Looking back: at the Keres Memorial – ACP Open 2016

A look back at the Keres Memorial – ACP Open 2016 (part two)

The Keres Memorial – ACP Open, held from the 7th-10th of January 2016, was won by Igor Kovalenko. We reported this on our newspage. However there were many interesting games and moments which led us to write this final report and also pay a tribute to the great Paul Keres, who would have completed 100 years on 7th January 2016, were he alive. Estonia has a banknote and coin to honour their famous son.

Paul Keres the strongest player to have never played for the World Championship title

The Keres Memorial – ACP Open 2016 was held from the 7th to 10th of January 2016 in the conference hall of the Park Inn by Radisson Merton Conference and Spa Hotel, Talinn. The tournament was mainly organized by ESA Kalev, a sportsclub which Paul Keres always represented, in collaboration with Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) as part of the ACP Tour 2016. It was an eleven round Swiss tournament with a time control of 15 minutes for the entire game, with an increment of ten seconds per move. There were in all prizes worth €15,000, which included special prizes of €5,000 only for ACP Premium members. The tournament attracted a total of 178 players from 21 countries, and 36 of them were grandmasters. Some big names like Peter Svidler and Boris Gelfand were seen in action at the event.

Read part one of our retrospective report on the Keres Memorial

Boris Gelfand finished third with 8.5/11, scoring fine wins over Romanov,
Vitiugov and Miton. Here is the position from his game against Kamil Miton:

Gelfand-Miton, Round 9

Black has just played his pawn to g6, attacking the knight on f5. There is a nice check on e7
and a juicy pawn to pick on d6. Quick: would you go for one of them or play something different?

But Gelfand won’t really remember this tournament for his wins. It was his loss against FM Juri Krupenski in the second round that made the headlines on day one:

Krupenski-Gelfand, Round two

Boris has just moved his knight to h5. Why isn’t it such a good idea?
What will you play as White?

The man who orchestrated this beautiful combination: Juri Krupenski [picture by Vladimir Barsky]

Surya Shekhar Ganguly from India finished fourth with 8.5/11

Of all the games that Ganguly played the most impressive one was surely his win over Pavel Tregubov. The game was filled with mind boggling complications and the fact that Surya could navigate them to perfection shows how strong he really is.

Polish youngster Jan-Krzysztof Duda ended with 8.0/11, and won fifth place

Bulgarian grandmaster Kiril Georgiev finished sixth [picture by Vladimir Petrov]

Particularly inspiring was Kiril’s facebook post after the end of the tournament:

Eager to learn even at the age of fifty! Now that’s a true chess lover! Here’s the position with Berkes which Kiril was talking about. Test yourself whether you find the win:

Georgiev-Berkes, Round 8

The experienced grandmaster was unable to win this endgame with white.
Can you do better? It is White to move.

The top three women’s prizes were won by Alexandra Kosteniuk, Pia Cramling and Padmini Rout. A special mention must be made of Kosteniuk, who scored 8.0/11 and finished tenth in such a strong field.

22-year-old Padmini Rout had a superb result when she beat
Pavel Eljanov in the eighth round [picture by Vladimir Barsky]

The India number three has sent us her game, which cannot be found anywhere else as it has not been published, and which we now present to you:

Top final standings (after 11 rounds)

• Full results and standings of all 177 players

Interview with ACP President Emil Sutovsky

After the tournament ended we contacted ACP President Emil Sutovsky and asked him a few questions about the role of ACP in this tournament and also in the future events of 2016.

Making a difference in the world of chess: Emil Sutovsky

Sagar Shah: How did the idea of ACP getting associated with the Keres Memorial come into being?

Emil Sutovsky: Of course, I knew that 2016 is the Keres jubilee year. Hence I had talks with the Estonian Chess Federation with regards to their plans, suggesting that the ACP help. Several formats were discussed, but finally we decided to have a big open event that would allow everyone to compete with the very best.

SS: What was the role that you and ACP played in this tournament?

ES: We contributed financially (donating €5,000 for ACP Premium Members taking part in the event), and also promoted the tournament – getting very strong players from many countries. About 25 ACP members had their accommodation covered, and that also helped to gather such a strong field. Of course, we also took care of the promotion in mass-media.

SS: What are the future plans of ACP for 2016? Is it going collaborate with many more tournaments in this year?

ES: As you probably know, the ACP General Assembly took place recently and the new ACP Board was elected. I think we have a very good team, and we have a lot of plans for this year. We intend to stage at least three more ACP events in 2016, and we will continue our wild card program, which includes cooperation with Wijk Aan Zee, Gibraltar, Poikovsky, Biel, and Qatar. Also, in co-operation with the ECU we are going to introduce a special prize fund for ACP Premium Members participating in the European Individual Championship 2016 (we had it already in the 2015 Championships). We have also modified the system of the ACP Tour, which will include more tournaments in 2016. We have about 150 ACP Premium Members today, and hopefully this number will increase, as we really try hard to make the professional chess world a better place! Finally, the latest good news about our veteran program in co-operation with FIDE: six distinguished chess veterans will get an award of US $5,000 each, like we did in 2014 and 2015.

Official website – pictures, unless otherwise noted, by Marek Kolk