Ehlvest wins Chicago Open

27 May 2009, 10.42 CET | Last modified: 19:46 | By Peter Doggers  | Filed under: Reports | Tags:

Winning with the black pieces in the blitz Armageddon play-off against Gabriel Sargissian, Jaan Ehlvest clinched the title at the Chicago Open on Monday. The two had ended on 5.5/7 ahead of Van Wely, Shulman, Akobian, Kacheishvili, Shabalov and Finegold.

The 2009 Chicago Open was held May 22-25. It was a 7-round open Swiss held during the Memorial Weekend. The rate of play was 2 hours for 40 moves plus another hour to finish.

For the different sections (besides the Open there was an Under 900, Under Under 1300, Under 1500, Under 1900, Under 2100 and Under 2300) there was a US $100,000 unconditionally guaranteed prize fund.

The tournament had attracted several very strong grandmasters from the US and abroad. Besides US Championship participants Yuri Shulman, Varuzhan Akobian and Alexander Shabalov, from the Netherlands there was Loek van Wely, and part of the Olympiad gold medal winning team Armenia also participated: Gabriel Sargissian and Tigran Petrosian.

Gabriel Sargissian and Jaan Ehlvest agreed to a quick draw in the last round, guaranteeing themselves a share of 1st place. GMs Yury Shulman, Varuzhan Akobian and Giorgi Kacheishvili could have all caught the two leaders if they had won but they ended up drawing their respective games leaving Sargissian and Ehlvest at the top of the standings.

Chicago Open 2009 | Open Section | Final Standings

#	Name	Rtng	Post	St	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Tot
1	GM Gabriel Sargissian	2760	2768	ARM	W47	W29	D27	W8	D7	W13	D2	5½
2	GM Jaan Ehlvest	2649	2703	NY	W40	W26	W45	L9	W28	W7	D1	5½
3	GM Loek Van Wely	2730	2721	NED	W11	D10	D28	D14	W34	D9	W15	5
4	GM Yury Shulman	2697	2694	IL	W20	L18	W31	W17	W26	D6	D5	5
5	GM Varuzhan Akobian	2664	2667	CA	W23	D6	D19	D15	W29	W27	D4	5
6	GM Giorgi Kacheishvili	2638	2660	NY	W33	D5	W10	D13	W14	D4	D9	5
7	GM Alexander Shabalov	2620	2634	PA	W22	W15	D14	W27	D1	L2	W16	5
8	IM Benjamin Finegold	2580	2582	MI	D16	W25	W24	L1	D15	W18	W14	5
9	GM Tigran Petrosian	2698	2701	ARM	D37	D45	W43	W2	D13	D3	D6	4½
10	GM Dashze Sharavdorj	2482	2493	CO	X—	D3	L6	W23	D27	D11	W22	4½
11	FM Jake Kleiman	2373	2386	TN	L3	W44	W46	L29	W30	D10	W17	4½
12	FM Carl B Boor	2306	2328	OH	L13	L34	W44	W33	D22	W23	W29	4½
13	GM Darmen Sadvakasov	2618	2627	FR	W12	W31	W18	D6	D9	L1	U—	4
14	IM Gergely Antal	2486	2494	HUN	W35	W46	D7	D3	L6	W19	L8	4
15	IM Mackenzie Molner	2416	2433	NJ	W44	L7	W41	D5	D8	W28	L3	4
16	FM Darwin Yang	2304	2344	TX	D8	L28	W47	W39	D17	W29	L7	4
17	IM Joseph M Bradford	2476	2453	TX	L25	W22	W33	L4	D16	W31	L11	3½
18	FM Florin Felecan	2409	2415	IL	W41	W4	L13	L28	W24	L8	D20	3½
19	IM Angelo Young	2367	2366	IL	W36	H—	D5	L34	W32	L14	D24	3½
20	GM Anatoly Y Lein	2359	2341	OH	L4	L39	W42	L25	W36	W32	D18	3½
21	IM Oladapo O Adu	2344	2329	MD	H—	L24	D35	L32	W33	W39	D31	3½
22	WIM Alisa Melekhina	2322	2323	PA	L7	L17	W49	W35	D12	W25	L10	3½
23	FM Ali Morshedi	2294	2297	CA	L5	W42	D34	L10	W41	L12	W35	3½
24	Seth Homa	2284	2294	MI	D28	W21	L8	D30	L18	W42	D19	3½
25	Steven A Owen	2082	2116	TN	W17	L8	H—	W20	H—	L22	H—	3½
26	GM Timur Gareev	2626	2627	TX	W43	L2	W38	W37	L4	U—	U—	3
27	GM Eugene Perelshteyn	2599	2586	MA	W49	W30	D1	L7	D10	L5	U—	3
28	IM Bryan G Smith	2550	2539	PA	D24	W16	D3	W18	L2	L15	U—	3
29	GM Gildardo J Garcia	2483	2462	FL	W39	L1	W32	W11	L5	L16	L12	3
30	Aung K Lwin	2313	2302	MA	D42	L27	W36	D24	L11	W40	U—	3
31	Conrad Holt	2294	2296	KS	W34	L13	L4	D41	W40	L17	D21	3
32	Robert O?Donnell	2153	2155	MI	H—	H—	L29	W21	L19	L20	X36	3
33	Eric S Rosen	2133	2136	IL	L6	W49	L17	L12	L21	W44	W42	3
34	GM Dmitry Gurevich	2557	2537	IL	L31	W12	D23	W19	L3	U—	U—	2½
35	FM Michael Dougherty	2268	2252	ON	L14	D47	D21	L22	D43	W41	L23	2½
36	Frankie Swindell II	1886	1893	IL	L19	D48	L30	B—	L20	W43	F32	2½
37	GM Vladimir Georgiev	2585	2579	IL	D9	W40	H—	L26	U—	U—	U—	2
38	GM Nikola Mitkov	2564	2557	IL	D45	H—	L26	B—	U—	U—	U—	2
39	Brian Fiedler	2236	2227	ONT	L29	W20	H—	L16	D42	L21	U—	2
40	Allen J Becker	2014	2013	WI	L2	L37	B—	W43	L31	L30	U—	2
41	Luke Hellwig	2000	1995	AL	L18	B—	L15	D31	L23	L35	D43	2
42	Jeremy M Madison	1922	1937	IA	D30	L23	L20	W44	D39	L24	L33	2
43	Nolan Hendrickson	1882	1877	WI	L26	B—	L9	L40	D35	L36	D41	2
44	Henry C Sobo	2019	1999	CT	L15	L11	L12	L42	W50	L33	H—	1½
45	GM Zviad Izoria	2668	2653	GEO	D38	D9	L2	U—	U—	U—	U—	1
46	Kenneth Odeh	1906	1904	CA	B—	L14	L11	U—	U—	U—	U—	1
47	GM Mesgen Amanov	2394	2378	IL	L1	D35	L16	U—	U—	U—	U—	½
48	Mark Jutovsky	1934	1933	IL	U—	D36	U—	U—	U—	U—	U—	½
49	Matthew Pullin	2032	2023	IL	L27	L33	L22	U—	U—	U—	U—	0
50	Rudy R Padilla	1593	1590	IL	U—	U—	U—	U—	L44	U—	U—	0

Below you can replay the games of the top boards from all 7 rounds, including the Armageddon between Sargissian and Ehlvest.

Game viewer

Click on the pairings at the top of the board to reveal a drop down list of all the games. Click on the arrow under the board just once, then the arrow keys of your keyboard also work.

All photos © Chris Bird, check out more here

Links

• Tournament website
• Games in PGN

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