Kovalenko wins the Keres Memorial - ACP Open

1/10/2016 – With a strong finish Igor Kovalenko became sole winner of the Keres Memorial - ACP Open in Tallinn. He started the last day with 6.5/8, sharing second place with four other players. But after winning against Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Peter Svidler he only needed a draw against Boris Gelfand in the final round to take sole first place with 9.0/11.

ChessBase 18 - Mega package

Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.

More...

Follow the games live on Playchess!

The Keres Memorial - ACP Open is an 11-round rapid tournament organised by the Association of Chess Professionals, the Estonian Chess Federation and the Kalev Sports Association. Each player has 15 minutes for the whole game and gets an additional 10 seconds per move.

The crucial game for Igor Kovalenko came in round ten. He played with white against top seed Peter Svidler, won the game and started the last round as sole leader. In the last round Kovalenko decided to play it safe and made a quick draw against Boris Gelfand. This safe approach paid off because Kovalenko's closest rivals failed to win their games and Kovalenko became sole tournament winner. Half-a-point behind followed David Howell from England, Boris Gelfand from Israel and Surya Shekhar Ganguly from India. Howell, who had led the field after day two, became second on tie-break. Place three went to Gelfand.

The proud winner: Igor Kovalenko

After a few moves they shook hands again.

Final standings after 11 rounds

Rg.	Snr		Name	sex	Land	Elo	Pkt.	Wtg1	Wtg2
1	2	GM	Kovalenko Igor		LAT	2734	9,0	73,5	67,5
2	10	GM	Howell David W L		ENG	2646	8,5	73,5	67,5
3	3	GM	Gelfand Boris		ISR	2733	8,5	73,0	67,5
4	11	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar		IND	2615	8,5	71,0	65,0
5	14	GM	Duda Jan-Krzysztof		POL	2603	8,0	76,0	70,0
6	12	GM	Georgiev Kiril		BUL	2612	8,0	76,0	69,5
7	1	GM	Svidler Peter		RUS	2736	8,0	75,5	69,0
8	6	GM	Berkes Ferenc		HUN	2685	8,0	73,0	67,0
9	9	GM	Motylev Alexander		RUS	2651	8,0	72,5	67,0
10	27	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	w	RUS	2514	8,0	71,0	65,5
11	20	GM	Tregubov Pavel V.		RUS	2566	8,0	71,0	65,0
12	16	GM	Miton Kamil		POL	2597	8,0	69,0	63,5
13	19	GM	Neiksans Arturs		LAT	2579	8,0	69,0	63,0
14	8	GM	Vitiugov Nikita		RUS	2665	7,5	73,5	67,0
15	18	GM	Mikhalevski Victor		ISR	2590	7,5	73,0	67,0
16	5	GM	Matlakov Maxim		RUS	2686	7,5	73,0	66,5
17	35	GM	Yevseev Denis		RUS	2442	7,5	71,0	65,5
18	17	GM	Jumabayev Rinat		KAZ	2590	7,5	70,5	64,5
	26	GM	Romanov Evgeny		RUS	2529	7,5	70,5	64,5
20	4	GM	Fridman Daniel		GER	2688	7,5	69,5	63,5
21	13	GM	Sutovsky Emil		ISR	2604	7,5	68,5	62,5
22	21	GM	Rakhmanov Aleksandr		RUS	2564	7,5	67,0	61,5
23	7	GM	Eljanov Pavel		UKR	2683	7,5	64,5	59,0
24	38	GM	Balashov Yuri S		RUS	2423	7,0	72,0	66,5
25	22	GM	Lintchevski Daniil		RUS	2549	7,0	70,0	64,0
26	24	GM	Goganov Aleksey		RUS	2545	7,0	69,5	64,0
27	29	IM	Sveshnikov Vladimir		LAT	2467	7,0	68,0	62,5
28	44	IM	Kashtanov Ruslan		RUS	2379	7,0	67,5	62,5
	45		Putka Verners		LAT	2366	7,0	67,5	62,5
30	28	GM	Kulaots Kaido		EST	2484	7,0	67,0	61,5
31	32	GM	Lanka Zigurds		LAT	2456	7,0	65,5	60,5
32	34	GM	Novik Maxim		RUS	2454	7,0	65,0	61,0
33	15	GM	Postny Evgeny		ISR	2601	7,0	64,0	58,5
34	36	GM	Cramling Pia	w	SWE	2432	7,0	63,5	59,0
35	62		Laimins Lauris		LAT	2247	7,0	63,5	58,5
36	57		Dubrovin Robert		EST	2286	7,0	59,5	54,5
37	78		Nestor Kaarel		EST	2181	7,0	56,5	53,5
38	31	GM	Volodin Aleksandr		EST	2457	6,5	71,5	66,5

...177 players

Emil Sutovsky, European Champion 2001 and President of the Association of Chess Professionals, which
organised the tournament together with the Estonian Chess Federation and the Kalev Sports Association.
Sutovsky finished 21st with 7.5/11.