Kamil Dragun is the new champion of Poland
This year's Polish Individual Championships were held in the Trading Hall of the Warsaw Stock Exchange from May 11th to 19th. The open championship (men) and the women's championship took place in parallel, both as round-robin tournaments. The main sponsors of the championships were the Polish Lotto for the men and the tea and coffee producer Mokate for the women's championship.
In the absence of Radoslaw Wojtaszek the problem-solving World Champion Kacper Piorun was the Elo favourite in the open. With two wins and seven draws he performed reasonably well and finished in second place. But Kamil Dragun was better. The 2010 U-16 World Champion was able to win one more game, while also remaining undefeated to take the title and the first prize of 20,000 Polish zloty (about USD $5,200) with 6.0 points.

The winners: Kamil Dragun, Kacper Piorun, Bartosz Socko | Photo: Marek Skrzypczak
Dragun was the co-leader after five rounds, together with Bartosz Socko, but he took the lead in the sixth round by scoring his third win of the event over IM Igor Janik with a nice tactical sequence:
Dragun ignored the attack on his rook and played 33.fxg5! Now ...♝xc5 would leave Black's kingside too weak, so Janik played 33...♝xg5 but found himself worse after 34.♘xc6! when ...♜xc6 is met by ♖xb5, but after 34...♞d6 the passed b-pawn eventually decided the game in Dragun's favour.
All Dragun's games
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1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.0-0 0-0 5.c4 c5 6.Nc3 d5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Nxd5 Qxd5 9.d3 Nc6 10.Be3 Bd7 11.Nd4 Qd6 12.Nxc6 Bxc6 13.Bxc6 Qxc6 14.Rc1 Qe6 15.Rxc5 Qxa2 16.Rb5 b6 17.Qa1 Qe6 18.Qa4 Rfc8 19.Ra1 h5 20.Qb3 20.h4 Qd7 21.Qb3 Qg4 22.Qd1 Qd7 23.Qb3 Qg4 24.Qd1 Qd7 25.Qb3 Qg4 20...Qxb3 21.Rxb3 Rc2 22.Rxb6N 22.d4 e6 23.Kg2 Rc4 24.Rxb6 axb6 25.Rxa8+ 22...Rxe2 23.Rb7 Rxb2 24.Rxb2 Bxb2 25.Rxa7= Rd8 26.Rxe7 Rxd3 27.Rb7 Ba1 28.Rb1 Be5 29.Kg2 Kg7 30.Rb5 Bf6 31.h4 ½–½ - Start an analysis engine:
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Dragun,K | 2591 | Piorun,K | 2657 | ½–½ | 2019 | | LOTTO POL-ch Men 2019 | 1.1 |
Dragun,K | 2591 | Gajewski,G | 2613 | 1–0 | 2019 | | LOTTO POL-ch Men 2019 | 2.5 |
Gumularz,S | 2483 | Dragun,K | 2591 | 0–1 | 2019 | | LOTTO POL-ch Men 2019 | 3.2 |
Dragun,K | 2591 | Socko,B | 2627 | ½–½ | 2019 | | LOTTO POL-ch Men 2019 | 4.4 |
Bartel,M | 2598 | Dragun,K | 2591 | ½–½ | 2019 | | LOTTO POL-ch Men 2019 | 5.3 |
Dragun,K | 2591 | Janik,I | 2469 | 1–0 | 2019 | | LOTTO POL-ch Men 2019 | 6.3 |
Tomczak,J | 2631 | Dragun,K | 2591 | ½–½ | 2019 | | LOTTO POL-ch Men 2019 | 7.4 |
Dragun,K | 2591 | Heberla,B | 2556 | ½–½ | 2019 | | LOTTO POL-ch Men 2019 | 8.2 |
Sadzikowski,D | 2522 | Dragun,K | 2591 | ½–½ | 2019 | | LOTTO POL-ch Men 2019 | 9.5 |
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Final standings
All games
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- Start an analysis engine:
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Women's Championship
In the Polish Women's Championships, Monika Socko is always the favourite, and this year was no exception. Socko actually came away with five wins during the tournament, beating the entire bottom half of the table.

Monika Socko conducts herself well | Photo: Marek Skrzypczak
But the Polish women's number one also suffered two defeats, against Jolanta Zawadzka and Joanna Majdan, and her six total points were only enough for second place.
The convincing winner of the championship was instead Iweta Rajlich, who also won five games, but remained undefeated, and finished a full point ahead.
Unlike many national championships, the winner of the women's tournament also received 20,000 zloty in prize money, just like her male counterpart.

Iweta Rajlich was invincible | Photo: Marek Skrzypczak

Karina Szczepkowska finished fifth | Photo: Marek Skrzypczak

The winners: Iwete Rajlich, with child, Monika Socko, Jolanta Zawadzka | Photo: Marek Skrzypczak
Final standings
All games
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
Please, wait...
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
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Translation from German and additional reporting: Macauley Peterson
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