Naiditsch wins Chrismas Open in Zurich

by André Schulz
1/5/2016 – With a rating of 2698 Arkadij Naiditsch was the favorite to win the traditional Chrismas Open in Zurich that took place from 26th to 30th December. Naiditsch lived up to his role and won the tournament with 6.0/7. Half a point behind followed five players of whom Vitaly Kunin and Christian Bauer had the best tie-break. They finished second and third.

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Naiditsch, who plays for Azerbaijan and the German club OSG Baden-Baden, started with 4.0/4 before conceding his first draw against Vitaly Kunin in round five.

Arkadij Naiditsch

Kunin started with 4.0/4 and after his draw against Naiditsch shared the lead together with Naiditsch and French GM Christian Bauer. However, in round six Naiditsch managed to beat the Mongolian GM Bayarsaikhan Gundavaa while Bauer and Kunin drew, allowing Naiditsch to take the sole lead. In the final round Naiditsch drew against Bauer and that was enough for him to become sole winner of the tournament.

Christian Bauer

Swiss IM Oliver Kurman

GM Kiril Georgiev from Bulgaria

One of the participants in Zurich was FM Yoshiharu Habu, a living legend of Shogi, which is also known as Japanese Chess. In Shogi Habu won many prestigious tournaments and titles and at his peak he had a winning percentage of 0.723, according to Wikipedia, "the all-time highest of any professional player". Habu is also a prolific Shogi author and has won millions of dollars with his Shogi skills. He plays Western chess more as a hobby and in Zurich Habu finished 14th with a score of 5.0/7.

Yoshiharu Habu

Final standings

Rg. Snr   Name Federation Elo Club/Residence Pts.  Wtg1   Wtg2   Wtg3 
1 1 GM Naiditsch Arkadij AZE 2698 Dortmund 6,0 33,5 211,5 24,5
2 6 GM Kunin Vitaly GER 2572 Deutschland 5,5 32,5 211,0 23,5
3 3 GM Bauer Christian FRA 2624 Montpellier 5,5 32,5 202,0 24,0
4 10 GM Gonda Laszlo HUN 2544 Ungarn 5,5 29,5 193,5 21,0
5 13 GM Gundavaa Bayarsaikhan MGL 2506 Ulaanbator 5,5 29,0 196,5 20,5
6 2 GM Georgiev Kiril BUL 2627 Sofia 5,5 29,0 192,5 21,5
7 8 GM Burmakin Vladimir RUS 2556 Russland 5,0 32,0 194,0 23,0
8 5 GM Vorobiov Evgeny E. RUS 2574 Russland 5,0 31,5 198,0 23,0
9 11 GM Sebenik Matej SLO 2523 Slowenien 5,0 30,0 196,5 22,0
10 32   Kheit Wahbi ISR 2306 Israel 5,0 30,0 185,0 23,5
11 9 GM Bogner Sebastian SUI 2546 Zürich 5,0 27,5 191,0 19,0
12 15 IM Georgiadis Nico SUI 2485 Schindellegi 5,0 27,0 195,0 19,5
13 36 FM Gantner Matthias SUI 2274 Leeds 5,0 26,5 189,5 19,5
14 20 FM Habu Yoshiharu JAP 2398 Tokyo 5,0 26,5 186,5 19,0
15 19 IM Studer Noël SUI 2404 Muri b. Bern 4,5 30,5 192,5 21,5
16 34 FM Wyss Jonas SUI 2289 Zürich 4,5 29,5 184,0 21,0
17 7 GM Pelletier Yannick SUI 2571 Paris 4,5 29,5 181,0 21,5
18 14 GM Cvitan Ognjen CRO 2499 Basel 4,5 28,5 189,5 20,0
19 4 GM Bindrich Falko GER 2583 Zittau 4,5 28,5 177,0 20,5
20 25 FM Dragnev Valentin AUT 2356 Wien 4,5 28,0 189,5 21,0
21 18 IM Kurmann Oliver SUI 2435 Luzern 4,5 28,0 187,0 20,5
22 42 FM Majer Damir GER 2222 München 4,5 27,0 179,5 19,5
23 51 FM Hugentobler Patrik SUI 2188 Volketswil 4,5 24,5 171,5 17,5
24 17 GM Milov Leonid GER 2465 Mainz 4,5 24,0 176,0 17,5
25 35   Gretz Denis GER 2287 Königsbrunn 4,5 23,5 182,0 17,5
26 49 FM Friedrich Norbert GER 2192 Zürich 4,5 19,5 175,0 14,0

... 105 players

Yannick Pelletier

Vladimir Burmakin

Judith Fuchs

Games:

 

 

The winners: Christian Bauer, Arkadij Naiditsch, Vitaly Kunin

 

Photos: Georg Kradolfer (Tournament page)

Tournament page...

Complete results at Chess-results...

 

 


André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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