Bad Wiessee is an idyllic, small village and a popular tourist destination in Bavaria.
Evening entertainment with Bavarian flair
The tournament attracted a lot of amateur players, juniors, who used the school holidays to play chess, and professionals who were keen to win a good prize. Tournament winner Alexander Areshchenko is one such professional and he played the tournament accordingly. After winning his first four games he played two draws which were followed by two more wins. With 7.0/8 he now shared first place with top seed Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu from Germany before the last round in which the two had to face each other. Both could have tried to win this crucial and the tournament but both decided to play it safe: after a couple of moves they settled for a draw in the final round which guaranteed both shared first place.
Tournament winner Alexander Areshchenko
A successful approach. Though five more players caught up with the two leaders and finished with 7.5/9 Areshchenko and Nisipeanu had the best tie-break, in this case the Elo-average of their opponents. However, as top seed Nisipeanu was at a disadvantage here and Areshchenko won the tournament because his opponents were slightly - two points on average, to be precise - better than those of Nisipeanu.
Top seed in Bad Wiessee and Germany's number one: Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Photo: Georgios Souleidis)
| Rank | Player | ELO | Country | Pts | Elo-Average Opponents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Areshchenko, Alex | 2675 | UKR | 7.5 | 2429 |
| 2. | Nisipeanu, Liviu- | 2687 | GER | 7.5 | 2427 |
| 3. | Gopal, G.N. | 2560 | IND | 7.5 | 2409 |
| 4. | Zhigalko, Sergei | 2669 | BLR | 7.5 | 2339 |
| 5. | Lalith, Babu M R | 2586 | IND | 7.5 | 2338 |
| 6. | Gupta, Abhijeet | 2626 | IND | 7.5 | 2330 |
| 7. | Landa, Konstantin | 2601 | RUS | 7.5 | 2330 |
| 8. | Melkumyan, Hrant | 2653 | ARM | 7.0 | 2388 |
| 9. | Azarov , Sergei | 2577 | BLR | 7.0 | 2374 |
| 10. | Kveinys, Aloyzas | 2509 | LTU | 7.0 | 2350 |
| 11. | Volkov, Sergey | 2609 | RUS | 7.0 | 2338 |
| 12. | Brkic, Ante | 2579 | CRO | 7.0 | 2329 |
| 13. | Schröder, Jan-Chr | 2514 | GER | 7.0 | 2322 |
| 14. | Esipenko, Andrey | 2471 | RUS | 7.0 | 2303 |
| 15. | Debashis, Das | 2459 | IND | 7.0 | 2291 |
| 16. | Pap, Misa | 2489 | SRB | 7.0 | 2253 |
| 17. | Stern, René | 2521 | GER | 7.0 | 2225 |
| 18. | Wacker, Peter | 2306 | GER | 7.0 | 2122 |
| 19. | Graf, Alexander | 2564 | GER | 6.5 | 2388 |
| 20. | Buhmann, Rainer | 2633 | GER | 6.5 | 2382 |
| 21. | Zhigalko , Andrey | 2584 | BLR | 6.5 | 2357 |
| 22. | Vogel, Roven | 2415 | GER | 6.5 | 2347 |
| 23. | Kozul, Zdenko | 2619 | CRO | 6.5 | 2327 |
| 24. | Vorobiov , Evgeny | 2581 | RUS | 6.5 | 2324 |
| 25. | Saric, Ante | 2540 | CRO | 6.5 | 2315 |
| 26. | Khenkin, Igor | 2563 | GER | 6.5 | 2312 |
| 27. | Stark, Lars | 2374 | GER | 6.5 | 2295 |
| 28. | Thejkumar, M S. | 2445 | IND | 6.5 | 2273 |
| 29. | Dragnev, Valentin | 2438 | AUT | 6.5 | 2260 |
| 30. | Weber, Ulrich | 2366 | GER | 6.5 | 2257 |
| 31. | Schneider, Ilja | 2504 | GER | 6.5 | 2232 |
| 32. | Singer, Christoph | 2254 | GER | 6.5 | 2225 |
| 33. | Osmanodja, Filiz | 2299 | GER | 6.5 | 2202 |
| 34. | Guo, Emma | 2018 | AUS | 6.5 | 2197 |
| 35. | Weller, Manuel | 2181 | GER | 6.5 | 2192 |
| 36. | Nasshan , Dennis | 2307 | GER | 6.5 | 2174 |
| 37. | Andersson, Ulf | 2521 | SWE | 6.5 | 2173 |
| 38. | Hainke, Guntram | 2308 | GER | 6.5 | 2159 |
| 39. | Pirrot, Dieter | 2368 | GER | 6.5 | 2058 |
| 40. | Buchenau, Frank | 2272 | GER | 6.5 | 2058 |
| 41. | Shyam,Sundar M | 2552 | IND | 6.0 | 2262 |
| 42. | Eingorn, Vereslav | 2528 | UKR | 6.0 | 2254 |
| 43. | Schleining, Zoya | 2351 | GER | 6.0 | 2239 |
| 44. | Meins, Gerlef | 2414 | GER | 6.0 | 2209 |
| 45. | Schuster, Karsten | 2276 | GER | 6.0 | 2208 |
| 46. | Humburg, Philipp | 2226 | GER | 6.0 | 2189 |
| 47. | Hedke, Fred | 2266 | GER | 6.0 | 2176 |
| 48. | Giessmann, Stepha | 2240 | GER | 6.0 | 2159 |
| 49. | Bussard, Christia | 2185 | GER | 6.0 | 2159 |
| 50. | Tong, Kevin | 2060 | GER | 6.0 | 2153 |
... 475 players
Tournament hall
The top tables, closely supervised by the arbiters
German grandmaster Alexander Graf finished with 6.5/9
The Indian grandmaster Gopal Geetha Narayanan finished equal first
with 7.5/9 and was third on tie-break
Photos: Sebastian Siebrecht
