Casino Graz Intenational is won by Melkumyan
2/24/2014 – Over the course of the winter vacation as it is known in the northern hemisphere, and summer vacation in the southern, the first edition of the Casino Graz Open was held in the plush Casino Graz in Graz, Austria. The first edition had a good draw, with a strong contingent of titled players, inlcuding top seed Li Chao (2697 FIDE). Armenian Hrant Melkumyan took the gold. Illustrated report.
Over the course of the winter vacation as it is known in the northern hemisphere, and summer vacation in the southern, the first edition of the Casino Graz Open was held in the plush Casino Graz in Graz, Austria. There were two opens held, with one as a pure open for all, whereas the B tournament was restricted to players rated under 2000 Elo. Both were nine-round swiss tournaments played at 40 moves in 90 minutes and the rest in 30 minutes with 30 seconds increment per move as of move one.
Li Chao (right) was the top seed with nearly 2700 Elo, but was unable to shine
For many it was a chance to spend a week playing chess
For those who prefer less strenous activities, there were adventure excursions to Kilimanjaro
14-year-old FM Veerappan Aravindh Chithambaram was the top junior, and came
tenth with a respectable 2498 performance and an IM norm to boot
Parimarjan Negi scored a nice win here in the fifth round.
After a strongly fought event, with five sharing 5.0/6 after six rounds, Armenian Hrant Melkumyan detached himself from the rest as he finished with 7.5/9, a full point ahead of his rivals. Top Austrian GM Markus Ragger squeezed into second, edging out five others on tiebreak, while Indian IM Ankit Rajpara took third with the same score, and a grandmaster norm.
Photos by Agentur Alias
Final standings after nine rounds
Rk. |
SNo |
Ti. |
Name | FED |
Rtg |
Pts |
Rp |
rtg+/- |
1 |
5 |
GM |
Melkumyan Hrant | 2589 |
7.5 |
2706 |
13.6 |
|
2 |
3 |
GM |
Ragger Markus | 2646 |
6.5 |
2644 |
2.9 |
|
3 |
13 |
IM |
Rajpara Ankit | 2455 |
6.5 |
2622 |
20.8 |
|
4 |
1 |
GM |
Li Chao b | 2697 |
6.5 |
2613 |
-5.0 |
|
5 |
2 |
GM |
Istratescu Andrei | 2671 |
6.5 |
2601 |
-4.0 |
|
6 |
15 |
GM |
Haznedaroglu Kivanc | 2437 |
6.5 |
2573 |
17.4 |
|
7 |
6 |
GM |
Kozul Zdenko | 2588 |
6.5 |
2534 |
-2.3 |
|
8 |
4 |
GM |
Negi Parimarjan | 2633 |
6.0 |
2646 |
4.4 |
|
9 |
9 |
GM |
Can Emre | 2520 |
6.0 |
2576 |
8.0 |
|
10 |
21 |
FM |
Veerappan Aravindh Chithambaram | 2381 |
6.0 |
2498 |
14.0 |
|
11 |
8 |
GM |
Felgaer Ruben | 2569 |
6.0 |
2494 |
-5.9 |
|
12 |
19 |
FM |
Baldauf Marco | 2396 |
6.0 |
2485 |
11.4 |
|
13 |
7 |
GM |
Bachmann Axel | 2577 |
5.5 |
2538 |
-2.2 |
|
14 |
23 |
Lei Tingjie | 2346 |
5.5 |
2498 |
27.8 |
||
15 |
11 |
IM |
Barbosa Evandro Amorim | 2459 |
5.5 |
2451 |
0.4 |
|
16 |
17 |
IM |
Berchtenbreiter Maximilian | 2421 |
5.5 |
2407 |
-0.1 |
|
17 |
12 |
IM |
Diermair Andreas | 2459 |
5.5 |
2397 |
-5.5 |
|
18 |
14 |
IM |
Santiago Yago De Moura | 2451 |
5.5 |
2394 |
-4.9 |
|
19 |
45 |
Nguyen Thai Dai Van | 2175 |
5.5 |
2274 |
31.0 |
||
20 |
25 |
WGM |
Ohme Melanie | 2330 |
5.5 |
2366 |
7.9 |
LinksThe 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. |
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