Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) became the winner of the World Stars Sharjah Online Chess Championship 2020, a double round-robin tournament with 10 min +3 sec time control organized by the Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club. The event was held online on a popular platform Internet Chess Club (ICC) on June 12-13t 2020. The prize fund of the competition amounted to 10.000$.

The Azerbaijani GM turned in an excellent performance and scored 7.5 out of 10. The champion didn’t lose a single game and showed an impressive 2886 rating performance. It’s also the first online chess tournament Shakhriyar won in his life.

Pentala Harikrishna (India) finished second with 6.5 out of 10, a full point behind the champion. After winning three games in a row on Day 2 the Indian GM became the real contestant for the title. Before the final round, Mamedyarov and Harikrishna were sharing the first place and it came down to the wire - in Round 10 Mamedyarov defeated Salem Saleh, while Pentala Harikrishna lost against Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland). 

Wojtaszek finished in third place with 6 points, Rustam Kasimdzanov (Uzbekistan) is fourth just half a point behind. Salem Saleh (UAE) had a good start but scored only half a point on the second day and finished in fifth place. It was a really tough event for the highest-rated African player Bassem Amin (Egypt), who ended up in the bottom of the standings.

The official commentators of the event GM Efstratios Grivas and WGM Anastasia Karlovich provided coverage throughout the event.

Photos: Anastasia Karlovich

Day 1: https://youtu.be/wK0hr_VEk9E

Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8vzSjgfyiE&feature=youtu.be