Adham Fawzy clinches 1st Kuwait International Chess Festival 2025 Masters, Stany third

by Shahid Ahmed - 28/01/2025

GM Adham Fawzy (EGY) scored 7.5/9 to win 1st Kuwait International Chess Festival 2025 Masters. He finished a half point ahead of the rest. GM Shahin Lorparizangeneh (IRI) and GM Stany G A scored 7/9 each. They secured second and third place respectively according to tie-breaks. The top three prizes were US$ 2400, $1800 and $1200 each. 9-year-old Krithik Muthukumar won the Challengers section scoring an unbeaten 8/9. 14-year-old Kushagra Jain scored 7.5/9 to secure second place in the Rapid Rating Open. Stany won the Blitz Rating Open with a perfect 9/9. He finished a whopping two points ahead of the field. IM Viani Antonio Dcunha finished third scoring 7/9. Photo: Kuwait International Chess Festival 2025

9-year-old Krithik Muthukumar wins Challengers; Stany perfect in Blitz, Viani third; Kushagra Jain second in Rapid

The inaugural edition of the Kuwait International Chess Festival 2025 was a successful one for the Indian players. GM Stany G A made a brilliant start by scoring a double hat-trick 6/6. He was 1.5 points ahead of the rest at that time. In the seventh round he suffered a loss against the eventual runner-up, GM Shahin Lorparizangeneh (IRI). Still he was in the sole lead. A final round loss against GM Bilel Bellahcene (ALG) cost him the championship. Stany's double hat-trick of wins came in the form of a win against the eventual champion, GM Adham Fawzy (EGY) in Round 6. 9-year-old Krithik Muthukumar scored an unbeaten 8/9 to win the Challengers event. Stany won the Blitz tournament scoring a perfect 9/9 and finishing ahead by two points. The festival witnessed the participation of total 297 players - 38 in Masters, 77 in Challengers, 22 in Ladies, 82 in Rapid and 78 in Blitz.

Champion - GM Adham Fawzy (EGY) 7.5/9 | Photo: Kuwait International Chess Festival 2025

Champion in Blitz and 3rd in Classical - GM Stany G A 9/9 and 7/9 | Photo: Kuwait International Chess Festival 2025

Group photo of various prize winners | Photo: Kuwait International Chess Festival 2025

GM Stany G A scored 9/9, finished a whopping two points ahead of the competition and gained 12.4 Eko rating points

A total of 38 players including 6 GMs and 5 IMs took part from 14 countries across the world in the Masters (>1900) event. The nine-day nine round Rating Open tournament was organized by Kuwait Chess Federation and Chess House Academy - Kuwait at Grand Hotel Kuwait in Salmiya, Kuwait from 5th to 13th January 2025. The time control of the event was 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings in Classical

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	RtgI	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3	GM	Fawzy, Adham		EGY	2498	7,5	0	50	40,50
2	4	GM	Lorparizangeneh, Shahin		IRI	2456	7	1	49,5	36,00
3	5	GM	Stany, G.A.		IND	2439	7	2	53	39,50
4	2	GM	Bellahcene, Bilel		ALG	2521	6,5	0	43,5	31,00
5	1	GM	Bernadskiy, Vitaliy		UKR	2545	6	0	51,5	31,00
6	9	IM	Wafa, Hamed	U18	EGY	2304	6	0	49	28,50
7	6	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha		IND	2380	6	0	47	28,00

Details

A total of 77 players took part from 14 countries across the world in the Challengers event. The nine-day nine round Rating Open tournament was organized by Kuwait Chess Federation and Chess House Academy - Kuwait at Grand Hotel Kuwait in Salmiya, Kuwait from 5th to 13th January 2025. The time control of the event was 60 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings in Challengers

Rk.	SNo	Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3	Krithik, Muthukumar	U10		IND	1847	8	0	54	47,00
2	2	Humaidan Mohamed, Alzaabi	U16		UAE	1849	8	0	53	45,50
3	8	Vishwanath, Jeyaraman			IND	1750	7	0	53,5	39,50
4	21	Bhavanya, Panchumarthi	U12	w	IND	1668	7	0	52	38,00
5	10	Vedant, Yogesh Kale	U12		IND	1736	6,5	1	52	33,50
6	4	Shah, Meet			ENG	1826	6,5	2	49,5	32,75
7	24	Ezhil, Aadhav Kaladharan	U16		IND	1639	6	0	52	30,00
8	17	Jai, Khalish S	U14		IND	1684	6	0	51,5	29,50
9	11	Vishwesh, Sivanantham	U16		IND	1727	6	0	49,5	31,00
10	16	Advik, Srinivasan	U12		IND	1691	6	0	47	30,00

Details

A total of 82 players including 2 GMs and an IM took part from 14 countries across the world in the Rapid event. The two-day nine round Rapid Rating Open tournament was organized by Kuwait Chess Federation and Chess House Academy - Kuwait at Grand Hotel Kuwait in Salmiya, Kuwait on 9th and 10th January 2025. The time control of the event was 10 minutes + 3 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings in Rapid

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Pts.	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Lorparizangeneh, Shahin			IRI	2400	8	55	47,75
2	4		Jain, Kushagra	U16		IND	2011	7,5	52	41,00
3	2	GM	Barsov, Alexei	S50		UZB	2337	7	56	41,75
4	30		Bhavanya, Panchumarthi	U12	w	IND	1628	7	50	38,50
5	18		Qutaiba, Sadeq Yair Almajbool			IRQ	1773	7	48,5	36,00
6	36		Nehan, Abdullah	U12		BAN	1618	7	47,5	33,00
7	5		Mithilesh, Ranjithkumar	U14		IND	1948	6,5	54,5	35,50
8	3	IM	Al Hosani, Omran			UAE	2198	6,5	52,5	35,25
9	16	WCM	Sharvaanica, A S	U10	w	IND	1801	6,5	50	33,25
10	15		Krithik, Muthukumar	U10		IND	1805	6,5	49,5	33,75

Details

A total of 78 players including 2 GMs, 2 IMs and a WGM took part from 13 countries across the world in the Blitz event. The one-day nine round Blitz Rating Open tournament was organized by Kuwait Chess Federation and Chess House Academy - Kuwait at Grand Hotel Kuwait in Salmiya, Kuwait on 9th and 10th January 2025. The time control of the event was 10 minutes + 3 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings in Blitz

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Pts.	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Stany, G.A.			IND	2486	9	54,5	54,50
2	3	GM	Barsov, Alexei	S50		UZB	2322	7	57,5	41,50
3	2	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha			IND	2378	7	55,5	39,50
4	6	WGM	Gevorgyan, Maria		w	ARM	2159	7	53	37,00
5	8	FM	Othman, A. Moussa	S50		UAE	2033	7	49,5	35,50
6	15		Jain, Kushagra	U16		IND	1845	6,5	54	34,75
7	4	IM	Al Hosani, Omran			UAE	2188	6,5	51	33,75
8	10	CM	Mohammed, Ali Mahdial-Kinani	S50		IRQ	1932	6,5	47	30,75
9	21		Ezhil, Aadhav Kaladharan	U16		IND	1789	6,5	39,5	27,00
10	24		Vishwanath, Jeyaraman			IND	1750	6	47,5	26,50

Details

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