Wojtaszek is first at Zurich Open

by ChessBase
1/3/2014 – The 37th Zurich Christmas Open took place on 26-30th December at the Crowne Plaza Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland. The seven-round Master Tournament, for players rated over 2000, drew 118 participants of which 50 were titled, including 23 grandmasters from around the world. Top seed Polish grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek took clear first with 6.0/7 after a powerful last-round win.

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The 37th Zurich Christmas Open took place on 26-30th December at the Crowne Plaza Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland.

The seven-round Master Tournament, for players rated over 2000, drew 118 participants of which 50 were titled, including 23 grandmasters. Top seed Polish grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek took clear first with 6.0/7 to claim the top prize of CHF 5000.

Grandmasters came from as far as Argentina, such as Sandro Mareco...

...or Brazil such as GM Alexandre Fier

French GM Christian Bauer

Wojtaszek scored an important last-round win against GM Ivan Popov, while the co-leader entering the last round, Igor Kovalenko, was unable to achieve more than a draw and remained in second.

Top seed Radoslaw Wojtaszek was in excellent form and finished first with
6.0/7 and a 2823 performance

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1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.Qb3 Qb6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Nh4 Bh5 8.h3 Qxb3 9.axb3 Na6 10.g4 Nb4 11.Ke2 g5 12.gxh5 gxh4 13.Bg2 Nxh5 14.Bf3 Nf6 15.Bd2 Nd7 16.Ra5 Nb6? A mistake that allows White to build his queenside pressure. 17.c5! Nc8 18.Rha1 Na6 19.Rxa6‼ An excellent exchange sacrifice that frees the way for the b-pawns and takes advantage of Black's dreadful piece coordination. bxa6 20.Rxa6 Kd7 21.b4 Rb8 21...Ne7 was better, but would still not extricate Black from trouble 22.b5 Bg7 23.bxc6+ Nxc6 and here White has the hammer blow 24.Nxd5‼ exd5 25.Bxd5 Rhc8 26.Be4 Threatening Bf5+ Rc7 27.Ba5 Nxa5 28.Bxa8 Nb3 29.c6+ Kd6 30.Ra4+- And the knight will fall. 22.b5 cxb5 23.Bh5 Ke7 24.e4! b4 25.Bg5+ Ke8 26.Na4 Be7 27.Bf4 Rb5 28.Rxe6 dxe4 29.Rc6 Kd7 30.Rc7+ Ke6 31.Ke3 Rd8 32.Kxe4 f5+ 33.Kd3 Ra5 34.b3 An impressive victory to decide the tournament. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Woitaszek,R2711Popov,I26441–02013D11Weihnachtsopen 2013 M7

Igor Kavalenko had an excellent tournament, coming in second with 5.5/7 and
performing over 100 Elo above his actual rating

Ivan Popov

15-year-old FM Lars Oskar Hauge from Norway

Second seed Evgeny Alekseev, rated 2698, had a lukewarm
tournament and finished with 5.0/7 and ninth

20-year-old WGM Alina Kashlinskaya finished strong with two wins and 5.0/7

Ukrainian WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova

The General Tournament (Under 2050 Elo) with 229 participants was also a seven-round Swiss Open. Martin Schweighoffer of Uster emerged the sole winner with 6.5/7 and took the top prize of CHF 1000.

The total prize money of both tournaments exceeded CHF 30,000.

Organizer Georg Kradolfer together with the winners Igor Kovalenko (second),
Radoslaw Wojtaszek (first), and Csaba Balogh (third)

Final standings

Rk
Ti.
Name
Rtg
Fed
Pts
 TB
1
GM
Wojtaszek Radoslaw
2711
POL
6.0
32.0
2
GM
Kovalenko Igor
2643
LAT
5.5
32.5
3
GM
Balogh Csaba
2648
HUN
5.5
31.0
4
GM
Georgiev Kiril
2648
BUL
5.5
30.5
5
GM
Bogner Sebastian
2558
SUI
5.5
30.0
6
GM
Gallagher Joseph
2495
SUI
5.5
26.5
7
GM
Van Kampen Robin
2601
NED
5.0
33.0
8
GM
Bartel Mateusz
2649
POL
5.0
33.0
9
GM
Alekseev Evgeny
2698
RUS
5.0
30.0
10
GM
Grachev Boris
2669
RUS
5.0
30.0
11
GM
Miezis Normunds
2554
LAT
5.0
30.0
12
GM
Sengupta Deep
2570
IND
5.0
28.0
13
GM
Sebenik Matej
2496
SLO
5.0
28.0
14
GM
Turner Matthew J
2509
SCO
5.0
28.0
15
GM
Mareco Sandro
2581
ARG
5.0
27.0
16
WGM
Kashlinskaya Alina
2422
RUS
5.0
24.5
17
GM
Malakhatko Vadim
2542
BEL
5.0
24.0
18
GM
Bauer Christian
2630
FRA
4.5
32.0
19
GM
Popov Ivan
2644
RUS
4.5
31.5
20
GM
Fier Alexandr
2572
BRA
4.5
31.0

A special thank you to the organizer for not only providing excellent pictures but taking the time and effort to identify the players.

Pictures by Georg Kradolfer


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