Four new Senior World Champions

by André Schulz
11/25/2015 – In 2014 FIDE decided to make chess seniors ten years younger and since then the entry fee for a senior tournament is a possible 50-year birthday present. Since then the World Championships have also become stronger and have attracted more participants. New World Champions are Predrag Nikolic, Vladimir Okhotnik, Galina Strutinskaia and Nona Gaprindashvili.

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The first World Senior Championship took place in 1991 and the history of the Championship is full of illustrious names. Vassily Smyslov, Mark Taimanov, Viktor Kortschnoj or Efim Geller were all Senior World Champions. And after FIDE turned 50-years old into young seniors, the career peak of some participants is not that long ago. Just imagine how a 50-year old Kortschnoj (born 23. March 1931) would have raged among the young seniors.

This year, top seed and tournament favorite was GM Predrag Nikolic, with an Elo-rating of 2603 currently number two in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Nikolic lived up to his role of tournament favorite and won the title with 9.5/11. Half a point behind followed second seed Eduardas Rozentalis from Lithuania while bronze went to the Slovenian grandmaster Georg Mohr who scored 8.5/11.

The new World Senior Champion Predrag Nikolic (right, with the white pieces)

Eduardas Rozentalis (right, with the white pieces)

While the +50 tournament attracted about a 100 players only 17 participants came to start in the +50 women's tournament. Galina Strutinskaia (Russia) won with 6.0/9 and the better tie-break. Second was Marina Makropoulou from Greece who also had 6.0/9, just as Petra Schulz from Germany, and Helene Mira from Austria.

First place in the +65 Open tournament went to Vladimir Okhotnik from France who after his win in 2011 won the title for a second time. Anatoly Vaisser (France), +65 Senior World Champion 2013 and 2014 finished second, bronze went to Viktor Kupreichik from Belarus.

The women's title went to defending champion Nona Gaprindashvili. The +65 Women's World Championship was played as a round-robin with ten participants.

+50 Open

Pos Nr.s.   Nome FED Elo Pts.  Cls1   Cls2   Cls3  Rp
1 1 GM Nikolic Predrag BIH 2603 9,5 0,0 76,0 82,0 2706
2 2 GM Rozentalis Eduardas LTU 2553 9,0 0,0 75,0 81,0 2651
3 8 GM Mohr Georg SLO 2443 8,5 0,0 69,5 74,5 2537
4 7 GM Garcia Palermo Carlos ITA 2446 8,0 0,0 73,0 78,0 2508
5 3 GM Ivanov Alexander USA 2506 7,5 0,0 77,0 82,5 2533
6 14 GM Bagaturov Giorgi GEO 2397 7,5 0,0 71,0 74,5 2488
7 12 IM Roselli Mailhe Bernardo URU 2409 7,5 0,0 67,5 72,5 2405
8 9 IM Kalegin Evgenij RUS 2440 7,5 0,0 67,5 72,5 2391
9 5 IM Wiedenkeller Michael LUX 2454 7,5 0,0 64,5 70,0 2380
10 16 IM Soylu Suat TUR 2377 7,5 0,0 62,5 66,5 2306
11 20 IM Berend Fred LUX 2347 7,5 0,0 60,0 64,0 2329
12 4 GM Arkell Keith C ENG 2499 7,0 0,0 68,5 73,0 2411
13 11 IM Bruno Fabio ITA 2420 7,0 0,0 67,5 71,5 2394
14 18 IM Julia Ernesto ARG 2356 7,0 0,0 65,0 70,0 2375
15 19 FM Sorm Daniel CZE 2353 7,0 0,0 65,0 69,5 2350
16 6 IM Bellia Fabrizio ITA 2452 7,0 0,0 64,0 69,0 2337
17 13 GM Efimov Igor MNC 2408 7,0 0,0 61,0 65,5 2298
18 28   Ribbegren Karl Johan MNC 2249 7,0 0,0 61,0 64,5 2163
19 15 IM Llanos Guillermo ARG 2388 7,0 0,0 59,0 63,0 2255
20 10 GM Kristiansen Jens DEN 2420 7,0 0,0 56,5 60,0 2214

... 97 players

Games

 

+ 50 Women

1 1 WGM Strutinskaia Galina RUS 2227 6,0 0,0 41,5 45,5 2243
2 5 WGM Makropoulou Marina GRE 2155 6,0 0,0 39,5 43,5 2233
3 10 WFM Schulz Petra GER 2094 6,0 0,0 38,5 40,5 2194
4 11 WIM Mira Helene AUT 2066 6,0 0,0 38,0 40,0 2147
5 7 WIM Melashvili Nino GEO 2125 5,5 0,0 42,5 46,0 2183
6 6 WFM Bogumil Tatiana RUS 2128 5,5 0,0 42,5 43,0 2126
7 9 WIM Sazonova Elena N. RUS 2098 5,5 0,0 38,0 40,0 2093
8 3 WGM Mednikova Svetlana RUS 2179 5,5 0,0 31,5 32,0 2005
9 4 WIM Kasoshvili Tsiala GEO 2174 5,0 0,5 43,5 47,5 2186
10 2 WGM Ankudinova Yelena KAZ 2216 5,0 0,5 42,5 43,0 2076
11 8 WFM Khropova Larisa RUS 2117 4,5 0,0 39,5 40,0 1967
12 13   Tandashvili Margalita GEO 2002 4,5 0,0 38,5 39,0 1955
13 12 WFM Kierzek Mira GER 2043 4,0 1,0 40,5 44,0 2028
14 15   Baliuniene Margarita DEN 1834 4,0 1,0 36,0 36,5 1912
15 14   Chireykina Natalia RUS 1901 4,0 1,0 34,0 34,5 1859
16 16   Sand Rosemarie GER 1730 2,0 0,0 36,0 36,5 1679
17 17   Arginbayeva Maryana KAZ 1458 1,0 0,0 35,0 37,0 1213

Games

 

+65 Open

Pos Nr.s.   Nome FED Elo Pts.  Cls1   Cls2   Cls3  Rp
1 3 GM Okhotnik Vladimir FRA 2442 9,5 0,0 74,0 80,0 2605
2 1 GM Vaisser Anatoly FRA 2505 8,5 0,0 75,5 80,0 2512
3 7 GM Kupreichik Viktor D BLR 2369 8,0 0,0 76,0 80,5 2479
4 5 GM Vasiukov Evgeni RUS 2392 8,0 0,0 73,5 79,0 2460
5 6 IM Bogdanov Valentin UKR 2374 8,0 0,0 68,0 73,5 2381
6 9 GM Butnorius Algimantas MNC 2360 8,0 0,0 65,0 70,5 2310
7 4 GM Balashov Yuri S RUS 2418 7,5 0,0 74,5 80,0 2402
8 16 GM Pushkov Nikolai RUS 2317 7,5 0,0 73,0 78,0 2398
9 11 IM Karasev Vladimir I RUS 2344 7,5 0,0 72,0 77,0 2390
10 32 FM Aparicio Anibal ARG 2221 7,5 0,0 71,0 76,5 2383
11 21 IM Leskovar Mario ARG 2298 7,5 0,0 70,0 75,0 2364
12 22 FM Boehnisch Manfred GER 2291 7,5 0,0 69,0 74,5 2358
13 2 IM Zhelnin Vladimir V RUS 2469 7,5 0,0 69,0 74,5 2360
14 17 FM Gutkin Boris ISR 2311 7,5 0,0 67,5 72,0 2331
15 19 IM Shvedchikov Anatoli I. RUS 2310 7,5 0,0 67,0 72,5 2343
16 20 IM Giffard Nicolas FRA 2303 7,5 0,0 64,5 68,5 2280
17 10 IM Birnboim Nathan ISR 2360 7,0 0,0 73,0 79,0 2320
18 24 IM Rooze Jan BEL 2262 7,0 0,0 72,5 77,0 2350
19 13 IM Pritchett Craig W SCO 2334 7,0 0,0 70,0 75,0 2313
20 14 FM Werner Clemens GER 2329 7,0 0,0 69,0 74,5 2299
21 12 IM Maryasin Boris ISR 2335 7,0 0,0 68,5 73,0 2296
22 15 IM Van Riemsdijk Herman C. BRA 2318 7,0 0,0 67,0 72,0 2292
23 28   Kierzek Matthias GER 2234 7,0 0,0 66,0 71,0 2263
24 8 IM Harandi Khosro IRI 2366 7,0 0,0 66,0 70,5 2258
25 25 IM Lederman Leon ISR 2260 7,0 0,0 65,5 71,0 2276
26 46 FM Sorensen Bent DEN 2151 7,0 0,0 64,0 69,0 2189
27 37 FM Simon Padros Emilio ESP 2188 7,0 0,0 64,0 68,5 2210
28 18 FM Sloth Jorn DEN 2311 7,0 0,0 63,5 68,5 2235
29 84   Taksrud Vidar NOR 2022 7,0 0,0 62,0 66,0 2186
30 23 FM Micheli Carlo ITA 2279 7,0 0,0 61,0 65,5 2152
31 34 FM Harestad Thor Geir NOR 2209 7,0 0,0 60,0 65,0 2145

... 150 players

 

Anatoli Vaisser (right, with the white pieces)

Herman van Riemsdijk from Brazil (left, with the black pieces)

Games

 

+65 Women

Pos   Nome Elo FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pts.  Cls1   Cls2   Cls3 
1 GM Gaprindashvili Nona 2299 GEO * 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 7,0 0,0 27,50 5,0
2 WGM Khmiadashvili Tamar 2029 GEO 0 * 0 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 6,5 0,0 22,50 6,0
3 WIM Tsifanskaya Ludmila A 2077 ISR 0 1 * 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 6,0 1,0 24,25 4,0
4 WGM Kozlovskaya Valentina 2249 RUS ½ ½ 0 * ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 6,0 0,0 21,25 4,0
5 WGM Fatalibekova Elena 2242 RUS ½ 0 ½ ½ * 0 1 1 1 1 5,5 0,0 18,50 4,0
6 WIM Sorokina Tamara 2116 RUS ½ 0 ½ 0 1 * ½ ½ 1 1 5,0 0,0 17,25 3,0
7 WFM Kuznetsova Luba 2014 RUS ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ * ½ 1 1 4,5 0,0 15,00 2,0
8 WIM Lebel-Arias Julia 1796 MNC 0 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ * 1 1 3,0 0,0 6,25 2,0
9   Abdikasova Panu 1980 KAZ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 * 1 1,0 0,0 0,50 1,0
10   Kabanova Irina 1954 RUS 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 * 0,5 0,0 3,00 0,0

Games

 

Host of the tournament was the city of Acqui Terme in Piedmont which is known for its hot springs. According to Wikipedia "the hot sulphur springs have been famous since this was the Roman town of Aquae Statiellae: ... In the Roman period the place was connected by road with Alba Pompeia and Augusta Taurinorum (Turin). The local Ligurian tribe of the Statielli had joined the Romans at an early period, but were attacked in 173 BCE and some were transferred to the north of the Po. In the neighbourhood of the town, near the river Bormida, are the remains of the aqueduct which supplied it.

In the 6th century it became part of the Lombard kingdom of northern Italy. Acqui was ruled by its bishop from 978, becoming an independent commune in 1135. In 1278 it was annexed to the Marquisate of Montferrat, to which it belonged until the acquisition by the Duchy of Savoy. It was connected by a railway line to Genoa in 1892."

The remains of the aqueduct

In the centre of the city is...

... is "La Bollente" where the hot springs can be enjoyed.

Photos: Gerhard Bertagnolli (Tournament page)

Tournament page...

Chess-results...

Acqui Terme...


André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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