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Tiberias (Photo: Ores Pelen, Wikipedia)
The Israeli individual championships were concluded last Tuesday in the ancient city of Tiberias after tense battles in both the men’s and the women’s section. 30 players were invited directly or qualified from the semi-finals including five former champions: 66-year old IM Nathan Birnboim (champion in 1976, 1981 &1986) and GMs Yehuda Gruenfeld (1982, 1990), Vitali Golod (2010), Victor Mikhalevski (2014) and Tamir Nabaty (2012).
IM Nathan Birnboim - The senior champion is still fighting
The venue was the Hotel Rimonim mineral at the shore of the Lake of Galilee.
Hotel Rimonim Mineral
The regrettable absence of several top players gave the young guard a good opportunity to demonstrate their skills and talents. With no significant rating gaps among the top seed there was no clear favourite storming forward.
From round four on there was always a group of players at the top and in the end no less than five players shared first place with 6.0/9. This fairly low score was the result of many hard fought draws, which, however, were by no means short or uneventful – draw offers before move 30 were strictly forbidden.
A tiebreak brought the decision about the title and this tiebreak was was won by GM Tamir Nabaty (25) – it was his second national title in his young career and it continued his impressive tournament victories he has scored in 2016 both at home and abroad.
The champions slice through the celebration cake
Second place went to IM Omer Reshef (19), the most pleasant surprise of the tournament. He suffered his only defeat in round four but then came back in grand style and in the second half of the tournament scored 4.0/5 against a strong field that included, among others, two former champions, GM Mikhalevski and GM Golod.
GM Avital Boruchovsky (18), currently Israel’s youngest grandmaster finished third – followed by GM Mikhael Roiz and IM Nitzan Shteinberg.
Other surprising players were FM Ehud Shachar, who at the age of 47 scored his third and last IM norm.
Never too late to become an IM: Ehud Shachar
15-year old FM Saar Drori faced no less than 5 GMs and 3 IMs and in the end had 4.5/9 and scored his first IM norm.
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | TB1 | TB2 | |
| 1 | 1 | GM | Nabaty Tamir | ISR | 2649 | 6,0 | 42,5 |
| 2 | 14 | IM | Reshef Omer | ISR | 2435 | 6,0 | 42,0 |
| 3 | 7 | GM | Boruchovsky Avital | ISR | 2530 | 6,0 | 42,0 |
| 4 | 3 | GM | Roiz Michael | ISR | 2608 | 6,0 | 41,0 |
| 5 | 11 | IM | Steinberg Nitzan | ISR | 2476 | 6,0 | 37,5 |
| 6 | 5 | GM | Baron Tal | ISR | 2536 | 5,5 | 41,5 |
| 7 | 6 | GM | Dvoirys Semen I. | ISR | 2534 | 5,5 | 40,5 |
| 8 | 4 | GM | Golod Vitali | ISR | 2549 | 5,5 | 40,0 |
| 9 | 2 | GM | Postny Evgeny | ISR | 2620 | 5,0 | 45,0 |
| 10 | 8 | GM | Mikhalevski Victor | ISR | 2503 | 5,0 | 44,5 |
| 11 | 10 | IM | Kobo Ori | ISR | 2480 | 5,0 | 43,0 |
| 12 | 19 | FM | Shachar Ehud | ISR | 2356 | 5,0 | 40,5 |
| 13 | 17 | FM | Bakalchuk Johnatan | ISR | 2389 | 5,0 | 35,5 |
| 14 | 12 | IM | Givon Asaf | ISR | 2471 | 4,5 | 45,5 |
| 15 | 22 | FM | Drori Saar | ISR | 2318 | 4,5 | 44,0 |
| 16 | 9 | GM | Soffer Ram | ISR | 2488 | 4,5 | 40,0 |
| 17 | 18 | IM | Birnboim Nathan | ISR | 2365 | 4,5 | 35,0 |
| 18 | 16 | IM | Mindlin Alon | ISR | 2428 | 4,5 | 34,0 |
| 19 | 13 | GM | Gruenfeld Yehuda | ISR | 2436 | 4,5 | 32,5 |
| 20 | 20 | Kraus Ohad | ISR | 2340 | 4,5 | 31,0 |
The women’s championship saw a completely different scenario. Right from the beginning two young stars stood out among the 18 participants. The battle turned out to be a race between Michal Lahav (17) who finished with 8.5/9 and Limor Altshul (18) had 8.0/9 in the end!
Limor Altshul (right, with White) vs Michal Lahav
The game between the two girls eventually gave the title to Michal, who is also the national junior champion (boys too!), won the bronze medal in the world championship for U18 girls this year and was a member of the successful Israeli female Olympic team in Baku. Limor had to settle for a magnificent second while young Adi Federovsky finished third with 6.0/9, half a point ahead of her mother Shlomit Vardi, herself former national champion.
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Rtg | TB1 | TB2 | |
| 1 | 2 | WFM | Lahav Michal | 2178 | 8,5 | 42,0 |
| 2 | 5 | Altshul Limor | 2022 | 8,0 | 43,5 | |
| 3 | 8 | Federovski Adi | 1947 | 6,0 | 45,0 | |
| 4 | 10 | Vardi Shlomit | 1926 | 5,5 | 46,0 | |
| 5 | 1 | WIM | Gutmakher Olga | 2247 | 5,0 | 45,0 |
| 6 | 6 | Haitovich Avital | 1979 | 5,0 | 39,5 | |
| 7 | 4 | WFM | Len Irina | 2140 | 4,5 | 45,0 |
| 8 | 12 | Brusilovski Lena | 1851 | 4,5 | 43,0 | |
| 9 | 3 | WFM | Nesterovskaya Anzhelika | 2173 | 4,5 | 40,5 |
| 10 | 11 | Ovechkin Lilia | 1857 | 4,5 | 38,5 | |
| 11 | 7 | Reprun Nadejda | 1959 | 4,5 | 37,5 | |
| 12 | 9 | WFM | Dotan Valeria | 1928 | 4,0 | 37,0 |
| 13 | 13 | WCM | Levitan Ronit | 1712 | 4,0 | 32,5 |
| 14 | 18 | Gitin Yuliya | 0 | 3,5 | 32,0 | |
| 15 | 17 | Zach Asif | 1632 | 3,5 | 31,5 | |
| 16 | 16 | Katkov Michelle | 1652 | 2,5 | 31,0 | |
| 17 | 14 | Levi Shoval | 1688 | 2,0 | 32,5 | |
| 18 | 15 | Bejashvili Irma | 1656 | 1,0 | 30,0 |
The championships were the crown events in an eventful Tiberian chess week highlighted by the opening of the city chess club and a string of popular happenings and tournaments for all. The engine and spirit behind the rising chess boom in the city and the popular events was Asaf Soffer, the local chess tutor and organizer.
Asaf Soffer - A dedicated tutor and his pupils
All this was possible thanks to the successful collaboration between the city hall, the Hotel Rimonim Mineral and the Israel chess federation, under the auspices of Mifal Hapayis - the national lottery.
Winners and officials
Chess and championships in the periphery seems a successful Israeli trend for the years to come!
A nice tactical shot...
A perpetual...
Opening catastrophe...
Photos: Rotem Almoz
See also: Modern Chess in Ancient City, part 1 of the report about the Israeli Championships
