Chess player Jakhongir Vahidov won the Abu Dhabi Masters without a single defeat.
Uzbek chess player Jakhongir Vakhidov won the Abu Dhabi Masters tournament, scoring 7 points out of a possible 9. He finished the competition undefeated—with five wins and four draws—and finished half a point ahead of his closest rivals.
Uzbek grandmaster Jakhongir Vakhidov won the Abu Dhabi Masters tournament without a single loss.
Uzbek grandmaster Jakhongir Vakhidov triumphed in the Masters tournament, which was held as part of the 32nd Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival. He scored 7 out of 9 possible points, finishing the competition unbeaten.
The tournament, held in Abu Dhabi from August 15 to 24, featured a nine-round Swiss system. Vakhidov won five games and drew four. His tournament performance totaled 2678 rating points, compared to a starting rating of 2508. He gained 19.1 rating points by the end of the competition.
The 31-year-old Vakhidov began the tournament seeded 14th. He scored 4.5 points in the first six rounds, after which he won two games in a row, taking sole first place.
In the seventh round, the Uzbek defeated his compatriot, International Master Muhammadzohid Suyarov (rated 2551), and in the eighth, Russian International Master Alexander Usov (rated 2457).
Before the final round, Vakhidov had 6.5 points. In the final game, he drew with Grandmaster Alexander Rakhmanov (rated 2590), guaranteeing him victory in the tournament.
Vakhidov finished the competition with 7 points—half a point ahead of his closest rivals—and earned $15,000. Daniil Dubov, Alexander Rakhmanov, Rudik Makaryan, Anand Pranava, and Daniyal Sapenov each scored 6.5 points. The Uzbek also tied with Indian grandmaster Pa Iniyan (2609), who began the competition seeded second, after nine rounds. The highest-rated participant in the tournament was Daniil Dubov, with a rating of 2652.
The 32nd Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival included several tournaments, including Masters, Open A and Open B, junior competitions, blitz, and Chess960. The main Masters tournament was held with a classical time control of 90 minutes with a 30-second increment per move.
Jahongir Vakhidov is an Uzbek grandmaster and winner of the 2022 World Chess Olympiad as part of the Uzbekistan national team. In 2024, he also served as a second on Chinese World Champion Ding Liren's team and helped him win the chess crown.