Other Events: Sharjah & Bangkok

A strong open tournament in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, finished this week as an impressive success by 17-year-old Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo. He scored 8/9, drawing his last two games and still finishing a point ahead of Eltaj Safarli and Wang Hao, his two closest pursuers. Among others, Maghsoodloo defeated Wang Hao and Vladislav Artemiev, both rated over 2700, and gained 28 points in the tournament. That brings him within striking distance of the world's top 100. Very impressive, especially considering that other players left in his wake were Yuriy Kryvoruchko, Ernesto Inarkiev, Pavel Eljanov, and Baskaran Adhiban.

The Bangkok Open isn't nearly as strong, but given Chess24's Jan Gustafsson's constant praise of the event one might be curious about how it went. The answer - at least for Gustafsson - is not particularly well. He finished tied for 7th-20th places, losing to Australian GM Pavel Smirnov in round 6 and then surrendering draws with FMs in rounds 7 and 9. But speaking of FMs, the tournament was won by one: Novendra Priasmoro, who finished with 8/9. He began with a draw against a 1927 before reeling off seven wins in a row, three against GMs, and drawing with Nigel Short in the last round. He'll gain 26 points from the tournament and, I would assume, a GM norm.

Short finished tied for 3rd-6th with 7/9, half a point behind Deepan Chakkravarthy. Short had a catastrophe in round 5 when he was outplaying 11-year Indian IM D. Gukesh but failed to press his clock. His opponent said nothing - until Short's flag fell, that is. Short wrote on Twitter, "Lose with dignity...is a bit hard when your opponent is fully aware that you have not pressed your clock and jumps and down for glee the moment your flag falls." As Marc Beishon notes, in passing that tidbit along, "if you can't jump up and down at age 11..." The tournament might well have finished differently had he won; on the other hand, he was clearly worse when the draw was agreed in his last round game, so the tournament could have finished worse for him, too.