Some tournament news

Daniel Fridman is champion of Germany, Tomasz Markowski grabs the title at the first Pfalz Open, Peter Svidler wins a weekender (!) in Ireland…
Some tournament news.

The 79th Individual Championship of Germany wasn’t the strongest ever, but still several GM were participating. The event was held 15-23 February and top seed Daniel Fridman (2627) won the title a point clear, with 7.5 out of 9. Tournament website.

German Championship 2008 Final Standings (top 20)

Place	Title	Name	Rtg	Pts	BH
1.	GM	Fridman,Daniel	2627	7.5	46.0
2.	GM	Bischoff,Klaus	2537	6.5	48.5
3.	GM	Kritz,Leonid	2592	6.0	50.5
4.	GM	Kunin,Vitaly	2538	6.0	49.5
5.	GM	Buhmann,Rainer	2570	6.0	47.0
6.	GM	Baramidze,David	2582	6.0	49.0
7.	IM	Henrichs,Thomas	2481	6.0	42.5
8.	GM	Gustafsson,Jan	2607	5.5	49.5
9.	FM	Markgraf,Alexander	2442	5.5	46.0
10.		Chevelevitch,Evgueni	2456	5.5	47.5
11.	IM	Siebrecht,Sebastian	2487	5.5	44.0
12.	IM	Zude,Arno	2452	5.5	34.5
13.	GM	Tischbierek,Raj	2487	5.5	39.5
14.	IM	Hausrath,Daniel	2507	5.0	45.5
15.	IM	Gschnitzer,Oswald,Dr.	2408	5.0	42.0
16.		Huschenbeth,Niclas	2437	5.0	37.5
17.	GM	Rotstein,Arkadij	2548	5.0	39.0
18.	GM	Levin,Felix	2563	5.0	42.0
19.	IM	Braun,Arik	2536	4.5	48.0
20.	FM	Jorczik,Julian	2286	4.5	43.5

We’ll stay in Germany for the next one. The country already has a good tradition of strong opens, e.g. Neckar, Bad Wiessee and Bad Wörishofen, and a new one can be added to the list, held last week: the first Pfalz Open. Strong players such as Tiviakov (2649), Korneev (2645), Postny (2627) and Berelovich (2606) had traveled to Neustadt an der Weinstraße (between Mainz and Karlsruhe), but eventually the Polish player Tomasz Markowski (2585) won with 7.5 out of 9. Tournament website.

1. Pfalz Open Final Standings (top 20)

Place	Name	Title	Rtg	Country	Pts
1	Markowski,Tomasz	GM	2585	POL	7.5
2	Tiviakov,Sergei	GM	2649	NED	7.0
3	Greenfeld,Alon	GM	2559	ISR	7.0
4	Postny,Evgeny	GM	2627	ISR	7.0
5	Milov,Leonid	IM	2482	GER	7.0
6	Kempinski,Robert	GM	2590	GER	7.0
7	Korneev,Oleg	GM	2645	RUS	7.0
8	Graf,Alexander	GM	2586	GER	6.5
9	Khenkin,Igor	GM	2602	GER	6.5
10	Epishin,Vladimir	GM	2577	RUS	6.5
11	Berelovich,Aleksander	GM	2606	UKR	6.5
12	Borovikov,Vladislav	GM	2583	UKR	6.5
13	Kekelidze,Michail	GM	2454	GEO	6.5
14	Dgebuadze,Alexander	GM	2512	BEL	6.5
15	Teske,Henrik	GM	2493	GER	6.5
16	Brener,Ilja	IM	2394	GER	6.5
17	Djuric,Stefan	GM	2448	SRB	6.5
18	Starostits,Ilmars	IM	2500	LAT	6.5
19	Haba,Petr	GM	2536	CZE	6.5
20	Manolache,Marius	GM	2530	ROU	6.5

18-24 February, a big chess festival was held in Nancy, France. No less than 14 round-robin tournaments took place and the French GM Christian Bauer won the main event. The Canadian IM Thomas Roussel-Roozmon, whom I met last year at the First Saturday tournament in Budapest, had to win his last-round game to score a GM norm. Agains Bauer he was a a pawn up in a rook ending, but unfortunately couldn’t convert it. Tournament website.

Nancy Chess Festival 2008 | Group A

Place	Name	Country	Rtg	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pts	Perf
1	GM Bauer,C	FRA	2614	*	½	½	½	½	1	1	1	1	½	6,5	+8
2	GM Landa, K	RUS	2641	½	*	½	½	½	1	1	1	½	½	6	-1
3	IM Roussel-Roozmon,T	CAN	2442	½	½	*	½	1	½	½	0	½	1	5	+17
4	IM Gozzoli,Y	FRA	2510	½	½	½	*	0	½	½	1	½	1	5	+7
5	GM Miladinovic,I	SRB	2604	½	½	0	1	*	0	0	½	1	1	4,5	-11
6	IM Riff, J	FRA	2474	0	0	½	½	1	*	½	1	½	½	4,5	+7
7	IM Sikula,V	UKR	2550	0	0	½	½	1	½	*	0	½	1	4	-8
8	GM Guliyev,N	AZE	2570	0	0	1	0	½	0	1	*	½	½	3,5	-16
9	IM Marzolo,C	FRA	2474	0	½	½	½	0	½	½	½	*	½	3,5	-3
10	FM Nezar,M	FRA	2404	½	½	0	0	0	½	0	½	½	*	2,5	-3

The organizers of the Bunratty Chess Festival (an Irish weekender, held close to Limerick) had a very special top seed in their tables: Russian top GM Peter Svidler. As can be read on the tournament website, this small tourney tries to contract one strong GM every year who gets the ‘role of honour’. Svidler accepted for the 2008 edition, and did what he had to do: he won the tournament allowing only one draw, against Chess Today editor Alexander Baburin.

Bunratty Chess Festival 2008 Final Standings (top 20)

Place	Name	Title	Rating	Country	Pts
1	PETER SVIDLER	GM	2763	RUSSIA	5.5
2	ALEXANDER BABURIN	GM	2542	KILKENNY	5.0
3	NICHOLAS PERT	GM	2528	ENGLAND	4.5
4	ALEX LOPEZ	FM	2340	CORK	4.5
5	BJORN THORFINNSSON	FM	2364	ICELAND	4.5
6	INGVAR THOR JOHANNESSON	FM	2338	ICELAND	4.5
7	MARK QUINN	IM	2403	KILKENNY	4
8	GAWAIN JONES	GM	2562	ENGLAND	4
9	GAVIN WALL	IM	2305	ENGLAND	4
10	MARK HEIDENFELD	IM	2343	DUBLIN	4
11	SAM COLLINS	IM	2394	DUBLIN	3.5
12	PHILIP SHORT	FM	2300	GALWAY	3.5
13	LAWRENCE COOPER	IM	2306	ENGLAND	3.5
14	JAN HEINRICH		2133	SLOVACIA	3.5
15	JON GUNNARSSON	IM	2429	ICELAND	3.5
16	KARL Mc PHILLIPS		2236	KILKENNY	3.5
17	DARA MURPHY		1956	GALWAY	3.5
18	SIMON WILLIAMS	GM	2482	ENGLAND	3
19	BRIAN GALLIGAN		2041	CORK	3
20	GUNNAR BJORNSSON		2149	ICELAND	3

And to end this short survey of tournament news, we return to Morelia once more. During the Morelia/Linares super tournament, another event is being held: the 2nd Ibero American Championship (something like “the championship for those who speak Spanish”). In the Mexican part, the preliminaries were played in four different groups. The two best players of every group qualified for the final phase, which is to be held in Linares at the same dates as the big brother (28 February - 8 March). The qualified players are also divided in two groups:

Group A                               Group B
1. GM Giovanni Vescovi    2617  BRA   1. Juan Carlos González  2556  MEX
2. GM Lazaro Bruzón       2607  CUB   2. Diego Flores          2558  ARG
3. IM Eduardo Iturrizaga  2470  VEN   3. Julio Granda Zuniga   2588  PER
4. GM Alex Bachmann       2505  PAR   4. Holden Hernández      2590  CUB