Chigorin Memorial: Eljanov elbows his way to first
10/16/2013 – After five rounds, it was a nine-way tie for first, and one would understandably expect this to have thinned by the end. Instead it was an eleven-way tie, with Pavel Eljanov taking the top spot. Some might argue he is lucky, as is so often said of champions, but perhaps it was more a matter of making the most of his opportunities. Judge for yourself.
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Chigorin Memorial: Eljanov elbows his way to first
After five rounds, the medalists of the Chigorin Memorial were anything but decided. It was nine-way tie for first, and the fate of the top spots were only concluded in the very last round after all the tiebreak scores had been tallied. If nine seemed a lot, the final eleven-way tie for first probably left many players looking like mad accountants, trying to figure out who of the competitors with 7.0/9 had the edge.
A well attended event with opportunites for all...
...including juniors...
...and ladies.
Former World Under-18 champion Dmitry Kokarev was a surprise leader for much of the event, and might even have taken sole first had he not missed a win against second-seed Alexander Areshchenko in round seven.
Often in chess, the window of opportunity is extremely small, and if missed no other presents itself. On the other hand, this may be why Pavel Eljanov (if we want to argue fatalistically) was the one whose magic number came up on top of the group of eleven at the end. In round seven, he too had a single window of opportunity, and against Maxim Matlakov (2682 FIDE), uncorked a brilliant finish.
Winning the Chigorin Memorial was a a sign of a return to form for Pavel Eljanov. The Russian TV did a news report on the second half of the tournament. You can see it here.
With this win, two draws in the final rounds were sufficient for first place, a gratifying and impressive win for the top-seed, for whom the burden of winning was the greatest. Kokarev came in second, still one of his greatest victories, and Maxim Matlakov was third. Last year’s winner, Alexander Areshchenko was fourth.
This very strong tournament also meant a glut of norm opportunities, and several notable ones were scored. Among the more impressive was FM Igor Malakhov (2434 FIDE) who sought to secure his IM title and instead overshot his mark, scoring a grandmaster norm. 13-year-old Saveliy Golubov (2233 FIDE) played extremely well, and was undefeated against five IMs and one GM, with a 2505 performance and an IM norm.
Final standings after nine rounds
| Rk | SNo | Tit | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts | TB |
| 1 | 1 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | UKR | 2729 | 7.0 | 57.0 |
| 2 | 19 | GM | Kokarev Dmitry | RUS | 2611 | 7.0 | 55.5 |
| 3 | 6 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | RUS | 2682 | 7.0 | 55.0 |
| 4 | 2 | GM | Areshchenko Alexander | UKR | 2714 | 7.0 | 55.0 |
| 5 | 8 | GM | Khismatullin Denis | RUS | 2656 | 7.0 | 54.5 |
| 6 | 15 | GM | Korneev Oleg | ESP | 2622 | 7.0 | 54.0 |
| 7 | 20 | GM | Solak Dragan | TUR | 2611 | 7.0 | 53.0 |
| 8 | 7 | GM | Zvjaginsev Vadim | RUS | 2659 | 7.0 | 53.0 |
| 9 | 12 | GM | Sjugirov Sanan | RUS | 2635 | 7.0 | 52.5 |
| 10 | 29 | GM | Bukavshin Ivan | RUS | 2553 | 7.0 | 52.0 |
| 11 | 10 | GM | Khairullin Ildar | RUS | 2651 | 7.0 | 50.0 |
| 12 | 4 | GM | Akopian Vladimir | ARM | 2684 | 6.5 | 53.0 |
| 13 | 5 | GM | Zhigalko Sergei | BLR | 2683 | 6.5 | 52.0 |
| 14 | 36 | IM | Bernadskiy Vitaliy | UKR | 2527 | 6.5 | 51.0 |
| 15 | 9 | GM | Romanov Evgeny | RUS | 2654 | 6.5 | 50.5 |
| 16 | 11 | GM | Kovalenko Igor | LAT | 2644 | 6.5 | 50.5 |
| 17 | 17 | GM | Ponkratov Pavel | RUS | 2618 | 6.5 | 50.0 |
| 18 | 3 | GM | Alekseev Evgeny | RUS | 2707 | 6.5 | 50.0 |
| 19 | 23 | GM | Burmakin Vladimir | RUS | 2581 | 6.5 | 49.5 |
| 20 | 35 | GM | Lintchevski Daniil | RUS | 2532 | 6.5 | 49.0 |
| 21 | 22 | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | ARM | 2599 | 6.5 | 48.0 |
| 22 | 43 | GM | Makarov Marat | RUS | 2512 | 6.5 | 46.0 |
| 23 | 44 | GM | Neverov Valeriy | UKR | 2505 | 6.5 | 43.0 |
| 24 | 27 | GM | Jumabayev Rinat | KAZ | 2568 | 6.5 | 42.5 |
| 25 | 56 | FM | Malakhov Igor | RUS | 2434 | 6.0 | 54.0 |
| 26 | 49 | GM | Baron Tal | ISR | 2473 | 6.0 | 51.5 |
| 27 | 26 | GM | Al-Modiahki Mohamad | QAT | 2568 | 6.0 | 51.0 |
| 28 | 28 | GM | Belous Vladimir | RUS | 2554 | 6.0 | 51.0 |
| 29 | 24 | GM | David Alberto | ITA | 2574 | 6.0 | 50.5 |
| 30 | 32 | GM | Gabrielian Artur | RUS | 2541 | 6.0 | 49.5 |
| 31 | 124 | Golubov Saveliy | RUS | 2233 | 6.0 | 49.0 |
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