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.[1]
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, a 20-year-old Chinese chess prodigy, became the Qatar Masters Champion,[2] scoring 7.5/9; Anish Giri finished second and Vladimir Kramnik third, both scoring 7/9.
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 was the winner of the tournament, scoring +5 (7 points out of 9) and defeating Yu Yangyi in the tiebreak. There was a 5-way tie for third place, amongst Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin, Sanan Sjugirov, Ni Hua, and Vassily Ivanchuk. 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 ChampionMagnus Carlsen, five-time US ChampionHikaru Nakamura, current Dutch ChampionAnish Giri, and several young talents such as Gukesh D, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Arjun Erigaisi.[5][6] The top-seeded woman participating was Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan.
The winner of this tournament was Nodirbek Yakubboev, who beat compatriot Nodirbek Abdusattorov in a blitz playoff for the title.[7] 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, 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,[8] and neither could Javokhir Sindarov, Arjun Erigaisi, 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.
