Chess festival in Marienbad

Amid healing springs

On January 15-22, a chess festival was held in Marianske Lazne, Czech Republic, as part of the Czech Chess Tour. This included two GM tournaments, three IM tournaments, two Open events, as well as rapid and blitz tournaments.

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Mariánské Lázne is a charming old spa town in the West Bohemian Spa Triangle, not far from the border with Germany. The sulphurous springs near Mariánské Lázne have been known as healing springs since the 16th century. The first bathhouse was built at the beginning of the 19th century. In the following years, the town developed into a widely known spa with many representative buildings. In 1820 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited Mariánské Lázne for the first time and stayed in the pension Zur Traube. Until the end of the First World War, the town and the spas in the vicinity belonged to Austria-Hungary, then to the newly formed Czechoslovakia, and now to the Czech Republic. Many of the old buildings have survived the test of time and still give a sophisticated and elegant impression. Since 2001, Mariánské Lázne has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the “Great Spa Towns of Europe”.

Mariánské Lázne is surrounded by mountain forest, mineral springs and green parks. In January, the chess players were offered a beautiful winter landscape, which, in addition to all chess activities, invited them to take walks in the parks adjacent to the city centre or, if they preferred, to go skiing.

The main Baroque colonnade is distinguished by its bronze reliefs and ceiling frescoes.

Find more photos in the gallery!

The chess festival

The Mariánské Lázne Chess Festival is part of the Czech Tour tournament series organized by AVE-Kontakt. The Czech Tour has been holding chess festivals in Prague and other Czech cities for 20 years. Tournament director in Mariánské Lázne was Michal Horacek.

View of the tournament hall

GM tournament A1

The winners of the Grandmaster A1 tournament had left immediately after the end of the round due to other tournament commitments, and were thus not available to participate in the award ceremony.

The winners were GM Azer Mirzoev and GM Vojtech Plat on equal points, with first place going to Mirzoev on tiebreaks.

Final standings

All games

GM tournament A2

GM Babu Lalith took a commanding first place in the Grandmaster A2 tournament with 6½ points from 9 games, followed by GM Hannes Stefansson, who also played very strongly. Third place went to Bremen’s Nikolas Wachinger, who reached the podium thanks to an impressive final-round black win in the King’s Indian —he also earned an IM norm!

To get a GM norm, 7 points were required, which no player reached this time.

The winners

Final standings

All games

IM tournament B1

Arne Bracker won the IM Tournament B1 by half a point and thus achieved an IM norm (with the required 7 points from 9 games). It is the second IM norm achieved by our colleague!

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Arne Bracker — tournament victory and an IM norm

Final standings

All games

IM tournament B2

Nils Richter won the IM tournament B2 by half a point.

The winners

Final standings

All games

IM tournament B3

Niklas Schmider won the IM tournament B3 with a half-point advantage.

Another winner from Germany

Final standings

All games

Open C

IM Dietmar Kolbus convincingly won the Open with 7½ points out of 9 games, which left him a full point ahead of the runner-up. Kolbus played under the flag of his adopted country, the Isle of Man. German chess fans know Dietmar Kolbus as the sponsor of the former Bundesliga team Trier. A few years ago, he moved with his team to the British 4NCL.

Dietmar Kolbus with his cup and his certificate

Final standings

...48 players

All available games

Senior Open

In the Open 50+ IM Adrian Claude won the senior tournament with 7.5 points from 9 games and also a whole point lead, followed by the runner-up Miroslav Palek (6.5/9) and Alexander Yakimenko (6.5/9). Find all the results here.

Links

• Czech Tour website
• All results at the official website
• Full pairings and standings at Chess-Results