Daniel Dardha wins Sardinia Open

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
5/5/2024 – The main event of the Sardinia Chess Festival, a 9-round Swiss open featuring 11 players rated 2600 or above, took place from April 27 to May 4 on the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. An eventful final round saw former co-leaders Alan Pichot and Yair Parkhov both losing their games. The outcomes of the games on the top boards resulted in four players tied atop the standings with 7/9 points each. Daniel Dardha, who beat Pichot in the final round, had the best tiebreak score and thus claimed the title. | Photos: Davide Locatelli

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Clutch wins

SardiniaThe Sardinia World Chess Festival took place at the Club Hotel Marina Beach in Orosei, located along the east coast of the Italian island. Three open tournaments took place simultaneously, with the main event a 9-round Swiss open featuring 168 participants, including 11 players with a 2600+ Elo rating.

After 8 rounds, Alan Pichot (5th seed, Spain) and Yair Parkhov (20th seed, Israel) were tied for first place with 6½ points each. Parkhov had started the event with five consecutive wins, including a victory over rating favourite Vladimir Fedoseev, while Pichot came from beating 16th seed Vitaly Sivuk from Sweden to climb to the shared lead.

A 10-player chasing pack stood a half point behind, with 8 players from the top-10 belonging to this group. Pichot and Parkhov had already faced each other in round 6 and had signed a 42-move draw. In the final round, Pichot had the white pieces against Daniel Dardha, while Parkhov had the black pieces against Jorden van Foreest. Players belonging to the chasing pack were paired up against each other on boards 3 to 6.

In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, both Pichot and Parkhov lost their games on Saturday, allowing Dardha and Van Foreest to leapfrog them in the standings. Kirill Shevchenko (3rd seed, Romania) and Volodar Murzin (7th seed, FIDE) also grabbed wins in the final round, which meant four players ended the event tied for first place with 7 points each.

According to tiebreak criteria, Dardha was declared the tournament winner, with Shevchenko and Murzin completing the podium.

Earlier this year, Dardha won the Djerba Masters in Tunisia. At that event, an 8-player single round-robin, he had also tied for first — with Hans Niemann — and obtained the title thanks to his superior tiebreak score.

Sardinia Chess Festival

The playing hall in Sardinia | Photo: Davide Locatelli

Final standings

Rk. SNo Name Typ FED RtgI Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3   TB4 
1 Dardha Daniel 7 52
2 Shevchenko Kirill 7 49,5
3 Murzin Volodar 7 48
4 Van Foreest Jorden 7 45,5
5 Pichot Alan 6,5 54
6 Fedoseev Vladimir 6,5 53
7 Parkhov Yair 6,5 51,5
8 Gurel Ediz 6,5 51
9 Sivuk Vitaly 6,5 49,5
10 Sokolovsky Yahli 6,5 49
11 Moussard Jules 6,5 48
12 Tudor Henry Edward 6,5 47,5
13 Sjugirov Sanan 6,5 47,5
14 Sonis Francesco 6,5 46
15 Moroni Luca Jr 6,5 45,5
16 Zhalmakhanov Ramazan 6 53
17 Chigaev Maksim 6 51,5
18 Bharath Subramaniyam H 6 51,5
19 Lodici Lorenzo 6 51,5
20 Velten Paul 6 50,5
21 Lagarde Maxime 6 50
22 Erdogmus Yagiz Kaan 6 48
23 Haldorsen Benjamin 6 47
24 Costa Leonardo 6 46,5
25 Rozen Eytan 6 46

...168 participants

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.