The Qatar Masters Open is an open

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...

organized by the Qatar Chess Association in

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

. Its first edition took place from 25 November to 5 December 2014. It ran for two years in 2014 and 2015 before being discontinued. It was recontinued in 2023 and has been held annually since.

Winners

Qatar Masters 2014

The tournament was open to every player with Elo 2300 or above. The prize fund equaled over $100,000, with $25,000 for the winner. There were also prizes for the best female and Arabic players, US$5,000 and US$3,500 for the first place in each category, respectively.

Yu Yangyi Yu Yangyi (; born 8 June 1994) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. He qualified for the Grandmaster title at 14 years, 11 months and 23 days old in 2009. He is a three-time Chinese Chess Champion and the 2014 Asian Chess Champion. He was a me ...

, a 20-year-old Chinese chess prodigy, became the Qatar Masters Champion, scoring 7½/9;

Anish Giri Anish Kumar Giri (; ; born 28 June 1994) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on ...

finished second and

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...

third, both scoring 7/9. :

Qatar Masters 2015

This was the second edition of the Qatar Masters Open, played from December 20 to December 29, 2015. The time control for each of the tournament games was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. Tiebreak playoffs consisted of a 2-game blitz match with time control of 5 minutes with 3 seconds increment per move starting from the move 1.

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...

was the winner of the tournament, scoring +5 (7 points out of 9) and defeating

in the tiebreak. There was a 5-way tie for third place, amongst

Sergey Karjakin Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin (born 12 January 1990) is a Russian chess grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and politician. A chess prodigy, he previously held the record for the world's youngest ever grandmaster, having qualified for the title a ...

, Sanan Sjugirov,

Ni Hua Ni Hua (born May 31, 1983 in Shanghai) is a Chinese chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and the national team captain. He is three-time national champion. In 2003, he became China's Chess in China#GM and WGM Titles, 15th Grandmaster at the ...

, and

Vassily Ivanchuk Vasyl Mykhailovych Ivanchuk (; born March 18, 1969) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading chess player since 1988, Ivanchuk has been ranked at No. 2 on the FIDE world rankings thr ...

. Finally, Vladimir Kramnik finished third. The Prizes for the 10 best players of the tournament were as follows: : There were additional prizes for the best female players (ranging from $500.00 to $8000.00), best Arabic players (ranging from $1000.00 to $2500.00), top two Junior players, and special prizes in different rating groups.

Qatar Masters 2023

In January 2023 it was announced that the tournament will come back for a 3rd edition in 2023. The organizers said they are "working to secure sponsorship for the event to run annually until 2030". The tournament was held between October 10−20, and consisted of 9 rounds with one rest day. The tournament has a prize fund of $110,000, with $25,000 for the winner, $5,000 for the highest-scoring woman, and other prizes such as the best-scoring Arabic player and best-scoring junior. Participants included former

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

, five-time US Champion

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraDutch Champion

, and several young talents such as Gukesh D,

Nodirbek Abdusattorov Nodirbek Abdusattorov (; born 18 September 2004) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he qualified for the grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 1 month, and 11 days. FIDE awarded him the title in April 2018. He is Uzbekistan's h ...

, and

Arjun Erigaisi Arjun Kumar Erigaisi (born 3 September 2003) is an Indian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 13 days. In September 2024 he became India's top rated player, and in December 2 ...

. The top-seeded woman participating was Bibisara Assaubayeva of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. The winner of this tournament was Nodirbek Yakubboev, who beat compatriot

in a blitz playoff for the title. As the 19th seed in the tournament, Yakubboev scored 7/9 (+5−0=4). Abdusattorov took second place, while Indian GM S. L. Narayanan finished third. The first woman's prize was won by Vaishali R, with 5/9, and the top Arabic prize went to Salem Saleh of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

, who finished on 6/9. As Abdusattorov, the top junior in the tournament, had already achieved a prize, he could not receive the top junior prize, and neither could Javokhir Sindarov,

, or Gukesh D, who finished fourth, sixth, and eighth respectively, so it is likely that the prize went instead to Nihal Sarin, the highest-performing junior who had yet to receive a greater prize than the $2,000 awarded to the top junior.

Qatar Masters 2024

The 2024 edition of the tournament was held between December 3rd and December 13th of that year. The tournament's A group was open to players rated 2300 or higher, and consisted of a nine-round

Swiss-system tournament A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor (team or individual) does not play all the other ...

. Participants included world number four

and world number six

. Shant Sargsyan was the clear leader through round 6 as the sole contestant with 5½/6. He held Arjun to a draw in the seventh round, before losing a critical game to Esipenko in the penultimate round and eventually finishing fourth with a score of 6½/9. 6th seed

Andrey Esipenko Andrey Evgenyevich Esipenko (; born 22 March 2002) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He won the European Youth Chess Championship, European U10 Chess Championship in 2012, and both the European Youth Chess Championship, Europea ...

won the tournament with a score of 7½/9, drawing Arjun in the final round to claim the $25,000 prize for sole first. Arjun and Abdusattorov each finished with a score of 7/9, with Arjun earning $15,000 for coming second on tiebreaks and Abdusattorov receiving $10,000. IM

Polina Shuvalova Polina Sergeevna Shuvalova (; born 12 March 2001) is a Russian chess player. She holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM, 2020) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM, 2019). She is the 2019 World Girls U-20 Champion as well as the World Girl's ...

claimed the $5,000 for first woman's prize with 5½/9.

External links

Tournament's official website

Notes

2014 in chess 2014 in Qatari sport Chess in Qatar Invitational chess tournaments 2014 establishments in Qatar {{Qatar-sport-stub