2013 World Senior won by Vaisser and Ankudinova

by Albert Silver
11/30/2013 – In southwest Croatia, in the city of Opatija, on the Adriatic coast, the 2013 World Senior championship was held. The event was a great success and brought in players from all corners of the globe from 40 plus nations, ranging from Russia to Brazil. The tournment was won by Anatoly Vaisser and WFM Yelena Ankudinova, who earned the WGM title for her success. Enjoy this illustrated report.

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2013 World Senior championship

Chess club Rijeka has, under the sponsorship of the City of Opatija, City of Rijeka, Mountain litoral county, and tourist boards of Opatija and Kvarner, just organized the 23rd World Senior Chess Championship for men and women.

Opatija is a town in western Croatia, just southwest of Rijeka on the Adriatic coast. It is a popular summer and winter resort, and is surrounded by beautiful woods of bay laurel. The whole sea-coast to the north and south of Opatija is rocky and picturesque, and contains several smaller winter resorts.

The croatian town of Opatija

Maiden with the seagull

Opatija is known for the Maiden with the seagull, a statue by Zvonko Car (1956), which is positioned on a promontory by the Juraj Šporer art pavilion. It has turned into one of symbols of Opatija. A gilded variant of the statue Madonna, that once stood here but was demolished by communists after the end of World War II, now stands in front of Saint James's Church.

The opening ceremony gets the red carpet treatment

In the men's competition there were 201 participants from 40 countries of which ten were grandmasters, 25 international master and 33 FIDE masters.

After eleven rounds, first place was taken by GM Anatoly Vaisser, who ws undefeated with 8.5/11, which landed him the title for the second time after his win in 2010.

Checking the pairings board for the next victim

The bones may creak more, but not the brain

Second place was taken by last year's winner Jens Kristiansen with the same amount of points but due to the weaker tiebreak, this year it was not enough for the title. Croatian grandmaster Krunoslav Hulak ended on third place with 8.0/11.

Saving the moment

French IM Nicolas Giffard (left) was one of France's very first IMs

Hailing from distant Brazil is David Borenstajn with quite a vest!

In the women's tournament there were 25 players from nine countries and the first name of the tournament was the former women world champion and overall grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili (Georgia).

The women's competition was no less hard-fought and awards the WGM title
to any winner who does not already have it

Surprisingly the title was won by the women's Fide master Yelena Ankudinova (Kazakhstan) with 7.5/9 who by winning this title became a women's grandmaster.

The tournament poster

Second place was taken by Nona Gaprindashvili (Georgia) with 6.5/9 and third by Tamar Khmidashvili (Georgia) with 6.0/9. Last year's winner Galina Strutinskaya ended the tournament with 6.0/9 but only sixth place due to a worse tiebreak.

The winners GM Anatoly Vaisser and WGM Yelena Ankudinova (formerly WFM)

There was also a blitz tournament won by GM Yuri Balashov with 10.5/11

The women's blitz tournament was won by WGM Galina Strutinskaya with 6.0/7

Final standings of men's event

Rk
SNo
Tit
Name
FED
Rtg
Pts
 TB 
1
1
GM
Vaisser Anatoly
2523
8.5
55.5
2
10
GM
Kristiansen Jens
2407
8.5
50.0
3
2
GM
Hulak Krunoslav
2473
8.0
52.0
4
8
GM
Suba Mihai
2413
8.0
50.0
5
5
GM
Balashov Yuri S
2440
8.0
49.0
6
15
FM
Herzog Adolf
2379
8.0
47.0
7
6
IM
Rogulj Branko
2420
7.5
52.0
8
12
IM
Mochalov Evgeny V
2404
7.5
51.0
9
14
IM
Kakageldyev Amanmurad
2384
7.5
48.5
10
24
IM
Van Riemsdijk Herman C.
2347
7.5
48.5
11
21
IM
Berkovich Mark A
2357
7.5
47.5
12
11
IM
Rukavina Josip
2405
7.5
47.0
13
71
FM
Vokoun Jan
2185
7.5
44.5
14
35
FM
Thormann Wolfgang
2271
7.5
44.5
15
28
 
Wahlbom Magnus
2304
7.5
44.5
16
20
IM
Pritchett Craig W
2359
7.5
42.0
17
3
GM
Vasiukov Evgeni
2457
7.0
49.0
18
61
 
Karason Askell O
2220
7.0
46.5
19
18
IM
Mishuchkov Nikolai M.
2367
7.0
46.5
20
32
IM
Filipenko Alexander V
2288
7.0
46.0
21
13
GM
Chernikov Oleg L
2400
7.0
46.0

Click for complete standings

Final standings of women's event

Rk
SNo
Tit
Name
FED
Rtg
Pts
1
9
WFM
Ankudinova Yelena
KAZ
2121
7.0
2
1
GM
Gaprindashvili Nona
GEO
2312
6.5
3
5
WGM
Khmiadashvili Tamar
GEO
2158
6.0
4
3
WGM
Fatalibekova Elena
RUS
2252
6.0
5
4
WIM
Miednikova Swietlana
RUS
2166
6.0
6
2
WGM
Strutinskaya Galina N
RUS
2299
6.0
7
11
WFM
Bogumil Tatiana
RUS
2074
5.5
8
13
WFM
Khropova Larisa
RUS
2009
5.5
9
8
WIM
Melashvili Nino
GEO
2126
5.0
10
17
 
Baliuniene Margarita
LTU
1885
5.0
11
10
WIM
Beltz Martina
GER
2100
5.0
12
7
WIM
Lauterbach Ingrid
ENG
2132
5.0
13
14
WFM
Kierzek Mira
MKD
2005
5.0
14
15
CM
Milligan Helen
NZL
1977
4.5
15
18
 
Khalturina Tatiana
RUS
1823
4.5
16
12
WFM
Beliaeva Natalia
RUS
2027
4.5
17
6
WIM
Titorenko Natalia I
RUS
2143
4.0

Click for complete standings

Pictures from official site


Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.


Born in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.

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