FIDE is opposing the fashion of playing more games in less time. In the World Senior Championships only one round was played per day and there was a rest day to boot. In total, 11 rounds were played to determine the champion in the different age categories, in the open and women's sections. The 15 cash prizes ranged between 150 and 1,200 euros.
In the over-50 age category, the popular Peruvian GM who now lives in Spain was crowned World Champion. He was the rating favourite, but nevertheless impressed by finishing a full point clear of his rivals on the strength of eight wins and three draws for a 2688 rating preformance.
CAMPEÓN MUNDIAL DE AJEDREZ. Italia 2017. Orgullosos de ti, y gracias por dar tantos títulos a Perú. ERES MUY GRANDE PAPÁ. @granda_julio pic.twitter.com/N4yYuLnqSo
— Lereyda Granda (@LereydaGranda) 17 de noviembre de 2017
A key win in the penultimate round with the black pieces over IM Alexander Reprintsev, all but secured the title for Granda.
Try your own moves on the live diagram!
Black's queen was menacing, but this attempt to expell it critically weakens the d3 pawn. 31...Qb6 32.Bxe5? White is worse after 32.Qd1 Bxd3 33.Rxe5 but the game continues. But after taking with the bishop the rook now has nonn squares, and so Reprintsev is losing by force. The game continued 32...Bxd3 33.f4 Bxf4 and White resigned a few moves later.
| Rk. | Name | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | |
| 1 | GM | Granda Zuniga Julio E | 2650 | 9,5 | 0,0 |
| 2 | GM | Antonio Rogelio Jr | 2431 | 8,5 | 0,5 |
| 3 | GM | Prie Eric | 2482 | 8,5 | 0,5 |
| 4 | GM | Sturua Zurab | 2536 | 7,5 | 0,0 |
| 5 | GM | Bagaturov Giorgi | 2399 | 7,5 | 0,0 |
| 6 | IM | Kalegin Evgenij | 2426 | 7,5 | 0,0 |
| 7 | GM | Bischoff Klaus | 2513 | 7,5 | 0,0 |
| 8 | IM | Reprintsev Alexander | 2361 | 7,5 | 0,0 |
| 9 | IM | Welling Gerard | 2316 | 7,5 | 0,0 |
| 10 | IM | Mannion Stephen R | 2294 | 7,5 | 0,0 |
| 11 | IM | Brendel Oliver | 2334 | 7,0 | 0,0 |
| 12 | IM | Prasad Devaki V | 2290 | 7,0 | 0,0 |
| 13 | IM | Biro Sandor | 2168 | 7,0 | 0,0 |
| 14 | Grant Jonathan I M | 2179 | 7,0 | 0,0 | |
| 15 | IM | Contin Daniel | 2272 | 7,0 | 0,0 |
| 16 | Fritsch Rolf | 2213 | 7,0 | 0,0 | |
| 17 | FM | Jhunjhnuwala Krishan | 2340 | 6,5 | 0,0 |
| 18 | FM | Vepkhvishvili Varlam | 2048 | 6,5 | 0,0 |
| 19 | IM | Mantovani Renzo | 2307 | 6,5 | 0,0 |
| 20 | FM | Buchal Stephan | 2347 | 6,5 | 0,0 |
Evgeny Sveshnikov finished a half point ahead of no less than nine others on 8 / 11 to take the over-65 title. He two scored a crucial win with black in the penultimate round, although be benefited from a serious blunder from seventh seeded Czech GM Vlastimil Jansa.
Can you see what White overlooked?
If not, use assisted analysis to try some moves right on the diagram!
The over-65 medalists | Photo: Torsten Cmiel
| Rk. | Name | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | |
| 1 | GM | Sveshnikov Evgeny | 2480 | 8,5 | 0,0 |
| 2 | GM | Vaisser Anatoly | 2503 | 8,0 | 0,0 |
| 3 | GM | Jansa Vlastimil | 2425 | 8,0 | 0,0 |
| 4 | GM | Okhotnik Vladimir | 2434 | 8,0 | 0,0 |
| 5 | GM | Vogt Lothar | 2398 | 8,0 | 0,0 |
| 6 | GM | Balashov Yuri S | 2437 | 8,0 | 0,0 |
| 7 | GM | Torre Eugenio | 2465 | 8,0 | 0,0 |
| 8 | IM | Lisenko Alexander V | 2372 | 8,0 | 0,0 |
| 9 | IM | Rooze Jan | 2314 | 8,0 | 0,0 |
| 10 | GM | Vasiukov Evgeni | 2404 | 8,0 | 0,0 |
| 11 | IM | Shevelev Arkady | 2280 | 7,5 | 0,0 |
| 12 | Primbetov Marat | 2222 | 7,5 | 0,0 | |
| 13 | Yakimenko Alexander A. | 2115 | 7,5 | 0,0 | |
| 14 | GM | Tarjan James | 2449 | 7,5 | 0,0 |
| 15 | IM | Povah Nigel E | 2295 | 7,0 | 0,0 |
| 16 | Kierzek Matthias | 2252 | 7,0 | 0,0 | |
| 17 | IM | Van Riemsdijk Herman C. | 2284 | 7,0 | 0,0 |
| 18 | Privara Igor | 2184 | 7,0 | 0,0 | |
| 19 | GM | Komljenovic Davorin | 2379 | 7,0 | 0,0 |
| 20 | IM | Stepovoj Vladimir | 2265 | 7,0 | 0,0 |
The two women's fields had fewer participants than opens. In the 50+ category, 22 ladies participated, of which 15 had FIDE titles (6 WGM, 6 WIM and 3 WFM). In the over-50 section, the top seed Elvira Berend, rated 2292, won comfortably by a full point over three WGM rivals.
Among those over 65, the favorite was GM Nona Gaprindashvili, women's world champion from 1962 to 1978. The legendary Georgian is 76 years old and has also been world champion among senior women on four occasions. Like Anatoly Vaisser, Nona Gaprindashvili had come to Italy to defend last year's title, but in the end she was only runner-up, behind Tamar Khmiadashvili on the primary tiebreak criteria: direct encounter.
The two Georgians met in the third and Gaprindashvili optimistically decided to sacrifice her queen for rook and bishop to open the g-file. 16.Qe4?! (There's nothing terrible about either b3 or a2 for the queen, but black is comfortable after 16...Nb7 heading for the c5 square). 16...f5! 17.gxf5 Bxf5 18.Qxf5 Rxf5 19.Bxf5 b4 20.axb4 Bxb4 and after exchanging on c3, Black's queen and passed a-pawn are just too strong.
Nona Gaprindashvili, still going strong at 76 | Photo: Gerhard Bertagnolli
| k. | SNo | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | Rp | |
| 1 | 1 | WGM | Berend Elvira | LUX | 2292 | 7,0 | 0,0 | 42,5 | 2328 |
| 2 | 4 | WGM | Makropoulou Marina | GRE | 2146 | 6,0 | 1,5 | 44,5 | 2207 |
| 3 | 2 | WGM | Strutinskaia Galina | RUS | 2246 | 6,0 | 1,0 | 42,5 | 2231 |
| 4 | 7 | WGM | Bogumil Tatiana | RUS | 2124 | 6,0 | 0,5 | 44,5 | 2117 |
| 5 | 11 | WGM | Liu Shilan | CHN | 2054 | 5,5 | 0,0 | 45,0 | 2097 |
| 6 | 14 | WIM | Lauterbach Ingrid | ENG | 2007 | 5,5 | 0,0 | 43,0 | 2104 |
| 7 | 3 | WIM | Burchardt Brigitte | GER | 2173 | 5,5 | 0,0 | 42,5 | 2157 |
| 8 | 10 | WFM | Birkholz Olga | GER | 2077 | 5,5 | 0,0 | 39,5 | 2001 |
| 9 | 5 | WGM | Mednikova Svetlana | RUS | 2128 | 5,0 | 0,0 | 39,0 | 1969 |
| 10 | 15 | WFM | Kierzek Mira | GER | 1996 | 5,0 | 0,0 | 35,0 | 1828 |
| 11 | 8 | WIM | Kasoshvili Tsiala | GEO | 2097 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 42,5 | 1971 |
| 12 | 9 | Xu Yaping | CHN | 2081 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 40,0 | 1971 | |
| 13 | 13 | WFM | Khropova Larisa | RUS | 2027 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 39,5 | 2035 |
| 14 | 6 | WIM | Wagner-Michel Annett | GER | 2128 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 39,0 | 2041 |
| 15 | 17 | CM | Milligan Helen | NZL | 1951 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 35,0 | 1985 |
| 16 | 18 | WCM | Soyolmaa Dashdondog | MGL | 1880 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 32,5 | 1691 |
| 17 | 16 | WIM | Cinar Corlulu Nilufer | TUR | 1969 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 32,0 | 1881 |
| 18 | 19 | WCM | Hazim Gonzalez Elizabeth | DOM | 1795 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 31,0 | 1570 |
| 19 | 21 | Gungaa Tsegmid | MGL | 0 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 33,5 | 1591 | |
| 20 | 20 | Balcerczak Ewa | POL | 1391 | 2,0 | 0,0 | 32,0 | 1405 | |
| 21 | 22 | Malevanaia Oxana | USA | 0 | 1,0 | 0,0 | 36,0 | 976 | |
| 22 | 12 | WIM | Mira Helene | AUT | 2047 | 0,5 | 0,0 | 30,5 | 1798 |
| Rk. | Name | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | |
| 1 | WGM | Khmiadashvili Tamar | 1982 | 7,5 | 1,0 |
| 2 | GM | Gaprindashvili Nona | 2306 | 7,5 | 0,0 |
| 3 | WIM | Titorenko Natalia I | 2146 | 6,5 | 0,0 |
| 4 | WGM | Fatalibekova Elena | 2202 | 6,0 | 0,0 |
| 5 | WIM | Sorokina Tamara | 2055 | 5,0 | 1,0 |
| 6 | WFM | Kuznetsova Luba | 2008 | 5,0 | 1,0 |
| 7 | Iskichekova Nadezhda | 1726 | 5,0 | 1,0 | |
| 8 | Bujinlkham Purevdorj | 0 | 4,5 | 1,5 | |
| 9 | Kabanova Irina | 1816 | 4,5 | 1,0 | |
| 10 | Serjmyadag Damdin | 1934 | 4,5 | 0,5 | |
| 11 | Florea Dorina | 1711 | 4,0 | 1,0 | |
| 12 | Podlovni Stella | 1579 | 4,0 | 0,0 | |
| 13 | Abolina Arija-Solveiga | 1841 | 3,5 | 0,0 | |
| 14 | Cucoch Marisa | 0 | 2,5 | 0,0 | |
| 15 | Centofante Maria Rosa | 1467 | 2,0 | 0,0 |
As in 2015, the World Senior Championship took place in Acqui Terme (Piedemonte, Italy). The host city has about 20,000 inhabitants and is a typical small Italian city with a rich history. As the name already suggests, it is a place with thermal springs.
Translation from Spanish and additional reporting: Macauley Peterson
