Prague Open: GM Kourkoulos-Arditis on the brink of victory

by Johannes Fischer
3/7/2024 – Greek grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis is on the verge of victory at the Karel Janecek Open, which is being held as part of the Prague Chess Festival. With one round to go, he has 7.5 out of 8, and is one point ahead of six players with 6.5 out of 8. In round 8, Kourkoulos-Arditis scored an important win with Black in a theoretically interesting and tactically rich game. | Photo: Johannes Fischer
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Prague Chess Festival, Karel Janecek Open, Round 8

A draw with White in the final round against Bulgarian IM Tsvetan Stoyanov is all that separates 25-year-old Greek grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis from winning the Karel Janecek Open Prague 2024. It would be one of the biggest successes of his career so far. He became Greek Champion in 2019 and won the highly competitive Open in Paleochora in 2020, when he was still an IM, but finished ahead of a number of grandmasters, but none of these tournaments enjoy the same prestige as the Prague Open.

With an Elo rating of 2556, Kourkoulos-Arditis, who became a GM in 2023, was seeded sixth in Prague.

In round 8, he won a crucial game with Black against Norwegian grandmaster Elham Amar.

Standings after 8 rounds

Rk. SNo Name FED Rtg Pts.  TB1   TB2  K rtg+/-
1 6
GM Kourkoulos-Arditis, Stamatis GRE 2556 7,5 40,5 44 10 17,2
2 34
GM Neuman, Petr CZE 2390 6,5 39,5 43 10 27,8
3 29
IM Xiang, Zeyu CHN 2407 6,5 39 43 10 20,4
4 8
GM Bharath, Subramaniyam H IND 2515 6,5 37,5 41,5 10 8,5
5 2
GM Sethuraman, S.P. IND 2603 6,5 37,5 41,5 10 -2,8
6 17
IM Stoyanov, Tsvetan BUL 2465 6,5 37 41 10 6,9
7 20
IM Isik, Alparslan TUR 2452 6,5 37 40,5 10 10,4
8 9
GM Polak, Tomas CZE 2506 6 39,5 43 10 1,3
9 4
IM Amar, Elham NOR 2567 6 39 43 10 -1,7
10 27
IM Ilamparthi, A R IND 2414 6 39 42,5 10 10,7
11 1
GM Safarli, Eltaj AZE 2614 6 38 42 10 -4,3
12 21
IM Zhao, Yuanhe CHN 2449 6 37,5 41 10 6,5
13 15
GM Barbosa, Evandro Amorim BRA 2491 6 37 40,5 10 2,4
14 71
Rohit, S IND 2215 6 37 40,5 40 100,8
15 25
GM Jarmula, Lukasz POL 2434 6 36 39,5 10 0,7
16 40
FM Abdilkhair, Abilmansur KAZ 2357 6 34,5 38,5 20 12,8
17 50
FM Cieslak, Patryk POL 2300 6 34 37,5 20 21,8
18 47
FM Chinguun, Sumiya MGL 2319 6 33 35,5 20 21
19 5
GM Li, Di CHN 2563 5,5 40,5 44 10 -4,9

... 263 participants (Source: chess-results)

Games

Tournament page

Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".