Abhijeet Gupta wins Graz Open

by ChessBase
3/3/2023 – In the second half of February, the traditional Graz Open, by now the biggest Open in Austria, was held at the local Chamber of Commerce. Abhijeet Gupta won the A-Open ahead of 170 players. | Photo: Winners of the A-tournament. From left to right: Chief Arbiter Manfred Mussnig, Tournament Organizer Andrea Schmidbauer, GM Felix Blohberger, GM Abhijeet Gupta and GM Hagen Pötsch.

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Austria’s largest tournament

Press release

In the week from February 18 to February 24, the Europasaal of the Graz Chamber of Commerce became the venue of the 29th International Graz Open.

A total of 370 participants from 37 nations all over the world took part. The winners were determined after 9 rounds. Since the tournament was open to all players, everyone could participate. Professionals (9 grandmasters) and newcomers were present — the youngest 5 years old, the oldest 85 years old.

When you entered the Chamber of Commerce or the WIFI this week, it was impossible to get past the topic of chess. In the foyer there was a garden chess set next to a number of boards, and in the restaurant analyses’ sessions were running constantly.

The tournament was held in four groups. In the A group, the strongest participated; in the B group, the club players; and in the C group, the newcomers to the sport. Weekend tournaments were held on the first three days and were open to all.

In the C group, the Austrians dominated. The winner of group B, Bochnickova Simona, coame from Slovakia. Second place went to Balaz Frantisek (Czechia), and third place went to Kudlak Julia (Poland).

The Styrian National Championship was also held in the A group. David Schernthaner can call himself Styrian National Champion, ahead of Daniel Kristoferitsch, who was the runner-up.

The victory of the A-tournament and thus the overall victory went to India. Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta dominated with a convincing performance of 8 points in 9 games.

Runner-up was GM Hagen Pötsch, who scored 7 points and tied for third and fourth place. The tiebreak criteria gave third place to Austrian Grandmaster Felix Blohberger.

The venue turned out to be perfect for this tournament. The size and tranquillity are ideal, the public transport connections are good and there are plenty of parking spaces available. The social programme included a free guided tour of the city, and the mayor of Graz welcomed the participants in the town hall.

Mario Schachinger annotated two games played by the winner of the event:

 
 

Select an entry from the list to switch between games

Final standings - Group A

Rg. Name Pkt.  Wtg1 
1 Gupta Abhijeet 8 2696
2 Pötsch Hagen 7 2578
3 Blohberger Felix 7 2533
4 Dobrowolski Piotr 7 2471
5 Moroni Luca Jr 6,5 2571
6 Janzelj Tim 6,5 2482
7 Pastar Slaven 6,5 2477
8 Hacker Jonas 6,5 2455
9 Carnicelli Valerio 6,5 2392
10 Roshka Yevgeniy 6,5 2385
11 Socko Bartosz 6 2480
12 Kowalski Igor 6 2445
13 Wilhelm Till 6 2443
14 Barp Alberto 6 2438
15 Battey Alexander 6 2403
16 Delgerdalai Bayarjavkhlan 6 2402
17 Socko Monika 6 2387
18 Rosner Jonas 6 2377
19 Diermair Andreas 6 2373
20 Bochnicka Vladimir 6 2339
21 Tisaj Domen 6 2331
22 Schimnatkowski Lukas 6 2323
23 Gschnitzer Adrian 6 2306
24 Gschiel Alexander 6 2293
25 Petursson Margeir 6 2291

...171 players


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