Najer wins World Open
8 July 2008 14:50 PM | Last modified: 15:10
Again, an “Armageddon” game had to decide a major event in the United States, but the spectators and winner Evgeny Najer probably didn’t complain. Last Sunday, the Russian won the World Open in Philadelphia.
The World Open took place July 1-6 in Philadelphia, United States. The nine-round Swiss tournament ended with a four-way tie for first between Evgeny Najer, Parimarjan Negi, Lubomir Ftacnik and Alexander Moiseenko. They all scored 7 out of 9 and earned over US $12,000.
Because Najer and Negi had the highest tiebreaks, they advanced to the playoff. This involved one Armageddon game for an extra 400$, with seven minutes for the White pieces and a must win, and Black getting five minutes and draw odds. Najer, who had the best tiebreaks, chose White and scored a great win in Tal-style.
After the game Negi commented that even with 6 to 5, he would prefer playing White! (Source: Chess Life Online.)
Here’s a video report by Vijay Kumar which includes an interview with Parimarjan Negi. We hadn’t heard from the now 15-year old Indian for a while, after he became the second youngest grandmaster ever, two years ago. His shared first at the World Open is excellent of course, as was his first place at the Philadelphia International.
World Open 2008 Final Standings (top 50)
| 1 | GM Evgeny Najer | 2689 | NY | 7.0 | 26 | IM Justin Sarkar | 2460 | NY | 5.5 | |
| 2 | GM Parimarjan Negi | 2615 | IND | 7.0 | 27 | GM Artur Yusupov | 2698 | GER | 5.5 | |
| 3 | GM Lubomir Ftacnik | 2582 | SVK | 7.0 | 28 | IM Bryan G Smith | 2462 | PA | 5.5 | |
| 4 | GM Alexander Moiseenko | 2716 | UKR | 7.0 | 29 | IM Alex Lenderman | 2518 | NY | 5.5 | |
| 5 | GM Victor Mikhalevski | 2679 | ISR | 6.5 | 30 | GM John P Fedorowicz | 2540 | NY | 5.5 | |
| 6 | GM Ilya Smirin | 2763 | ISR | 6.5 | 31 | GM Abhijit Kunte | 2595 | IND | 5.0 | |
| 7 | GM Alexander Ivanov | 2621 | MA | 6.0 | 32 | GM Michael A Rohde | 2484 | NY | 5.0 | |
| 8 | GM Jiri Stocek | 2707 | CZE | 6.0 | 33 | IM John Bartholomew | 2488 | MN | 5.0 | |
| 9 | GM Alex Yermolinsky | 2596 | SD | 6.0 | 34 | IM Robert L Hess | 2538 | NY | 5.0 | |
| 10 | GM Surya She Ganguly | 2729 | IND | 6.0 | 35 | GM Alejandro Ramirez | 2589 | CRC | 5.0 | |
| 11 | GM Alexander Shabalov | 2662 | PA | 6.0 | 36 | Daniel Ludwig | 2454 | FL | 5.0 | |
| 12 | IM Arun Prasad | 2565 | IND | 6.0 | 37 | GM Alonso Zapata | 2522 | COL | 5.0 | |
| 13 | GM Jaan Ehlvest | 2687 | NY | 6.0 | 38 | GM Vadim Milov | 2750 | SUI | 5.0 | |
| 14 | GM Leonid G Yudasin | 2620 | ISR | 6.0 | 39 | GM Dashze Sharavdorj | 2472 | MGL | 5.0 | |
| 15 | IM Kirill Kuderinov | 2522 | KAZ | 6.0 | 40 | FM Jonathan Tayar | 2357 | CAN | 5.0 | |
| 16 | GM Sergey Kudrin | 2609 | CT | 6.0 | 41 | FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat | 2455 | MD | 5.0 | |
| 17 | GM Sergey Erenburg | 2613 | ISR | 6.0 | 42 | FM Jon Jacobs | 2314 | NY | 5.0 | |
| 18 | IM Rajaram Laxman | 2588 | IND | 6.0 | 43 | IM Dean J Ippolito | 2504 | NJ | 5.0 | |
| 19 | GM Julio J Becerra | 2636 | FL | 5.5 | 44 | Eric Hansen | 2368 | AB | 5.0 | |
| 20 | GM Varuzhan Akobian | 2669 | CA | 5.5 | 45 | GM Eugen Perelshteyn | 2619 | MA | 5.0 | |
| 21 | GM Melikset Khachiyan | 2568 | CA | 5.5 | 46 | IM David Pruess | 2480 | CA | 5.0 | |
| 22 | IM K Rathnakaran | 2588 | IND | 5.5 | 47 | GM Nick E De Firmian | 2571 | US | 5.0 | |
| 23 | GM Yury Shulman | 2680 | IL | 5.5 | 48 | Samuel Shankland | 2355 | CA | 4.5 | |
| 24 | GM Geetha Gopal | 2662 | IND | 5.5 | 49 | FM Daniel Naroditsky | 2322 | CA | 4.5 | |
| 25 | IM Renier Gonzalez | 2565 | FL | 5.5 | 50 | GM Zviad Izoria | 2692 | GEO | 4.5 |

RSS Feed







Great Video.
Lots of content at The Chess Drum including interview with Negi.