Nalchik R13: Levon Aronian wins Fourth FIDE Grand Prix

Fourth FIDE Grand Prix
in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria

The fourth FIDE Grand Prix Series Tournament is being held in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, during 14th -29th April 2009 at the Intour Hotel "Sindica". The games start at 3 p.m. local time = 15:00h CEST. After five rounds there is a free day (on Monday, April 20) and another after round nine (on Saturday, April 25).

Results of today's round

Final standings

Note that on the official FIDE result page Alekseev is given before Gelfand, with both in place 6.

The closing ceremony

The winners of the 4th FIDE Grand Prix tournament were celebrated in the Music Theatre of the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria.

The obligatory black-and-white pageant on the final day

The chief arbiter Vyacheslav Namruev announced the official results of the tournaments. He pointed out that the 14 chess players of the 20 strongest grandmasters of the world gathered in Nalchik. The events of this round of the FIDE Grand Prix were watched in many countries of the world. The last day the Grand Prix site was visited by users from 150 countries of the world. The uncompromising battle was going on up to the last day. The winner of the 4th round of the FIDE Grand Prix is Levon Aronyan from Armenia.

The winner was put on a national Caucasian White felt cloak and the singers sang “Vivat to king, vivat!”

Vivat to you, Levon! My, aren't we going to look natty sauntering through Berlin in this!

Now for the commemorative medal and plaque...

... and finally (and most importantly) the check for 30,000 Euros (around US $40,000)

The large plastic check with the prize sum was presented to the winner by the FIDE vise president Geoffrey Borg, the head of the KBR government Andrew Yarin and the minister of sport and tourism of KBR Aslan Afaunov. Levon Aronian in his turn thanked the organizers of the contest and said: “I have spent wonderful days here. When I was going to Nalchik my parents told me that people are very friendly and hospitable here. Nalchik is a perfect place for holding chess tournaments”.

Second prize goes to Peter Leko, who beat Akopian on tiebreak points

In the front row of the theatre sharp eyes will spot Akopian, Efimenko, Eljanov, Kasimdzhanov, Karjakin, Dokhojan (Kasparov's former second, now trainer of Karjakin); in the second row Grischuk, Bacrot, Alekseev, Spassky, Gapridashvili, Gustafsson, Svidler

All the participants were presented memorable awards: Gata Kamsky for his “Will to victory“, Rustam Kasimdzhanov was called “Chess Ciceron”, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov became an “ All-round developed sportsmen”, “The prize of the viewers sympathies” went to Vassily Ivanchuk.

FIDE Grand Prix Nalchik 2009 – Schedule and results

Links Full information on the FIDE site All ChessBase reports on Nalchik GP All games in PGN The games are bing being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.