23rd year of international chess and games festival

12.7. - 29. 7. 2012, Pardubice, CEZ Arena

http://www.czechopen.net

Festival news

During the last week many chess tournaments took place in Pardubice. The most important and star-studded was rapid chess tournament VLASTIMIL LOUCEK OPEN, in which also very strong chess players took part. Namely the top players in the ranking:

1. GM Navara David CZE 2679
2. GM Hess Robert USA 2639
3. GM Kononenko Dmitry UKR 2608
4. GM Schlosser Philipp GER 2596

Only GM Navara is not taking part in main grandmasters tournament PARDUBICE OPEN. GM Kononenko from Ukraine is the last winner of PARDUBICE OPEN, so he will be trying to achieve the same result also this year. GM Hess from USA is very experienced player of open tournaments and this is his first time in Pardubice.

In addition to these four, 22 GMs took part in the tournament. Results of this tournament were really surprising, when GM Lalić from Croatia defeated all of the favorites and got the golden medal.

Final standing of VLASTIMIL LOUCEK OPEN:

1. GM Lalic Bogdan CRO 2495 7,5/9
2. GM Buhmann Rainer GER 2571 7,5/9
3. GM Arutinian David GEO 2556 7,0/9
4. GM Kravtsiv Martyn UKR 2582 7,0/9
5. GM Schlosser Philipp GER 2596 7,0/9
6. GM Navara David CZE 2679 7,0/9
7. GM Shanava Konstantine GEO 2578 7,0/9
8. GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan IRI 2577 7,0/9
9. GM Hess Robert USA 2639 7,0/9
IM Antipov Mikhail Al. RUS 2470 7,0/9

This rapid tournament was played also as Czech Republic Championship. The best one of Czech chess players was GM Navara, surprising second place took IM Zwardon (2383) and bronze medal went to IM Plat (2492).

Another two rapid tournaments played in the last week were EUROKOMPLEX AUTOSKLA OPEN – European Amateurs Championship with ELO FIDE < 2000 in active chess and DOPRAVNÍ STAVBY BRNO OPEN – European Amateurs Championship with ELO FIDE < 1800 in active chess.

In the European Amateurs Championship with ELO FIDE < 2000 in active chess took part 75 players from 13 countries. Woman Amateur Champion became Polina Shuvalova from Russia, who also won whole tournament. The second in total order and also the European Champion in the men category became Ilia Gabovits from Estonia.

European Amateurs Championship with ELO FIDE < 1800 in active chess had 113 players from 12 countries. The best man was and the golden medal got Alexander Bogdanov from Israel, best in women category was Russian Natalia Pavlova (her total rank was fifth place).

The main Grand master tournament PARDUBICE OPEN has also started on Friday, July 20. The total of 259 players from 30 countries registered, including those from Great Britain, USA, Israel, Island, India and many European countries. “In this tournament, we have players from three different continents, which is really great and we are glad that many people abroad are interested in our festival,” said Jan Mazuch, the director of CZECH OPEN.

There are 48 players with the title of GM on the start list (one of them is also GM Harika Dronavalli – woman chess player from India), 2 WGMs, 54 IMs and 10 WIMs. “The start list is very strong, like every year for that matter; 36 players within the main tournament have a rating over 2500 ELO points, four of them even over 2600, which is stronger start list than it was last year,” summed up Mazuch. Number one seed for this year is GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2648) from Romania, former 15th player in the world and semifinalist of World Championship in 1999. GM Nisipeanu is also European champion from 2005. Number two on the start list is GM Robert Hess (2639) from USA, third one is Indian GM Chanda Sandipan (2618). The last player with rating over 2600 is last year winner of PARDUBICE OPEN GM Dmitry Kononenko (2608) from Ukraine.

GM Philipp Schlosser from Germany (2599) is fifth player in the start list, last year he was the number one for this tournament. That means the tournament is stronger and stronger every year.

In the first round the only favorite, who won was GM Nisipeanu, who plays very interesting and offensive chess. GM Kononenko tied his game with IM Heydarli (2309) from Azerbaijan.

“Kononenko has a lot of experience and sets his sights on victory, but it will be interesting to observe what will cause his relatively unsuccessful start of the tournament in the initial game. Traditionally, Russian players tend to be physically unstable when they are unlucky, so we will see if he manages to step out of this shadow,” said the festival chess expert, IM Petr Pisk.

Every year came to Pardubice a lot of foreign players, who no one knows, and they made a lot of surprises in tournament. “The strength of this tournament in Pardubice is the relatively easy way of attaining the grand master title, as there are so many grand masters here that you play them almost all the time, even if you are a weaker player. At the same time, there are many players from abroad here, which is another condition for attaining the GM,” explained Pisk.

Last note: The entrance to all tournaments for public is free of charge!

You can find all results on www.czechopen.net/en