Chess in the sunshine of Greek mythology

by ChessBase
9/2/2003 – The traditional Acropolis tournament was held for the 18th time in Athens, this time in three groups: GMs, Men's and Women's Opens. We asked one of the participants to write a report and send us pictures, which she dutifully did – mainly from the women's section. Here is Natalia Kiseleva's richly illustrated report.

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Chess in the Sunshine of Greek Mythology

In Germany the summer is slowly on the decline, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief after months of intense heat. In Athens it is still in full swing, but the bright sunshine is very bearable if you are staying in the fantastic President Hotel. For the 18th time the Acropolis tournament is being staged there – but for the first time in the current form. The tournament began on August 25 and ended today.

First of all there was a strong GM round robin with ten participants and an Elo average of 2526. Almost the entire Greek Olympic team and a number of international GMs were at the start. The tournament was won be Vassilis Kotronias of Cyprus. followed half a point behind by Mircea Parligras of Romania and Andreas Tzermiadianos of Greece, who scored his first GM norm with this result. His compatriot Thanos Mastrovassilis blew his chance at a norm, when he lost in the final round to Bosnia's Atalik from a tied position. Here are the final standings:

There was also a strong Men's Open with 75 players, It was won by Russian IM Vladimir Dobrov. Israel's Boris Avrukh and Alik Gershon tied for 2-4 with Lithuania's Eduards Rozentalis. The results and games can be found here.

The 28 player Women's Open allowed a number of young and talented chess players to cross swords with seven experienced WGMs and six WIMs. In the end WGM Margarita Voiska of Bulgaria tied for first with WGM Yelena Dembo of Hungary. Amongst the Greek players Vera Papadopoulou scored six points to earn a Women's International Masters norm. She was followed by M. Makropoulou and 14-year-old M. Ikonomopoulou, who finished with five points each.

Picture Gallery

By Natalia Kiseleva

One of the participants of the Women's Open was Natalia Kiseleva, Women's Grandmaster from the Ukraine. Natalie promised to send us pictures and a report, which she faithfully did. Only as an active participant she was not able to spend too much time taking pictures in the men's section, so unfortunately we have received mainly impressions from the girls' activities. Sorry about that, guys.


This is the famous Acropolis in Athens


A trip by participants of the tournament to said Acropolis


Participants Anna Sharevich, Luiza Khusnutdinova, Yelena Dembo, Natalia Kiseleva


The Erechtheion, which was constructed in the fifth century BC

The chess tournament


The organisers of the tournament, who did a tremendous job


Deep in thought: Suat Atalik (right) against Mircea Parligras


The Women's section, with Greek player Alexandra Stiri in the middle


18-year-old Vera Papadopoulou of Greece


The winner of the women's section Margarita Voiska against Anastasia Karlovich


An interesting accent in her hairstyle: Andromahi Alexiou of Greece


Talking about hair: this is 19-year-old Georgia Grapsa of Greece


Greek amateur Eleni Alexandrova


19-year-old Greek player Ioulia Makka


You can see the effects of the Greek sun on Elia Karahaliou


20-year-old Georgian WGM Luiza Khusnutdinova


20-year-old Greek player Pelagia Kaza


A bright and friendly goodbye from WIM Jana Krivec, 23, Slovenia


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