Ultimately it came down to the last round as the two leaders Fedorov and Khalifman drew,
while Pavel Ponkratov edged them out when he scored a crucial win on board three against...
... Alexander Rakhmanov (2614).
Alexei Fedorov came second with 7.0/9, losing to Ponkratov on tiebreak
Vladislav Artemiev ran a bit out of steam at the end, and finished with four draws, though
still a fourth place and 2687 TPR
Untitled Alexander Predke (2491) finished with a superb 6.5/9 and 2670 performance with this win over mexican GM Manuel Leon Hoyos in round nine:
[Event "18th Voronezh Master Open 2014"] [Site "Voronezh RUS"] [Date "2014.06.21"] [Round "9.8"] [White "Predke, Alexandr"] [Black "Leon Hoyos, Manuel"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B67"] [WhiteElo "2491"] [BlackElo "2515"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "2014.06.12"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 a6 8. O-O-O Bd7 9. f4 b5 10. Bxf6 gxf6 11. Kb1 {So far this is all main theory.} Rc8 {However, this is not. Qb6 is usual.} 12. f5 b4 $6 {Black is asking for trouble...} (12... Nxd4 13. Qxd4 Be7 $14 {was more sensible, cutting down on White's ability to wipe him off the board.}) 13. fxe6 {... and is served! Now e6 will become a target and a fatal one.} fxe6 (13... bxc3 $2 14. exd7+ Qxd7 15. Qxc3 Nxd4 16. Qxd4 {and Black is lost, a pawn down and a joke of a pawn structure.}) 14. Nce2 Ne5 $2 15. Nf4 $1 Kf7 {This may look normal, but Black has no way of holding on material here.} (15... Qe7 16. Bxa6 $18) 16. g3 h5 17. Bh3 {Come to papa} Ng4 18. Qe2 ({There is no question White saw the simple} 18. Nxh5 Rxh5 19. Bxg4 {but since he also knew he was going to get a pawn no matter what, probably chose the text hoping to maximize his position after.}) 18... Rc5 19. Bxg4 hxg4 20. Qxg4 Qc8 $2 {Between protecting e6 or g6, Black makes a very strange choice.} (20... Rh6 {was the only way to offer resistance. }) 21. Qg6+ Ke7 22. h4 {There is more than one road to Rome here, and this is one of the easier ones to calculate.} ({For the sake of purity, the engines do point out} 22. Nf5+ $1 {as stronger, but the main line is quite a headache to calculate.}) 22... Bh6 23. Rhf1 Qf8 24. Ndxe6 $1 Bxe6 25. Nxe6 Kxe6 26. Rxf6+ $1 Qxf6 27. Rxd6+ Kxd6 28. Qxf6+ {and with the rook on h8 falling, Black resigned.} 1-0
Fortunately for Predke, this superlative performance and positive score against seven grandmasters, was worth a GM norm despite playing GMs from only two nationalities, instead of the required three. The reason, as explained by tournament director Alexander Raetsky, is in rule 1.43e in the FIDE Handbook which includes the exception "Swiss System tournaments in which participants include at least 20 FIDE Rated players not from the host federation, but from at least 3 federations and at least 10 of whom hold GM, IM, WGM,WIM titles."
The player area is cordoned off
12-year-old Alexey Episenko finished with 5.0/9, but more importantly: a win over GM Vitaly Kunin
16-year-old Kirill Kozionov had a solid tournament and ended on 5.5/9
Final standings
Click here for complete standings
Pictures by Elena Ponomarev
