Gata Kamsky wins World Open

7/5/2006 – Nine players tied for first, with 7.0/9 each, in the 34th Annual World Open in Philadelphia. A tiebreak playoff between Gata Kamsky and Vadim Milov was won by the former FIDE world championship finalist. There were 46 GMs, 26 IMs and 5 WGMs in the main group, the prize sum for the winner was US $28,000, but in the end first place got $6,000. We tell you why.

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The 34th Annual World Open took place in the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel, Philadelphia from June 28 to July 4, 2006. It was a nine round Swiss, with 40 moves in 2 hours and then the rest in one hour. The total prize fund for the event was $300,000 guaranteed. The top prizes for the Open Section were $28,000, $13,000, $7,000, $3,000, etc. Since nine players tied for first place, the prizes were evenly split and everyone basically got $6,000. In addition the World Open awards two qualifying spots for the 2007 US Championship.

We counted 237 players in the final table of the World Open, and that included 46 GMs, 26 IMs and 5 WGMs (all Indian). The following table gives the points of the top 100 – the rest can be found here.

# Name Rtng Tot
1 GM Kamsky, Gata 2736 7.0
2 GM Ibragimov, Ildar 2692 7.0
3 GM Ehlvest, Jaan 2685 7.0
4 GM Milov, Vadim 2682 7.0
5 GM Yudasin, Leonid G 2676 7.0
6 GM Ivanov, Alexander 2660 7.0
7 GM Kacheishvili, G 2643 7.0
8 GM Wojtkiewicz, Aleks 2615 7.0
9 GM Benjamin, Joel 2605 7.0
10 GM Chanda, Sandipan 2722 6.5
11 GM Moiseenko, Alex. 2705 6.5
12 GM Yusupov, Artur 2701 6.5
13 GM Nakamura, Hikaru 2697 6.5
14 GM Izoria, Zviad 2679 6.5
15 GM Shabalov, Alex 2671 6.5
16 GM Shulman, Yury 2660 6.5
17 GM Stocek, Jiri 2651 6.5
18 GM Hansen, Lars B 2650 6.5
19 GM Ganguly, Surya 2628 6.5
20 GM Fressinet, Laurent 2683 6.0
21 GM Stripunsky, Alex 2659 6.0
22 GM Akobian, Varuzhan 2649 6.0
23 IM Finegold, Benjamin 2648 6.0
24 GM Vescovi, Giovanni 2631 6.0
25 GM Sadvakasov, D 2622 6.0
26

GM Perelshteyn, E

 2610 6.0
27 GM Gagunashvili, M 2605 6.0
28 GM Fishbein, Alex. 2603 6.0
29 IM Cordova, Emilio 2577 6.0
30 IM Sevillano, Enrico 2567 6.0
31 GM Sharavdorj, D 2506 6.0
32 GM Browne, Walter S 2495 6.0
33 FM Muhammad, S 2451 6.0
34 FM Tate Jr, Emory A 2432 6.0
35 FM Bercys, Salvijus 2426 6.0
36 IM Lenderman, Alex 2418 6.0
37 FM Mandizha, Farai 2369 6.0
38 FM Habu, Yoshiharu 2367 6.0
39 Ly, Moulthun 2288 6.0
40 Gulamali, Kazim 2276 6.0
41 GM Najer, Evgeny 2697 5.5
42 GM Kudrin, Sergey 2613 5.5
43 GM Kunte, Abhijit 2604 5.5
44 IM Roussel-Roozmon, T 2586 5.5
45 GM Panchanathan, M 2569 5.5
46 IM Friedel, Joshua E 2547 5.5
47 IM Lapshun, Yury 2517 5.5
48 IM Simutowe, Amon 2482 5.5
49 FM Bartholomew, John 2452 5.5
50 FM Lopez, Bruci 2449 5.5
 
# Name Rtng Tot
51 IM Scekic, Milos 2446 5.5
52 FM Enkhbat, Tegshsuren 2416 5.5
53 IM Zlotnikov, Mikhail 2397 5.5
54 FM Bartell, Thomas J 2395 5.5
55 FM Adamson, Robby 2394 5.5
56 Maltese, Adam S 2308 5.5
57 Yap, Nicolas A 2261 5.5
58 Acor, Corey B 2245 5.5
59 Arnold, Marc T 2241 5.5
60 FM Critelli, James 2218 5.5
61 Rueda, Libardo 2175 5.5
62 GM Ftacnik, Lubomir 2599 5.0
63 GM Becerra, Julio 2596 5.0
64 GM Antic, Dejan 2591 5.0
65 WGM Vijayalakshmi, S 2572 5.0
66 GM De Firmian, Nick E 2566 5.0
67 GM Zapata, Alonso 2548 5.0
68 GM Fedorowicz, John 2540 5.0
69 GM Garcia, Gildardo J 2521 5.0
70 IM Mulyar, Michael A 2451 5.0
71 IM Florean, Andrei 2449 5.0
72 FM Smith, Bryan G 2428 5.0
73 FM Schneider, Igor 2423 5.0
74 IM Ginsburg, Mark 2421 5.0
75 FM Hoekstra, Matthew 2397 5.0
76 FM Hess, Robert L 2395 5.0
77 WGM Mohota, Nisha 2387 5.0
78 IM Taylor, Timothy W 2384 5.0
79 WGM Meenakshi, S 2382 5.0
80 FM Ardaman, Miles F 2378 5.0
81 WGM Swathi, Ghate 2362 5.0
82 IM Paschall, William 2361 5.0
83 GM Lein, Anatoly Y 2336 5.0
84 Stephan, Axel 2320 5.0
85 Moreno, William E 2317 5.0
86 IM Peric, Slavisa 2316 5.0
87 Kleiman, Jake 2300 5.0
88 Moriuchi, Toshiyuk 2295 5.0
89 FM Dougherty, Michael 2288 5.0
90 FM Rogers, Norman 2284 5.0
91 FM Karklins, Andrew 2282 5.0
92 Ritvin, Stan 2280 5.0
93 WFM Tuvshintugs, B 2268 5.0
94 Barnett, Alexander 2265 5.0
95 Onyekwere, Chikwere 2263 5.0
96 FM Anderson, Renard 2243 5.0
97 FM Figler, Ilye 2236 5.0
98 Varshavsky, Eugene 2200 5.0
99 Bick, John D 2198 5.0
100 Harris, David 2105 5.0

There was a nine-way tie for first, and the official web site tells us that that "GM Gata Kamsky wins the Tie Break Blitz Game over GM Vadim Milov!!!" (their exclams).


The winner of the World Open: Gata Kamsky

Kamsky,G (2671) - Milov,V (2625) [C10]
34th World Open Blitz Playoff Philadelphia USA (1), 04.07.2006
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.c3 c5 8.Ne5 a6 9.Qa4+ Bd7 10.Nxd7 Qxd7 11.Qxd7+ Kxd7 12.dxc5 Bxc5 13.Be2 Kc7 14.a4 Rad8 15.Bf4+ Bd6 16.Bg5 h6 17.Bxf6 gxf6 18.Bh5 Rd7 19.g3 Rg8 20.f4 f5 21.Ke2 f6 22.Rad1 Rgd8 23.Rhf1 Bc5 24.Rxd7+ Rxd7 25.b4 Bf8 26.a5 b6 27.Ra1

27...e5 28.Bg6 exf4 29.gxf4 Rg7 30.Bxf5 Rg2+ 31.Ke3 Rxh2 32.axb6+ Kxb6 33.Bd3 Rh3+ 34.Kd4 Bd6 35.Rxa6+ Kc7 36.Ra7+ Kb6 37.Rf7 Rh4 38.Kd5 Bxf4 39.Rxf6+ Kb7 40.Rf7+ Kb8 41.c4 Be3 42.Be4 Rf4 43.Rh7 Rg4 44.c5 Rg8 45.Kc6 Rf8 46.Kb5 Bd2 47.Bc6 Rf4 48.Kb6 Rf8 49.Ra7 1-0.


GM Vadim Milov, who lost the tiebreak game against Kamsky

Remarkable is the 38th place of FM Yoshiharu Habu (6/9). Why? Because Habu is not really a chess player, but the world's leading Shogi champion, who has taken a casual interest in chess.

Yoshiharu HABU, the undisputed champion of Shogi (a complex game which is the Japanese equivalent of chess), is a top celebrity in Japan.

Ever since he joined the Professional School of Shogi at the age of twelve, Mr Habu, who is now 35 years old, has been known as the one of the most gifted player in the history of this ancient game. He is the only player to have ever won the seven most prestigious titles successively and he has an outstanding record of 74% of victories over the entire span of his career.

Since 1995, he has taken a keen interest in chess, and notwithstanding the little time he has had to study our game, he has already scored an International Master norm.

Philadelphia is normally hot but beautiful and celebrating July 4 in a big way. This year the city, in fact all the Northeast USA was hit by thunder storms and massive rain fall. Many streets in the city were closed because they resembled rivers, rather than roads. But that has not deterred about 1500 chess players from coming here to play in this tournament.


GM Artur Jussupow at the World Open in Philadelphia


GM Chanda Sandipan of India


Estonian GM Jaan Ehlvest using the MonRoi system


Zeljka instructs GM Magesh Panchanathan on how to use the handheld

Information and pictures provided by Susan Grumer