Reza Mahdavi dominates 29th Abu Dhabi Chess Festival Juniors U16 2023, Mayank Chakraborty second
Second seeded FM Reza Mahdavi (IRI) scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to win 29th Abu Dhabi Chess Festival Juniors Under-16 Rating Tournament 2023. Reza finished a half point ahead of the field. Top seed of the tournament, CM Mayank Chakraborty scored 8/9 to finish second. His sole loss was against the eventual champion, Reza in the penultimate round. Three players - CM Islombek Sindarov (UZB), Nihal Swarna and Feliks Tokhyan (ARM) scored 7.5/9 each. They were placed third, fourth and fifth respectively according to tie-breaks. The top three prizes were US$ 1500 + trophy, $1000 and $700 each respectively. Syed Abdul Khader and Ananthnarayan were the only two other Indians to finish among top ten. They scored 7/9 each to be placed sixth and tenth each respectively. Photos: Aditya Sur Roy
Top two seeds interchange their places
A total of 256 players took part from 32 countries across the world in the Juniors Under-16 category. The tournament was organized by Abu Dhabi Chess Club & Mind Games from 16th to 22nd August 2023 at Radisson Blu Hotel & Resort Abu Dhabi Corniche in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The nine-round Swiss league tournament had a time control of 70 minutes each.
Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
| 1 | 2 | FM | Mahdavi, Reza | U16 | IRI | 2302 | 8,5 | 0 | 55 | 50 | |
| 2 | 1 | CM | Mayank, Chakraborty | U14 | IND | 2322 | 8 | 0 | 53 | 48 | |
| 3 | 4 | CM | Sindarov, Islombek | U16 | UZB | 1833 | 7,5 | 0 | 50,5 | 45,5 | |
| 4 | 3 | Swarna, Nihal | U14 | IND | 1888 | 7,5 | 0 | 49,5 | 45 | ||
| 5 | 9 | Tokhyan, Feliks | U16 | ARM | 1634 | 7,5 | 0 | 43,5 | 41 | ||
| 6 | 8 | AIM | Syed, Abdul Khader | U12 | IND | 1665 | 7 | 0 | 53 | 47,5 | |
| 7 | 13 | Obidjonov, Oriyat | U10 | UZB | 1580 | 7 | 0 | 52 | 47 | ||
| 8 | 19 | Zhang, Haoxuan | U10 | CHN | 1504 | 7 | 0 | 51 | 46 | ||
| 9 | 29 | Atakhanov, Umar | U14 | UZB | 1437 | 7 | 0 | 49,5 | 44 | ||
| 10 | 17 | Ananthnarayan, | U14 | IND | 1545 | 7 | 0 | 48 | 43 |
