No easy rivals for the top seeds

Armenian GM Emin Ohanyan won the Atyrau Masters in Kazakhstan after finishing tied for first place with Chinese IM Jiang Haochen. Both players scored 7/9, with Ohanyan taking the title thanks to a superior Buchholz tiebreak score. The two young players, seeded 20^th and 30^th respectively, finished ahead of a field that included a number of established grandmasters rated above 2600.

The tournament took place from 12 to 20 October as the third stage of the Kazakhstan Chess Cup. The nine-round Swiss competition featured 109 players in the Masters section, with a first prize of 9 million Kazakhstani tenge (approximately US$20,000). The event was organised by the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, with games played at a time control of 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move.

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The starting list was headed by Uzbekistan's Shamsiddin Vokhidov (2649), followed by India's Leon Luke Mendonca (2629), Aditya Mittal (2621) and Pranav Anand (2606). Other prominent participants included Maxim Matlakov (2596), former FIDE World Championship challenger Gata Kamsky (2592), Arkadij Naiditsch (2580) and Baadur Jobava (2572).

The competitive nature of the field became evident in the opening two rounds, when both top seeds suffered defeats against considerably lower-rated opponents. Vokhidov lost to Vietnam's Nguyen Duc Hoa (2405) in round one, while Mendonca was beaten by Armenian IM Sergey Sklokin-Bagiyan (2477) in round two. Neither of the two rating favourites managed to fully recover from these setbacks, as both eventually finished on 5½/9.

The closing ceremony | Photos: Kazakhstan Chess Federation

Two young players share first place

Ohanyan, a 20-year-old Armenian GM rated 2520, had a particularly strong start, collecting five wins and a draw in his first six games. The 20^th seed then drew his remaining three encounters to finish the tournament undefeated, with five victories and four draws.

The Armenian faced only two players from the top ten of the starting list. He drew with eighth seed Baadur Jobava and tenth seed Ivan Zemlyanskii in the final two rounds. His performance was sufficient to retain first place, although he was eventually caught by Jiang.

The 15-year-old Chinese IM, rated 2490 and seeded 30^th, followed a different path to the top. Having fallen behind the early leaders, Jiang finished with three consecutive victories, including a win over seventh seed Arkadij Naiditsch in the penultimate round. In round nine, he defeated Sergei Lobanov to reach 7/9 and join Ohanyan at the top of the standings.

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The two players did not face each other during the tournament. Their different routes to the final score also help explain the substantial difference in their Buchholz cut-1 tiebreak scores, which take into account the results achieved by their opponents, excluding the lowest-scoring one. Ohanyan finished with 46 points on this measure, compared with Jiang's 36½, and was therefore declared the tournament winner.

A final group photo with tournament winner Emin Ohanyan standing in the centre | Photo: Kazakhstan Chess Federation

Three players finished half a point behind the joint leaders, all on 6½/9: Georgian grandmaster Baadur Jobava, Russia's Ivan Zemlyanskii and Kazakhstan's Aldiyar Ansat. All three remained undefeated throughout the competition. Jobava, the eighth seed, claimed the bronze medal thanks to his superior Buchholz score.

The tournament featured twelve players rated in the 2550–2650 range, but ended with the top five finishers including three competitors seeded outside the top 15. The results demonstrated the ability of lower-rated participants to compete successfully with the established favourites in open tournaments.

One of the most creative players in the circuit, Baadur Jobava, finished in third place | Photo: Kazakhstan Chess Federation

Final standings

Attacking with the Jobava London System

The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.

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