Menorca Open: Ten players share first place

by André Schulz
4/18/2023 – Nearly 300 chess enthusiasts visited the island of Menorca last week to take part in the 2nd International Chess Festival, including several grandmasters. After nine rounds ten players with 7.0/9 each shared the lead in the strong open tournament. But the young Indian Gukesh had the best tiebreak and was declared tournament winner.

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On Sunday, the very well attended II. Open Chess Menorca, which started on 11th April in Ciutadella de Menorca and was played at the 4-star Hotel Princesa Playa near Cala'n Bosch, came to an end. The festival included two open tournaments and a blitz tournament. Over 270 players took part in the two open tournaments.

The A-Open was very strong, and top seeds were Gukesh and Hans Niemann, who both have more than 2700 Elo. In addition, over 33 other grandmasters competed for the prizes. The total prize money was €16,000, with €3,000 going to first place.

After Spain, India had the largest contingent with 35 players. In addition to Gukesh, there were eight other grandmasters and a number of strong international masters.

The tournament was exciting from beginning to end, and before the final round no less than seven players shared the lead with 6.5/8 each. In the final round, all games at the top tables ended in draws, which allowed some players to catch up, and in the end ten players shared first place with 7.0/9 each. But as Gukesh had the best tiebreak he won the tournament. With Pranav, Aryan Chopra and Koustav, three other Indians placed in the top group, which also included Hans Niemann.

The blitz tournament was won by Vladimir Fedoseev, who only gave up one draw in the 9 rounds.

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.  Tb1 
1 Gukesh D 7 56
  Pranav V 7 56
3 Van Foreest Jorden 7 54,5
4 Aryan Chopra 7 53,5
5 Fedoseev Vladimir 7 52,5
6 Niemann Hans Moke 7 50,5
7 Kobo Ori 7 50
8 Chigaev Maksim 7 50
9 Xu Xiangyu 7 50
10 Koustav Chatterjee 7 47
11 Harsha Bharathakoti 6,5 52,5
12 Sokolovsky Yahli 6,5 47
13 Nguyen Thai Dai Van 6 53,5
14 Albornoz Cabrera Carlos Daniel 6 52,5
15 Xu Yi 6 52
16 Warmerdam Max 6 50,5
17 Sanal Vahap 6 50,5
18 Karthik Venkataraman 6 50
19 Prraneeth Vuppala 6 49
20 Henderson De La Fuente Lance 6 49
21 Gurel Ediz 6 49
22 Aditya Mittal 6 48,5
23 Santos Ruiz Miguel 6 48,5
24 Pultinevicius Paulius 6 48
25 Tiglon Bryce 6 47,5

...200 players

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.