.Nxh6 Ne4 29.Rxe4 Rxe4 30.Nxf7 and FM Sahib Singh (2416) won as his opponent had too many threats to thwart.

FM Sahib Singh defeated his first GM of the event - Siddharth Jagadeesh (SGP) | Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

Kushagra - Momchil

Position after 31...Qf1??

In an equal position, GM Momchil Petkov (BUL, 2524) blundered 31...Qf1?? Find out the winning continuation which IM Kushagra Mohan (2400) executed in the game.

IM Kushagra Mohan seized his opportunity when his opponent GM Momchil Petkov (BUL) blundered in the endgame | Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

FM Vivaan Vishal Shah won a back and forth minor piece endgame against WGM Rakshitta Ravi | Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

CM Vandan Alankar Sawai is coleading Category B with FM Mahdi Nikookar (IRI) with a perfect 4/4 | Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

Round 4 in progress | Photo: Dubai Chess & Culture Club

A total of 82 players including 31 GMs, 37 IMs and 4 WGMs are taking part from 22 countries across the world in Category A (>2300). The ninee-day nine round Rating Open tournament is being organized by and at Dubai Chess & Culture Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from 27th May to 4th June 2025. The time control of the event was 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move.

Replay Round 4 games

Round 4 results in Category A

Bo.	No.		White	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	FED	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	14	GM	Grebnev, Aleksey	FID	2556	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Muradli, Mahammad	AZE	2603	4	PGN
2	1	GM	Nihal, Sarin	IND	2693	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Parkhov, Yair	ISR	2514	24	PGN
3	9	GM	Iniyan, Pa	IND	2573	2½	0 - 1	2½	IM	Rohith, Krishna S	IND	2490	28	PGN
4	11	GM	Zemlyanskii, Ivan	RUS	2563	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Nitish, Belurkar	IND	2454	41	PGN
5	35	IM	Ilamparthi, A R	IND	2469	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Bharath, Subramaniyam H	IND	2556	13	PGN
6	38	GM	Shyam, Sundar M.	IND	2462	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Sargsyan, Shant	ARM	2666	2	PGN
7	7	GM	Pichot, Alan	ESP	2587	2	½ - ½	2	FM	Panesar, Vedant	IND	2455	40	PGN
8	39	IM	Dotzer, Lukas	AUT	2455	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Gorshtein, Ido	ISR	2560	12	PGN
9	43	IM	Jubin, Jimmy	IND	2449	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Sokolovsky, Yahli	ISR	2539	19	PGN
10	21	GM	Movahed, Sina	IRI	2518	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Harshavardhan, G B	IND	2441	46	PGN

Details

Standings after Round 4

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	K	rtg+/-
1	1	GM	Nihal, Sarin			IND	2693	3,5	2472	0	8,5	5	1	10	4,3
2	13	GM	Bharath, Subramaniyam H			IND	2556	3,5	2466	0	7	4,5	2	10	6,3
3	4	GM	Muradli, Mahammad			AZE	2603	3,5	2462	0	8,5	5	1	10	8,6
4	28	IM	Rohith, Krishna S			IND	2490	3,5	2452	0	7,5	4	2	10	16
5	14	GM	Grebnev, Aleksey			FID	2556	3,5	2449	0	9	5,5	1	10	11,3
6	2	GM	Sargsyan, Shant			ARM	2666	3	2442	0	7	4,5	1	10	-1,2
7	11	GM	Zemlyanskii, Ivan			RUS	2563	3	2441	0	6,5	3,5	1	10	3,8
8	21	GM	Movahed, Sina			IRI	2518	3	2424	0	5	3	0	10	5,3
9	41	IM	Nitish, Belurkar			IND	2454	3	2417	0	7,5	4,5	1	10	10,3
10	32	GM	Prraneeth, Vuppala			IND	2474	3	2395	0	7,5	4	1	10	9,6

Details

Round 5 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	FED	Rtg	No.
1	4	GM	Muradli, Mahammad	AZE	2603	3½		3½	GM	Nihal, Sarin	IND	2693	1
2	13	GM	Bharath, Subramaniyam H	IND	2556	3½		3½	GM	Grebnev, Aleksey	FID	2556	14
3	28	IM	Rohith, Krishna S	IND	2490	3½		3	GM	Zemlyanskii, Ivan	RUS	2563	11
4	2	GM	Sargsyan, Shant	ARM	2666	3		3	IM	Harikrishnan.A.Ra,	IND	2467	37
5	32	GM	Prraneeth, Vuppala	IND	2474	3		3	GM	Movahed, Sina	IRI	2518	21
6	41	IM	Nitish, Belurkar	IND	2454	3		3	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	IND	2514	25
7	6	GM	Narayanan, S L	IND	2598	2½		3	FM	Ashraf, Artin	IRI	2407	65
8	34	IM	Md, Imran	IND	2472	2½		2½	GM	Pichot, Alan	ESP	2587	7
9	47	IM	Celik, Hasan Huseyin	TUR	2440	2½		2½	GM	Iniyan, Pa	IND	2573	9
10	12	GM	Gorshtein, Ido	ISR	2560	2½		2½	IM	Ilamparthi, A R	IND	2469	35

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Regulations

Dubai Chess: fb, twitter, instagram and youtube

Related news:

	25th Dubai Open R5: Grebnev grabs sole lead @ 01/06/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	25th Dubai Open R3: Rohith Krishna defies Nihal Sarin @ 30/05/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	25th Dubai Open R2: Vedant Panesar and Nitish Belurkar score upsets @ 29/05/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	25th Dubai Open R1: Harshavardhan and Mayank stun Jingyao Tin and Abhijeet Gupta @ 28/05/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en)