Azerbeidzhan wins Essent

Mamedyarov became the expected winner of the 11th Essent Tournament. He finished clear first with 4,5 out of 6 and it wasn’t Ponomariov finishing second but Van Wely, who beat the Ukrainian player in a nice game with Black today that was awarded the brilliancy prize. Andriasian returns home with plenty of experience but zero points, and will need either a pocket chess set in the plane back home or a good drink. The open group was won by fifteen-year-old IM Eltaj Safarli (whááát? who?) from Azerbeidzhan (a-ha).

First yesterday’s and today’s games of the crown group:

Final standings:

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2752)

In the penultimate round of the open group, Eltaj Safarli had joined the leaders almost without being noticed, by beating David Smerdon while the first five boards had ended in a draw. (The tournament site reports that in the game Nijboer-Visser this happened after some wild scenes. Mutual timetrouble led to a chaotic series of moves while pieces were dropping off the board. At some point Nijboer exceeded the time limit but was given the full point anyway because Visser had prevented him from pressing the clock. After a while, the players shook hands and “overruled” the arbiter’s decision to decide on a draw themselves.)

So before the last round Safarli, l’Ami, Winants and Postny were on 6 out of 8. The young Azeri was paired to l’Ami with Black. Despite his shared lead, the Dutch GM was not satisfied about his shape and he kind of proved this by allowing a tactical shot while offering a draw at the same time. Safarli took full advantage, especially after the draw between Gofshtein and Postny on board two and Winants’ loss to Smeets, and so he was the only player to finish on 7 out of 9. And so we find Safarli on clear first! Postny finished on the second spot and a bunch of Dutch GM’s on places 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12 and 16.

IM Eltaj Safarli (2488)

Here you’ll find the full final standings of the open group. The top row of the table is clickable and so you’re able to sort the whole thing as you like!

Essent Open 2007 Final Standings

Rank	Name	Score	Fed.	M/F	BH	SB	Rating	TPR	W-We
1	IM Safarli, Eltaj	7.0	AZE	M	43.5	33.0	2488	2531	+0.57
2	GM Postny, Evgeny	6.5	ISR	M	52.5	37.0	2599	2662	+0.81
3	GM Werle, Jan	6.5	NED	M	49.0	34.0	2568	2615	+0.59
4	GM Nijboer, Friso	6.5	NED	M	49.5	35.0	2559	2607	+0.63
5	GM Smeets, Jan	6.5	NED	M	46.0	32.25	2558	2569	+0.28
6	GM l'Ami, Erwin	6.0	NED	M	50.0	31.5	2577	2566	-0.06
7	GM Gofshtein, Leonid	6.0	ISR	M	49.5	32.0	2542	2559	+0.25
8	GM Reinderman, Dimitri	6.0	NED	M	48.0	31.25	2510	2491	-0.13
9	GM Winants, Luc	6.0	BEL	M	51.0	31.75	2504	2599	+1.21
10	GM Hort, Vlastimil	6.0	GER	M	47.0	30.25	2483	2526	+0.68
11	IM Simutowe, Amon	6.0	ZAM	M	46.5	28.25	2421	2522	+1.28
12	GM Peng, Zhaoqin	6.0	NED	F	45.5	27.25	2419	2505	+1.04
13	IM Pruijssers, Roeland	6.0	NED	M	41.0	27.25	2408	2401	+0.03
14	IM Grooten, Herman	6.0	NED	M	43.5	25.0	2350	2485	+1.68
15	IM Abergel, Thal	5.5	FRA	M	46.0	26.5	2528	2436	-1.00
16	GM Visser, Yge	5.5	NED	M	46.5	25.5	2470	2486	+0.33
17	IM Van Delft, Merijn	5.5	NED	M	43.5	24.75	2418	2462	+0.61
18	IM Willemze, Thomas	5.5	NED	M	40.0	22.5	2417	2378	-0.27
19	Vedder, Henk	5.5	NED	M	42.0	23.75	2364	2385	+0.33
20	FM Tondivar, Babak	5.5	NED	M	37.0	22.25	2353	2254	-1.04
21	IM Afek, Yochanan	5.5	ISR	M	37.5	21.5	2349	2298	-0.48
22	Kodentsov, Grisja	5.5	NED	M	40.0	22.75	2307	2325	+0.37
23	WGM Mamedjarova, Turkan	5.5	AZE	F	46.5	28.75	2227	2468	+2.86
24	FM Rasmussen, Allan Stig	5.0	DEN	M	39.5	20.0	2485	2338	-1.67
25	IM Smerdon, David	5.0	AUS	M	49.0	23.25	2466	2453	-0.04
26	FM Fayard, Alain	5.0	FRA	M	32.5	17.0	2360	2193	-1.85
27	FM Erwich, Frank	5.0	NED	M	43.5	21.0	2346	2335	-0.10
28	WGM Mamedjarova, Zeinab	5.0	AZE	F	42.5	19.75	2342	2341	+0.09
29	Ruijgrok, Dennis	5.0	NED	M	42.0	20.0	2330	2307	-0.23
30	FM Vedder, Richard	5.0	NED	M	44.5	21.0	2297	2379	+0.92
31	Van Eijk, Sander	5.0	NED	M	40.0	19.25	2275	2293	+0.20
32	GM Hillarp Persson, Tiger	4.5	SWE	M	42.5	19.25	2567	2330	-2.60
33	FM Okkes, Menno	4.5	NED	M	38.5	16.75	2386	2252	-1.50
34	IM Ris, Robert	4.5	NED	M	42.5	17.0	2381	2332	-0.57
35	FM Vuilleumier, Alexandre	4.5	SUI	M	33.5	15.5	2315	2196	-1.38
36	FM Christensen, Stefan	4.5	DEN	M	39.5	18.25	2304	2229	-0.85
37	FM Humphrey, Jonathan	4.5	AUS	M	43.5	17.25	2284	2316	+0.32
38	FM Van Kooten, Luuk	4.5	NED	M	35.5	16.0	2283	2223	-0.77
39	Kuipers, Stefan	4.5	NED	M	42.5	19.25	2283	2342	+0.71
40	FM Pel, Bonno	4.5	NED	M	43.0	19.0	2280	2326	+0.56
41	Otte, Marijn	4.5	NED	M	39.5	19.75	2155	2294	+1.61
42	Bok, Benjamin	4.5	NED	M	41.0	18.75	2115	2322	+2.37
43	FM Fernandez, Daniel Howard	4.5	SIN	M	33.5	13.75	2102	2186	+0.81
44	Akotchik, Viktor	4.5	NED	M	46.5	22.75	2015	2343	+3.36
45	FM Hedke, Fred	4.0	GER	M	39.5	15.25	2323	2197	-1.43
46	Pg, Mohd Omar Ak Hirawan	4.0	BRU	M	35.5	13.0	2316	2177	-1.59
47	FM Miedema, Roi	4.0	NED	M	40.0	14.5	2303	2215	-0.95
48	FM Schuurman, Petra	4.0	NED	F	39.5	14.5	2281	2263	-0.29
49	Van Kampen, Robin	4.0	NED	M	39.0	13.5	2252	2231	-0.29
50	Van den Berg, Ad	4.0	NED	M	33.5	12.75	2248	2105	-1.71
51	WIM Hamelink, Desiree	4.0	NED	F	39.0	15.25	2202	2187	-0.22
52	Van Weersel, Arlette	4.0	NED	F	43.5	18.0	2174	2264	+1.06
53	Vroombout, Enrico	4.0	NED	M	38.5	13.25	2169	2204	+0.41
54	Hulshof, Peter	4.0	NED	M	42.0	18.0	2163	2299	+1.52
55	Borg, Andrew	4.0	MLT	M	37.5	12.25	2116	2194	+0.72
56	Meurs, Tom	4.0	NED	M	36.5	14.0	2051	2207	+1.73
57	Schut, Donna	4.0	NED	F	40.5	14.0	1999	2191	+1.61
58	FM De Jong, Migchiel	3.5	NED	M	42.5	14.75	2341	2188	-1.82
59	Ahlers, Ben	3.5	NED	M	34.0	11.25	2190	2152	-0.54
60	Van Apeldoorn, Janton	3.5	NED	M	41.0	14.25	2188	2224	+0.24
61	Van Opheusden, Bas	3.5	NED	M	42.5	15.75	2149	2232	+0.91
62	Sadallah, Osama	3.5	NED	M	38.0	12.0	2108	2175	+0.73
63	Klein, David	3.5	NED	M	36.0	11.5	2086	2151	+0.60
64	Hoffman, Ron	3.0	NED	M	33.5	8.5	2158	2088	-0.88
65	Fehr, Axel	3.0	GER	M	32.5	9.0	2150	2093	-0.69
66	Hendriks, Richard	3.0	NED	M	34.5	9.25	2125	2138	+0.13
67	Middelveld, Martine	3.0	NED	F	34.0	9.25	2009	2077	+0.66
68	Pijpers, Arthur	3.0	NED	M	43.5	13.25	2000	2192	+1.80
69	IM Haub, Thorsten-Michael	2.5	GER	M	41.0	20.25	2469	2277	-1.13
70	Friesen, Boris	2.5	NED	M	29.0	6.5	2152	2031	-1.47
71	Rooda, Kai	2.5	NED	M	37.0	10.5	2146	2112	-0.42
72	Van der Veen, Jan	2.5	NED	M	34.0	9.0	2144	2045	-1.21
73	Galje, Hans	2.5	NED	M	31.5	5.75	2143	2043	-1.20
74	Van der Leest, Bert	2.0	NED	M	33.5	6.5	2199	2017	-2.11
75	Potze, Rudolf	2.0	NED	M	30.5	6.75	2137	1966	-1.93
76	Markus, John	1.5	NED	M	31.0	8.5	2264	2005	-2.08
77	FM Giddins, Stephen	1.0	ENG	M	38.0	13.0	2190	2184	-0.12