21st International Chess and Games Festival Czech Open

The 21st International Chess and Games Festival Czech Open started on July 15th. The first tournament on schedule was the European Youth Team Championship. The total number of players consisted of eight four-member boys’ teams from Croatia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, and eleven two-member girls’ teams from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Sweden, two from Russia and two from Germany. The boys played the round-robin tournament format in seven rounds, while the girls played the Swiss-system tournament format with one team pausing, since the total number of their teams was even.

In position of a favorite among the boys were the Hungarians, who came into Pardubice with two chess grandmasters, the second-seeded team were the Poles, the third-seeded were the home team from the Czech Republic. In the girls’ part of the tournament, the favorites were similar – Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

European Youth Chess Teams Championship U18, girls' section

European Youth Chess Teams Championship U18 boys

Prizes for European Youth Chess Teams Championship U18

Judging by the course of the tournament, the most well-prepared teams had come from Poland, because they dominated both categories. The tournament was very dramatic up to the last game, which determined the winner and the distribution of the medals. In the category of boys Romania got the silver medal, Hungary bronze. In category of girls German 1 got silver, the Czech Republic bronze.

The Océ Open – Czech Republic Open Championship of four-member teams – also started this weekend. After registering all the teams their total number equaled 110, making this year’s tournament the one with the highest number of participants in the history of the Festival. The Ukrainian-Russian team Dnepr won this whole tournament.

Prize giving of the Open Pairs Blitz tournament: 2nd Potapov P.-Potapov A.,
winners Mamedov-Durarbeyli, 3rd Borisenko-Gutman)

Prize giving of the Blitz Marathon (in the middle with the cup GM Kononenko)

After the weekend, the other chess tournaments were proceeding. Bughouse, blitz chess, super blitz, blitz marathon, Fischerandom chess, etc. The Polgar Superstar Chess World Championship had also high number of players. This game was brought to Pardubice by the Polgar family, and this year Sofia Polgar was present. Her visit was a big pleasure for officials of the Czech Open. Gabor Akots from Hungary became the world champion, he also won the world championship in blitz.

The most star-studded event was the Open Championship of the Czech Republic in active chess, with 29 grandmasters (top seeded were GM David Navara and GM Sergei Movsesian). GM Alexandr Rakhmanov (Russia) celebrated victory, the silver medal went to Dmitry Kononenko (Ukraine) and bronze to Anton Korobov (Ukraine). Both favorites had a bad last part of the tournament and finished lower down on the scoreboard.

GM Vlastimil Babula became Champion of the Czech Republic in active chess, second was GM Jiri Stocek and third GM David Navara.

Prize giving of European Youth Chess Teams Championship U18 in the category
for girls (on the right in white: top Czech GM David Navara)

Prize giving of European Youth Chess Teams Championship U18 in the category for boys

Ruslan Butchak (Ukraine) became European Amateurs Champion for players with a rating lower than 2000 in active chess. In the category of women gold went to Inga Zakhartsova (Russia).

The European Amateur Championship rating <1800 in active chess was won by Alexey Savitskiy (Russia). In the category of women the winner was Jana Londinova (Czech Republic).

The Czech Open Festival now draws to a phase when the competitors taking part in the main tournaments meet in the CEZ Arena. These tournaments will begin on 23th July and continue up to the 1st August.

• The results of all tournaments and games are available on the official web site.
• Previous report: 21 years of the Czech Open in Pardubice