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The 35th Zalakaros Open was played from 27th May to 4th June in the Hotel Karos Spa in Zalakaros, a beautiful little spa town in the Balaton lake region of Hungary. Zalakaros is the smallest town in the country: 1791 people live on an area of just 17.17 square kilometers.
The decision about the victory in the Zalakaros Open fell in the penultimate round. After seven rounds GM Levente Vajda, GM Ivan Ivanisevic and GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov were leading the field with 5.5/7 each. In the eight round Ivanisevic and Rakhmanov were paired and Ivanisevic won this crucial game:
The decisive game: Ivan Ivanisevic (right, with White) against Aleksandr Rahkmanov
This game helped Ivanisevic to win the tournament with 7.0/9 - he drew in the last round. Levente Vajda won silver, Viktor Berkes third. Rakhmanov fell back to ninth place.
Place four went to the Ukrainian GM Vladimir Onischuk.
Here's his last round win against Indian IM Abhimanyu Puranik:
GM Martyn Kravtsiv from Ukraine finished fifth.
GM Zahar Efimenko recovered well after a bad start and
completed the Ukrainian trio that took places four to six.
The women's prize went to GM Harika Dronavalli from India and there was never a doubt that she would win this prize though WGM Kulon Klaudia also played impressively and made her third IM Norm. If she reaches the Elo 2400 mark she will get the title.
Best woman: GM Harika Dronavalli (right, with White)
Among the junior players the Indians Abhimanyu Puranik and Aryan Chopra made GM norms with a round to spare.
IM Aryan Chopra
IM Aryan Chopra was so kind to annotate his wins against GMs Viktor Erdos...
... and his win against Evgeny Romanov.
German IM Rasmus Svane and the Romanian IM Bogdan-Daniel Deac made grandmaster norms.
Rasmus Svane (right, with White) scored 6.0/9 and remained undefeated
Bogdan Daniel Deac lost the first round but finished with 6.0/9 to make a GM norm
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | |
| 1 | 3 | GM | Ivanisevic Ivan | SRB | 2646 | 7,0 | 52,0 |
| 2 | 12 | GM | Vajda Levente | ROU | 2581 | 6,5 | 52,0 |
| 3 | 7 | GM | Berkes Ferenc | HUN | 2636 | 6,5 | 49,0 |
| 4 | 8 | GM | Onischuk Vladimir | UKR | 2628 | 6,5 | 48,0 |
| 5 | 4 | GM | Kravtsiv Martyn | UKR | 2641 | 6,5 | 45,0 |
| 6 | 1 | GM | Efimenko Zahar | UKR | 2656 | 6,5 | 44,0 |
| 7 | 9 | GM | Banusz Tamas | HUN | 2621 | 6,0 | 50,5 |
| 8 | 32 | IM | Aryan Chopra | IND | 2459 | 6,0 | 49,5 |
| 9 | 2 | GM | Rakhmanov Aleksandr | RUS | 2654 | 6,0 | 48,5 |
| 10 | 22 | GM | Harika Dronavalli | IND | 2514 | 6,0 | 47,5 |
| 11 | 11 | GM | Prohaszka Peter | HUN | 2593 | 6,0 | 47,0 |
| 12 | 19 | IM | Svane Rasmus | GER | 2526 | 6,0 | 46,5 |
| 13 | 25 | IM | Deac Bogdan-Daniel | ROU | 2501 | 6,0 | 45,0 |
| 14 | 59 | IM | Hnydiuk Aleksander | POL | 2381 | 6,0 | 42,0 |
| 15 | 6 | GM | Perunovic Milos | SRB | 2639 | 6,0 | 41,5 |
| 16 | 54 | IM | Ben Artzi Ido | ISR | 2399 | 6,0 | 40,5 |
| 17 | 35 | IM | Puranik Abhimanyu | IND | 2452 | 5,5 | 50,5 |
| 18 | 10 | GM | Papp Gabor | HUN | 2596 | 5,5 | 47,0 |
| 19 | 5 | GM | Romanov Evgeny | RUS | 2641 | 5,5 | 46,5 |
| 20 | 23 | GM | Andersen Mads | DEN | 2505 | 5,5 | 45,5 |
| 21 | 13 | GM | Erdos Viktor | HUN | 2577 | 5,5 | 45,0 |
| 22 | 60 | IM | Nitin S. | IND | 2377 | 5,5 | 45,0 |
| 23 | 14 | GM | Medvegy Zoltan | HUN | 2553 | 5,5 | 44,5 |
| 24 | 26 | GM | Mihok Oliver | HUN | 2498 | 5,5 | 44,5 |
| 25 | 17 | GM | Shyam Sundar M. | IND | 2530 | 5,5 | 43,5 |
| 26 | 21 | GM | Horvath Adam | HUN | 2515 | 5,5 | 43,0 |
| 27 | 15 | GM | Szabo Gergely-Andras-Gyula | ROU | 2548 | 5,5 | 43,0 |
| 28 | 41 | GM | Lalic Bogdan | CRO | 2431 | 5,5 | 39,5 |
| 29 | 45 | IM | Vertetics Attila | HUN | 2425 | 5,5 | 36,5 |
| 30 | 46 | IM | Kantor Gergely | HUN | 2424 | 5,5 | 35,5 |
...113 players
Complete standings at chess-results.com…
Personally, I had a great time at Zalakaros though I did not play successfully. But I enjoyed the beautiful surroundings and the nature of Zalakaros. And the organisers did everything to make the players feel comfortable. For instance, the players were picked up and brought to the airports in Budapest and Vienna by ‘Trans Air Zala’, one of the sponsors of the event. Host of the tournament was the Hotel Karos Spa, which took care to provide a superior Zalakaros experience.
Nature...
...in...
...Zalakaros
This year, the tournament was already very strong and offered good opportunities to make norms or to increase one's rating. Next year, the tournament is expected to be even bigger and stronger!
