Safarli wins the Chigorin Memorial in St. Petersburg
11/15/2010 – The 17th International Chigorin Memorial Chess Festival was a very strong open that included ten players from the top 100, and – can you guess? – none of these was able to win. That was achieved by GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan, who scored 7.5/9 points with a 2787 performance. We bring you games and results – and an extensive pictorial report by Irina Sudakova and Elena Mikheeva.
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Chigorin Memorial in St. Petersburg
By WGM Irina Sudakova and Elena Mikheeva
The 17th International Chess Festival “M. Chigorin Memorial” took place in St. Petersburg, Russia, from October 26 to November 5, 2010. The Rapid section finished with six players tying for the first place with 7.0 points out of 9, and Sergei Yudin (2521) winning on tiebreak. We reported on that section with an extensive pictorial. The first prize for the rapid was 75,000 Roubles = 1,700 Euros or US $2,400.
The sole winner of the 17th International Chigorin Memorial was Eltaj
Safarli
from Azerbaijan, with 7.5 points out of 9 games. His performance: 2787.
Ivan Sokolov was leading from the beginning scoring 6 wins in a row, but in round 7 Eltaj managed to defeat him and kept the success with two draws in the end. There were no anti-draw rules applied at the Memorial, so some (but not many) games in the last rounds were over after 10-15 minutes. A score of +5 was good enough for a small group of players who shared the 2nd-7th places, and they clearly wanted to avoid any risk in the last round. But it also meant that they had to win at least five games out of eight preceding this one!
Top scorers (with the St. Petersburg Chess Federation Vice Presidents):
Igor Blechzin,
Ivan Sokolov, Yuri Yakovlev, Vladimir Bykov, Eltaj Safarli, Alexander Areshchenko.
Final standings (after nine rounds)
# |
Name |
Fed. |
Rtng |
Pts |
TPR |
W-We |
BH |
HiLo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Safarli, Eltaj | 7.5 | AZE | 2607 | 2787 | +1.99 | 53.0 | 42.0 |
| 2 | GM Sokolov, Ivan | 7.0 | BIH | 2641 | 2772 | +1.50 | 56.5 | 44.0 |
| 3 | GM Areshchenko, Alexander | 7.0 | UKR | 2664 | 2755 | +1.03 | 53.5 | 41.0 |
| 4 | GM Andreikin, Dmitry | 7.0 | RUS | 2669 | 2711 | +0.58 | 52.5 | 40.5 |
| 5 | GM Dreev, Alexey | 7.0 | RUS | 2649 | 2725 | +0.92 | 52.0 | 40.5 |
| 6 | GM Sakaev, Konstantin | 7.0 | RUS | 2607 | 2750 | +1.69 | 51.5 | 40.5 |
| 7 | IM Fedoseev, Vladimir | 7.0 | RUS | 2477 | 2742 | +3.14 | 51.0 | 40.5 |
| 8 | GM Smirin, Ilia | 6.5 | ISR | 2657 | 2700 | +0.60 | 54.0 | 43.0 |
| 9 | GM Zhigalko, Sergei | 6.5 | BLR | 2640 | 2684 | +0.60 | 54.0 | 42.5 |
| 10 | GM Grachev, Boris | 6.5 | RUS | 2668 | 2693 | +0.38 | 53.0 | 42.0 |
| 11 | GM Andriasian, Zaven | 6.5 | ARM | 2579 | 2722 | +1.82 | 52.5 | 41.5 |
| 12 | GM Savchenko, Boris | 6.5 | RUS | 2627 | 2683 | +0.76 | 52.5 | 40.5 |
| 13 | GM Khairullin, Ildar | 6.5 | RUS | 2620 | 2631 | +0.29 | 52.0 | 40.5 |
| 14 | GM Chadaev, Nikolai | 6.5 | RUS | 2574 | 2680 | +1.38 | 50.5 | 40.0 |
| 15 | GM Khismatullin, Denis | 6.5 | RUS | 2654 | 2613 | -0.24 | 49.5 | 38.5 |
| 16 | IM Demchenko, Anton | 6.5 | RUS | 2529 | 2665 | +1.74 | 49.0 | 39.0 |
| 17 | IM Papin, Vasily | 6.5 | RUS | 2534 | 2632 | +1.30 | 48.5 | 38.0 |
| 18 | GM Volkov, Sergey | 6.5 | RUS | 2595 | 2654 | +0.80 | 48.5 | 37.5 |
| 19 | GM Burmakin, Vladimir | 6.5 | RUS | 2593 | 2564 | -0.11 | 47.0 | 36.5 |
| 20 | GM Stefansson, Hannes | 6.5 | ISL | 2585 | 2639 | +0.74 | 47.0 | 36.5 |
| 21 | GM Yemelin, Vasily | 6.5 | RUS | 2571 | 2587 | +0.30 | 45.5 | 35.5 |
| 22 | GM Swiercz, Dariusz | 6.5 | POL | 2507 | 2560 | +0.74 | 45.0 | 34.5 |
| 23 | IM Geller, Jakov | 6.5 | RUS | 2544 | 2597 | +0.76 | 44.5 | 34.0 |
| 24 | GM Matlakov, Maxim | 6.5 | RUS | 2613 | 2565 | -0.29 | 44.0 | 34.5 |
| 25 | GM Kryakvin, Dmitry | 6.5 | RUS | 2591 | 2505 | -0.71 | 42.0 | 32.5 |
Dmitry Andreikin, RUS, 2669, was 4th on tie-breaks, with 7.0/9 and a 2711
performance
Hannes Stefansson of Iceland, 6.5/9
Sergey Zhigalko of Belarus, 6.5/9
Great debut: Dariusz Swiercz, the youngest GM of Poland, with 6.5/9
Dmitry Svetushkin of Moldova, 6.0/9
Life was not easy for the Elo -favorite Anton Korobov, and his
5.5 points was obviously not the result he had expected
Yuri Kuzubov in a good mood, despite his disappointing performance (5.5/9,
2542 perf.)
Krisztian Szabo of Hungary, 5.0/9
Davit Petrosian of Armenia, 5.5/9
Yaroslav Zherebukh, Ukraine, 5.5/9 with a 2477 performance
Egor Kuzmin, twelve years old, 4.0/9
Another unidentified very youthful player
Mothers waiting in the lobby for their youngsters
Vladislav Kovalev, 5.0/9 with an IM norm – playing blitz in the lobby
The queue at the "cash-point" to pick up prizes
Top women (after nine rounds)
# |
Name |
Fed. |
Rtng |
Pts |
TPR |
W-We |
BH |
HiLo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54 | WGM Paikidze, Nazi | 5.5 | GEO | 2376 | 2563 | +2.35 | 46.5 | 38.5 |
| 57 | IM Ovod, Evgenija | 5.5 | RUS | 2401 | 2480 | +1.06 | 46.0 | 36.5 |
| 58 | IM Bodnaruk, Anastasia | 5.5 | RUS | 2399 | 2512 | +1.47 | 46.0 | 36.0 |
| 88 | WIM Charochkina, Daria | 5.0 | RUS | 2303 | 2418 | +1.29 | 45.5 | 35.0 |
| 95 | WIM Ivkina, Olga | 5.0 | RUS | 2251 | 2433 | +1.99 | 44.0 | 34.0 |
| 106 | IM Ushenina, Anna | 5.0 | UKR | 2466 | 2418 | -0.48 | 42.5 | 33.5 |
| 115 | WGM Demina, Julia | 5.0 | RUS | 2336 | 2307 | -0.19 | 39.0 | 31.5 |
| 128 | WIM Akatova, Ekaterina | 4.5 | RUS | 2260 | 2380 | +1.30 | 45.0 | 35.0 |
| 135 | WIM Komiagina, Maria | 4.5 | RUS | 2263 | 2334 | +0.57 | 43.5 | 33.5 |
| 138 | WIM Ambartsumova, Karina | 4.5 | RUS | 2302 | 2318 | +0.17 | 42.5 | 33.5 |
| 144 | WIM Butuc, Maria | 4.5 | RUS | 2180 | 2205 | +0.28 | 41.0 | 32.5 |
| 162 | WGM Shaydullina, Sandugach | 4.0 | RUS | 2175 | 2333 | +1.67 | 45.0 | 35.5 |
| 163 | WIM Tarasova, Viktoriya | 4.0 | RUS | 2298 | 2309 | -0.01 | 44.5 | 34.5 |
| 173 | Sukhareva, Evgeniya | 4.0 | RUS | 2176 | 2201 | +0.27 | 40.5 | 31.0 |
| 186 | WIM Dolzhykova, Kateryna | 4.0 | UKR | 2298 | 2244 | -0.68 | 37.5 | 28.5 |
| 188 | WIM Sazonova, Elena N. | 4.0 | RUS | 2118 | 2181 | +0.58 | 36.0 | 27.5 |
| 190 | WIM Bronnikova, Elizaveta | 4.0 | RUS | 2270 | 2163 | -1.28 | 35.5 | 27.0 |
| 196 | WIM Solovjova, Valentina | 4.0 | RUS | 2253 | 2075 | -1.99 | 33.5 | 25.0 |
Nazi Paikidze, 5.5/9 with a 2563 performance – best woman in the
field
Elizaveta Bronnikova, 4.0/9
Anna Ushenina of Ukraine, 5.0/9
Elmira Mirzoeva, sports journalist on Russian TV and radio – still
eager to play chess!
Me – Irina Sudakova, WGM since 2004, who has finished her professional
career
(too late, maybe) and now works for the St. Petersburg Chess Federation
Armed and dangerous – our second photographer Elena Mikheeva
The Alexander Nevsky Bridge at night. It connects Alexander Nevsky Square
and Zanevsky prospect,
linking the southern and the northern parts of the city
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