Top seed Alexander Grischuk of Russia was in majestic form on Sunday as he easily won the Mainz Chess Classic Chess960 online title hosted on ICC. Besides 750 Euros and accommodation and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel, Grischuk won an automatic seat in two tournaments at the Mainz Chess Classic.

From June 23rd to 28th the Internet Chess Club, in conjunction with Chess Tigers, organizers of the ever-popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany, organized a free online qualifier for ICC members to win 700 Euro, accommodation and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel by the banks of the Rhine, just one block from the picturesque Old Town.

Like the previous two ICC champions Tigran Petrosian (2007) and Hikaru Nakamura (2008), the winner would go on to receive an automatic seat into two of the biggest and most prestigious series of rapid chess tournaments in the world, playing among many of the game's top grandmasters at the FiNet Open, the world's biggest Chess960 tournaments, and the Ordix Open, one of the biggest and strongest rapid tournaments.

En route to the main event of the 16-player final, Grischuk (depressnyak) beat with ease IM Anatoly Bykhovsky of Israel (3-1) and GM Dmitry Koneonenlo [presumably Kononenko - PD] of Ukraine (3-1) to face fellow Russian IM Artur Gabrielian (Dinamit) - who caused an upset by beating second seed and last year's champion GM Hikaru Nakamura (Smallville) in the quarter-finals - in a Moscow showdown for the title.

But again Grischuk proved unstoppable as he eased to victory by a resounding score of 3.5-0.5 to take the 750 Euro first prize, invitation and hotel to the upcoming Mainz Chess Classic later next month in Germany.

Four open qualifiers were held on ICC earlier last week to determine the 16-player final that saw a record number of 973 ICC members playing Chess960 (FischerRandom).

(Report by John Henderson, ICC)

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