
The Acropolis International Chess Tournament 2007 took place in the Europa
conference hall of the President Hotel, Athens, Greece, from 14 - 22 August,
2007. It was co-organized by the Greek Chess Federation and the Prefecture of
Athens, thanks to the eagerness shown by Mr. Giannis Sgouros, a man whose name
is bound with great triumphs of Greek sports. Sponsor of the games is PROMOT
E.I. Lainopoulos company.
This year was the 22nd year that the tournament was held, giving it the longest
history of any international tournament in Greece. The first was held in 1968
and three other tournaments followed in the 70's between 1977 and 1979. In the
80's there wasn't any activity except for the year 1981, while the last 17 years
the Greek Chess Federation has organized the tournament of Acropolis in 1991,
1992, 1993, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Here are the previous winners:
No. |
Year |
Winner |
1 |
1968 |
Pachman Ludek (CSR) |
2 |
1977 |
Stoica Valentin (ROM) |
3 |
1978 |
Soos Bela (FRG) |
4 |
1979 |
Urzica Aurel (ROM) |
5 |
1980 |
Raikovic Dusan (YUG) |
6 |
1982 |
Skalkotas Nikolaos (GRC) |
7 |
1983 |
Padevsky Nikola (BUL) |
8 |
1984 |
Velickovic Sasa (YUG) |
9 |
1985 |
Stoica Valentin (ROM) |
10 |
1986 |
Grivas Efstratios (GRC) |
|
11 |
1987 |
Vasiukov Evgeni (URS) |
12 |
1988 |
Kotronias Vassilios (GRC) |
13 |
1989 |
Velikov Petar (BUL) |
14 |
1991 |
Grivas Efstratios (GRC) |
15 |
1992 |
Knaak Rainer (GER) |
16 |
1993 |
Stefansson Hannes (ICE) |
17 |
1997 |
Gelashvili Tamas (GEO) |
18 |
2003 |
Kotronias Vassilios (CYP) |
19 |
2004 |
Mastrovasilis Athanasios (GRE) |
20 |
2005 |
Gashimov Vugar (AZE) |
21 |
2006 |
Gelashvili Tamaz (GEO) |
|
"Acropolis 2007" is part of the tournaments of the Association of
Chess Professionals, known as "ACP Tour". The tournament had 82 players,
amongst them 19 GMs, 15 IMs and a number of WGMs and WIMs (some of which are
also regular IMs). Here is a list of all
participants.

The winner: Israeli GM Ilia Smirin, with a 2748 performance
The tournament was won by GM Ilia Smirin, who scored 7 points in 9 games.
According to tie-break criteria, GM Kiril Georgiev and GM Mircea Parligras took
2nd and 3rd place respectively both scoring 6½ points.

Second: Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria

Romanian GM Mircea Parligras came in third (on tiebreak behind Georgiev)
Final standings after nine rounds (6.0 points and higher)
Rk. |
Ti. |
Name |
FED |
Rtg |
Pts. |
TB1 |
TB2 |
TB3 |
1 |
GM |
Smirin Ilia |
ISR |
2649 |
7.0 |
0.0 |
2531 |
39.0 |
2 |
GM |
Georgiev Kiril |
BUL |
2663 |
6.5 |
0.0 |
2510 |
34.5 |
3 |
GM |
Parligras Mircea |
ROM |
2542 |
6.5 |
0.0 |
2487 |
34.0 |
4 |
GM |
Mastrovasilis Dimitrios |
GRE |
2541 |
6.5 |
0.0 |
2462 |
32.0 |
5 |
GM |
Malakhatko Vadim |
BEL |
2596 |
6.5 |
0.0 |
2446 |
31.0 |
6 |
GM |
Banikas Hristos |
GRE |
2567 |
6.5 |
0.0 |
2439 |
33.5 |
7 |
GM |
Svetushkin Dmitry |
MDA |
2618 |
6.5 |
0.0 |
2438 |
30.5 |
8 |
GM |
Rozentalis Eduardas |
LTU |
2551 |
6.0 |
0.0 |
2493 |
34.0 |
9 |
GM |
Halkias Stelios |
GRE |
2580 |
6.0 |
0.0 |
2472 |
32.5 |
10 |
GM |
Gelashvili Tamaz |
GEO |
2604 |
6.0 |
0.0 |
2463 |
31.5 |
11 |
IM |
Esen Baris |
TUR |
2441 |
6.0 |
0.0 |
2460 |
32.5 |
12 |
GM |
Macieja Bartlomiej |
POL |
2596 |
6.0 |
0.0 |
2438 |
30.5 |
13 |
GM |
Kotronias Vasilios |
GRE |
2602 |
6.0 |
0.0 |
2424 |
29.5 |
14 |
GM |
Romanishin Oleg M |
UKR |
2546 |
6.0 |
0.0 |
2423 |
31.0 |
15 |
GM |
Mastrovasilis Athanasios |
GRE |
2538 |
6.0 |
0.0 |
2323 |
28.0 |
First female player of the tournament is IM Nana Dzagnidze scoring 5½/9
(17th in overall ranking). The top Greek player GM Dimitrios Mastrovasilis with
6½/9 and fourth in overall ranking. The first young player (under 20)
was I. Papadopoulos, who achieved his third IM norm and won the title of International
Master scoring 5½/9 (21st in overall ranking). Full results are available
on the first page of the (excellent) tournament
web site. You can find all the games and bulletins for download on this
page. This is the kind of service we wish all international tournaments
would provide. Congratulations to the organisers!
Picture Gallery

The Acropolis of Athens, one of the most famous historical sites in the
world
The Acropolis is the elevated ground, which many ancient Greek cities (Athens,
Argos, Thebes, and Corinth) had, and which became the nuclei around which the
houses were built. The Acropolis of Athens has several famous buildings erected
upon it, most notably the Parthenon, and is generally simply referred to as
"The Acropolis".

The Parthenon, a temple of the Greek goddess Athena, built in the 5th Century
BC

The Porch of Maidens, part or the Erechtheum on the north side of the Acropolis
Photos of Athens by Natalia Kiseleva-Straub
The following selection of pictures of participants comes from the "Photos"
section of the official web site. There are almost 150 meticulously captioned
shots, mostly of players – possibly of all of them. Did we mention that
this kind of tournament coverage on the Internet is exemplary?

The playing hall

Greek participants: Vasilios Kotrotsos, Alexandros Dounis, and Antonios Pavlidis

4th: GM Dimitrios Mastrovasilis, Greece, 2541, 6.5 points

5th: GM Vadim Malakhatko, 2596, Belgium, 6.5 points

8th: GM Rozentalis Eduardas, 2551, Lithunia, 6 points

11th: IM Esen Baris, 2441, Turkey, 6 points

15 th: Athanasios Mastrovasilis, 2538, Greece, 6 points

14th: veteran GM Oleg Romanishin, 2546, Ukraine, 6 points

17th: IM Nana Dzagnidze, 2404, Georgia, 5½ points (best female player)

21st: Ioannis Papadopoulos, 2395, Greece, 5½ (best player under
20)

WIM Vera Papadopoulou, 2192, Greece, 4½ points

IM Yelena Dembo, 2464, Greece, 4½ points

WIM Alexandra Stiri, 2251, Greece, 4 points

WIM Anastasia Sorokina, 2208, Austria, 4 points

WIM Jana Krivec, 2340, Slovenia, 4 points