1. Chess960 Open 2002

| Home Chess960 | Regulations | Registration |

2. Chess960 Open

20 Min./Game + 5 Sec./Move

Thursday, 8/14

Round 1
In the first round of the Chess960 Open there were hardly any surpises. However, on board one Elo favourite Alexander Grishuk from Russia had to play with the white pieces against the mayor of Mainz, Jens Beutel. The new president of the WNCA had no problem to equalize with black and almost managed to win the game. He offered a draw in the endgame with one pawn up!

Round 2
IM Vitaly Kunin could win his game against German number one Alexander Graf. 15-year old David Baramidze, a talent from the famous Dortmund Chess School won his game in spectacular style against Rustam Kazimdzhanov. Elisabeth Pähtz, who lost the “Match of the Graces” last year against Alexandra Kosteniuk won a good game against GM Igor Khenkin.

Round 3
Still 36 players with a perfect score! French GM Christian Bauer played a very long game against Alexey Dreev. After more than 120 moves the game ended in draw. Ivan Sokolov, the strong Dutch player, had no problem to win his game against Igor Glek. Living legend Vlasimil Hort, who loves to play Chess960 lost a bit unfortunate against GM Vadim Zvjaginsev.

Round 4
In the fourth round Alexander Grishuk lost against Chess Classic commentator Klaus Bischoff. The young Russian seems to have some problems in his first Chess960 tournament, but maybe he will start his comeback tomorrow. Artur Yusupov won with the black pieces against Alexey Dreev. Local hero is Tillmann Vogler: the player from Schott Mainz has not lost a game yet, in this round he could draw against GM Alexander Rustemov. There are four players with a perfect score after four rounds: Viorel Iordachescu, Vadim Zvjaginsev, Levon Aronia and Konstantin Landa.

Round 5
The position in the last round of today seems to be good for black: on the first eight boards black was OK with no less than 6 wins! Among the winners with black: Vadim Zvjaginsev, who won his game against Landa. Since Aronian and Iordachescu drew their game, the Russian player is the sole leader with a perfect score after 5 rounds. However there are 8 players with 4,5 points patiently waiting for a mistake of the number one. Zvjaginsev had a lot of fun in the first day of the Chess Classic: “ I have never played Chess960 before. It is quite unusual to think from move one on, because you have to play basic chess. Some positions were quite difficult today, e.g. in the third round in which I played a very sharp game. My opponent could have drawn but I was lucky. But don´t ask me to recall the initial positions because I have no idea!” Ivan Sokolov (Netherlands) and Francis Vallejo Pons (Spain) play their first Chess960 tournament as well. Sokolov: If I would have to play 100 rated games a year in this chess variant, I would go completely mad! It is so different, but I have to admit that I like playing Chess960 occasionally. It will not replace classical chess, but it is good alternative. I am very tired now, because you have to start thinking on move one! More time would be better for the quality of the games. I would probably think about the initial position for at least 20 minutes. I don´t know yet what is more important: developing the pieces or trying to occupy the centre quickly. Maybe I will found out tomorrow”. Vallejo Pons, who scored 4,5 points on the first day, would not mind if more Chess960 tournaments would be organised: “ I like playing Chess960 a lot, I just have to sit down and play without having to remind numerous difficult opening variations.”

After the first day, Zvjaginsev is in the lead with a perfect score (5). Best female player is Elisabeth Pähtz (Dresden) with 3 points. Best senior player is Klaus Klundt (Tegernsee) with 3 points. On Friday six more rounds will be played in the Rheingoldhalle.

Friday, 8/15
Round 6
Top game on board one was the battle between leader Zvjaginsev and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. The Russian player did sleep well and continued playing fantastic chess. He won in great style. Vallejeo Pons won his game with the white pieces on board two against Pavel Tregubov. Levon Aronian won an important game against Vaganjan. Alexander Grishuk starts his comeback with a win over IM Sinisa Joksic.

Round 7
Levon Aronian (Picture) beats 100%-leader Zvjaginsev in the seventh round. The Armenian player kept cool in a wild and exciting time scramble and took over the lead with 6,5/7. Spanish hope Vallejo lost his first game against Michael Gurevich. German chess journalist Stefan Löfller is playing a very good tournament and in this round he crushed Chess Classic commentator Eric Lobron. It is often said that young players don´t have trouble with the sometimes odd looking starting positions. Young stars like Andrej Volokitin (5,5/7) and David Baramidze (5/7) play very well in this tournament. Nevertheless, experienced players like Vlastimil Hort (5,5/7) have good chances to win a price due to their general understanding of the game, which is important in Chess960.

Round 8
On board 1, Aronian won against Michael Gurevich, on board two Zvjaginsev had to play a very long game (106 moves) against Zoltan Varga. He kept pushing in the endgame and eventually won the game with a tactical blow. Only three more round to go but nothing has been decided yet. Aronian still in the lead with (7,5/8) followed by Zvjaginsev (7/8) and five players with 6,5 point do still have a chance to win the first price: Landa, Lalic, Schmaltz, Georgiev and Dreev. And what about topseed Alexander Grishuk? He lost in round 8 against Shchekachev and has only 4,5 points. He will seek revenge in the Ordix Open.

Round 9
Alexey Dreev did not have a chance with the white pieces against Aronian. The Armenian Grandmaster only needed 25 moves to crush the Russian player. In the initial position a knight on h1 could be found and Dreev seemed to have forgotten about the jknight during the game: when he resigned the knight was still on h1. Zvjaginsev had no trouble in his game against Georgiev on board two and Konstantin Landa (Picture)won against Bogdan Lalic. The initial position was very tricky in this round: a lot of players blundered in the opening, among them Elisabeth Pähtz. In the Battle of the Heavy-Weights, Artur Yusupov, who played a shuffle chess match against Fritz on Primergy in 2000, won against Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky. The Chess960 expert has 7 points.

Round 10: On board one, Levon Aronian had to play a very long game against Konstantin Landa (Bremen) , who was fighting for his last chance to win the tournament. In a difficult rookending, Aronian lost his nerves and in the end the game. After 118 moves Aronian had to resign in a complicated queen-versus rook endgame. Landa and Aronian now have 8,5/10 but there is another player with the same score: Vadim Zvjaginsev, who drew with Artur Yusupov. That means that the Chess960 Open will be decided in the last round! The pairings on the top boards for round 11: Landa (8,5)- Varga (8), Dreev (7,5)-Zvjaginsev (8,5) and Georgiev (7,5)- Aronian (8,5).

Round 11: In the last round of the 2. Chess960 Open, Landa (8,5) secured some good price money by making a quick draw against Varga. Zvjaginsev had a hard time against Dreev, but in the end he was happy with a draw in a rook ending. That paved the way for the third candidate, Levon Aronian. In a critical position with black, he was even the exchange down, his opponent Georgiev blundered a queen and had to resign immediately. Aronian scored 9,5 points and won the tournament. A bit surpising was Aronians reaction after the last game: “I don´t really like playing Chess960, because I have to think too much in the initial position. I am not used to use my head in the opening. I have to admit that I was very lucky in the last round, the position was probably losing. There were someodd positions in this tournament, some of them were very hard to play with black. But in normal chess it is not always fun to play with the black pieces as well. I think it is important to open lines for the bishops, but you know, every position is different and difficult.”