Alexander Areshchenko wins strong open in Bad Wiessee

by Johannes Fischer
11/8/2016 – 475 players started in the 20. Open International Bavarian Championchips that took place from 29th October to 6th November in Bad Wiessee, Germany. After nine rounds seven players shared first place with 7.5/9 and the Ukrainian GM Alexander Areshchenko won on tie-break. But the decision was close. Very close.

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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)

Final standings

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

Selected games

 

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

Tournament page...


Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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