Matthias Blübaum wins GRENKE Chess Open
3/30/2016 – 587 players used the Easter holidays to play in the GRENKE Chess Open in Karlsruhe, Germany. The huge open attracted five grandmasters with a rating of 2700+ and 21 2600+ grandmasters. But in the end the young German GM Matthias Blübaum (Elo 2605) left all favorites behind. With 7.5/9 he shared first place with five other players and won on tie-break.
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Winners and organisers
Matthias Blübaum (center) took first place, Vladimir Fedoseev (next to Blübaum on the left) won silver, and Nikita Vitiugov (next to Blübaum on the right) won bronze. The man next to Fedoseev is organiser Hans-Walter Schmitt, who also was the driving force behind the legendary Mainz Chess Classic tournaments. Next to Vitiugov is tournament director Sven Noppes.
Milos Perunovic (Serbia) finished fourth, ahead of Ni Hua (China) and Francisco Vallejo Pons from Spain.
In the last round of the GRENKE Chess Open the top boards decided to play it safe.
On top board Francisco Vallejo Pons played a quick draw against Milos Perunovic.
On board two Matthias Blübaum played with White against Markus Ragger from Austria. After the quick draw between Vallejo Pons and Perunovic Blübaum had the chance to become sole tournament winner if he beat the Austrian GM. If Ragger won, he would share first place. But after both players failed to get anything out of a Grünfeld they opted for the safe line and drew in 27 moves.
Matthias Blübaum: A last round draw was good enough to win the tournament
Now several players had a chance to catch up to the leaders. Vladimir Fedoseev, who played with Black against Li Chao, was one of them. In a fine Nimzo-Indian he played against White's weak pawn on c4 while Li Chao tried to attack Black's king. However, Fedoseev had things well under control and after parrying the attack and winning the weak pawn on c4 he did not need long to win the game. A fine positional effort by the young Russian.
Vladimir Fedoseev
Nikita Vitiugov also felt inspired by the last-round-pressure and demonstrated good technique against Alexander Moiseenko by turning his positional advantages step by step into a winning endgame.
Nikita Vitiugov won against Alexander Moiseenko
Chinese grandmaster Ni Hua also showed good technique and finished the GRENKE Chess Open with a fine positional game against Benjamin Gledura.
Ni Hua finished fifth on tie-break
The women's prize went to Elisabeth Pähtz from Germany. She played a good tournament, did not lose a single game and finished with 6.5/9. The second women's prize went to Sarah Hoolt from Germany who finished with 6.0/9. Best senior was Anatoly Donchenko, the father of the young German grandmaster Alexander Donchenko. Donchenko senior scored 5.5/9.
Elisabeth Pähtz won the women's prize: 2.000 Euros
Norms
No less than 13 players managed to make master norms at the GRENKE Chess Open. Among these 13 players were three promising juniors who thus took another important step towards the grandmaster title: Andreas Heimann from Germany (he scored 6.5/9, one point more than he would have needed for the norm), Bilel Bellahcene (born in 1998) from France, and Benjamin Gledura (born in 1999) from Hungary.
Andreas Heimann
The following players scored an IM-norm: Maximilian Neef, Lev Yankelevich, Elena Levushkina, Fabian Englert, Julian Martin (all from Germany), Robby Kevlishvili, Thomas Beerdsen, Bob Jansen (all from the Netherlands) Thai Dai Van Nguyen (Czech Republic), and Nicolo Napoli (Italy).
Final standings of the GRENKE Chess Open
| Rang | Titel | Teilnehmer | TWZ | Attr. | Verein/Ort | Land | S | R | V | Punkte | Buchh |
| 1. | GM | Blübaum, Matthias | 2605 | M | SV Werder Bremen | GER | 6 | 3 | 0 | 7.5 | 54.0 |
| 2. | GM | Fedoseev, Vladimir | 2664 | M | RUS | 7 | 1 | 1 | 7.5 | 53.5 | |
| 3. | GM | Vitiugov, Nikita | 2721 | M | RUS | 6 | 3 | 0 | 7.5 | 53.0 | |
| 3. | GM | Perunovic, Milos | 2620 | M | SRB | 6 | 3 | 0 | 7.5 | 53.0 | |
| 5. | GM | Ni, Hua | 2691 | M | CHN | 6 | 3 | 0 | 7.5 | 52.5 | |
| 6. | GM | Vallejo Pons, Francisco | 2677 | M | OSG Baden-Baden | ESP | 6 | 3 | 0 | 7.5 | 50.5 |
| 7. | GM | Ragger, Markus | 2694 | M | SG Solingen | AUT | 5 | 4 | 0 | 7.0 | 54.0 |
| 7. | GM | Predojevic, Borki | 2647 | M | TSV Schönaich | BIH | 5 | 4 | 0 | 7.0 | 54.0 |
| 9. | GM | Saric, Ivan | 2651 | M | SV Hockenheim | CRO | 6 | 2 | 1 | 7.0 | 51.5 |
| 10. | GM | Buhmann, Rainer | 2636 | M | SV Hockenheim | GER | 5 | 4 | 0 | 7.0 | 50.0 |
| 10. | IM | Fedorovsky, Michael | 2463 | M | FC Bayern München | GER | 5 | 4 | 0 | 7.0 | 50.0 |
| 12. | GM | Kamsky, Gata | 2673 | M | USA | 6 | 2 | 1 | 7.0 | 49.5 | |
| 13. | GM | Rapport, Richard | 2720 | M | SG Solingen | HUN | 5 | 4 | 0 | 7.0 | 49.5 |
| 14. | GM | Kunin, Vitaly | 2584 | M | Freibauer Mörlenbach | GER | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 57.0 |
| 15. | GM | Li, Chao | 2757 | M | SK Schwäbisch Hall | CHN | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 55.5 |
| 15. | GM | Moiseenko, Alexander | 2668 | M | SV Hockenheim | UKR | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 55.5 |
| 17. | GM | Shirov, Alexei | 2685 | M | OSG Baden-Baden | LAT | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 55.0 |
| 17. | GM | Fedorchuk, Sergey | 2604 | M | SC Viernheim | UKR | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 55.0 |
| 19. | GM | Bosiocic, Marin | 2554 | M | TSV Schönaich | CRO | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 54.0 |
| 20. | IM | Heimann, Andreas | 2560 | M | OSG Baden-Baden | GER | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6.5 | 54.0 |
| 21. | IM | Bellahcene, Bilel | 2461 | M | OSG Baden-Baden | FRA | 6 | 1 | 2 | 6.5 | 53.5 |
| 22. | GM | Bacrot, Etienne | 2701 | M | OSG Baden-Baden | FRA | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6.5 | 53.5 |
| 22. | GM | van Wely, Loek | 2653 | M | SG Porz | NED | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6.5 | 53.5 |
| 24. | IM | Gledura, Benjamin | 2538 | M | Eger SRSK | HUN | 6 | 1 | 2 | 6.5 | 52.5 |
| 25. | GM | Korobov, Anton | 2713 | M | UKR | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 52.5 | |
| 26. | GM | Meier, Georg | 2664 | M | OSG Baden-Baden | GER | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6.5 | 52.5 |
| 26. | GM | Bok, Benjamin | 2611 | M | SG Porz | NED | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6.5 | 52.5 |
| 28. | GM | Demuth, Adrien | 2541 | M | SF Deizisau | FRA | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 52.0 |
| 29. | GM | Alekseev, Evgeny | 2631 | M | TSV Schott Mainz | RUS | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 51.5 |
| 29. | GM | Wagner, Dennis | 2583 | M | SV Hockenheim | GER | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 51.5 |
| 31. | GM | Donchenko, Alexander | 2572 | M | SC Hansa Dortmund | GER | 6 | 1 | 2 | 6.5 | 51.0 |
| 32. | GM | Martinovic, Sasa | 2537 | M | TSV Schönaich | CRO | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 51.0 |
| 33. | GM | Bindrich, Falko | 2557 | M | TSV Bindlach | GER | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6.5 | 51.0 |
| 34. | GM | Danin, Alexandre | 2571 | M | RUS | 6 | 1 | 2 | 6.5 | 50.5 | |
| 35. | GM | Svetushkin, Dmitry | 2561 | M | SK Handschuhsheim | MDA | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 50.5 |
| 35. | GM | Mikhalevski, Victor | 2525 | M | Beersheba chess club | ISR | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 50.5 |
| 35. | IM | Poetsch, Hagen | 2513 | M | SF Schöneck | GER | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 50.5 |
| 38. | GM | Naiditsch, Arkadij | 2673 | M | OSG Baden-Baden | AZE | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6.5 | 50.5 |
| 38. | IM | Lampert, Jonas | 2472 | M | Hamburger SK | GER | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6.5 | 50.5 |
| 40. | GM | Sandipan, Chanda | 2577 | M | SG Solingen | IND | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 50.0 |
| 41. | GM | Socko, Bartosz | 2587 | M | USV TU Dresden | POL | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 49.5 |
| 41. | GM | Kovalev, Vladislav | 2560 | M | Peters Rook | BLR | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 49.5 |
| 41. | IM | Svane, Rasmus | 2528 | M | Hamburger SK | GER | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 49.5 |
| 41. | IM | Abel, Dennes | 2451 | M | SK Ricklingen | GER | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 49.5 |
| 45. | IM | Pähtz, Elisabeth | 2474 | W | SV Hockenheim | GER | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6.5 | 49.0 |
| 46. | IM | Zumsande, Martin | 2461 | M | SK Turm Emsdetten | GER | 6 | 1 | 2 | 6.5 | 48.5 |
| 46. | IM | Fröwis, Georg | 2440 | M | SG Pang-Rosenheim | AUT | 6 | 1 | 2 | 6.5 | 48.5 |
| 48. | IM | Sadzikowski, Daniel | 2550 | M | KSz Polonia Wroclaw | POL | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6.5 | 47.5 |
| 49. | IM | Moussard, Jules | 2510 | M | Evry Grand Roque | FRA | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 47.0 |
| 49. | IM | Nakar, Eylon | 2493 | M | ISR | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 47.0 |
... 587 participants
