Stupak, Nikolov and Bernadskiy win the 10th Paleochora Open 2017

Chess life on the Libyan sea

For nearly twelve years of my life I have been an extremely active chess player, indulging in more than 100 FIDE rated games every year. Life as a chess player has its own charms. But, since the last year or so, I have had to cut down on playing tournaments mainly because of my work related to the swiftly growing company co-founded by Amruta (my wife) and me — ChessBase India. Towards the end of June 2017, we were invited by the Georgian Chess Federation to cover the World Cup 2017, Tbilisi, to be held in September. Amruta and I decided, this was the perfect time for both of us to spend a month or so in Europe before the World Cup and re-ignite our love for playing chess! And we started our trip with the 10th edition of the Paleochora Open in Greece.

Paleochora is a small town on the Island of Crete located around 77 kilometers south of Chania (which is also the nearest airport) and occupies a small peninsula 400 meters wide and 700 meters long! The town is set along 11 kilometers of coastline bordering the Libyan Sea. The population of the place is less than 2000!

Google Maps show you exactly where Paleochora is located

A video created by Amruta Mokal which gives you an overview of the 10th Paleochora Open

We will come to the story of how chess developed in Paleochora, which is one of the most southern points of Europe, in the second part. For now I would like to focus on the tournament. The 10th edition of the event attracted 224 players from 27 different countries. A total of 47 titled players took part including 15 grandmasters and 15 International Masters. Zbyněk Hráček with a rating of 2618 was the top seed.

The strength of the event was particularly high because of the eastern European GMs from countries like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria and others, who had not only come to play in the tournament, but to enjoy the Mediterranean climate!

All the players were made to feel special as flags of different countries adorned the tournament hall

Daniel Sadzikowski of Poland finished fourth and gained nine precious Elo points.

Daniel Sadzikowski took the early sole lead as he raced to 5.0/5, on his way, he beat two strong players: his Polish friend Radoslaw Barski and Russian IM Vladimir Minko. Usually in a nine round event when you take an early lead, the chances are pretty high that you will run away with the tournament. Hence, the sixth round was especially important for the group of seven players on 4.5/5. GM Kirill Stupak had the responsibility of stopping Sadzikowski and he did that to perfection, playing a nice game from the white side of the Benko Gambit.

The Benko Gambit with g3

The search continues for a refutation of the Benko (a.k.a. Volga) Gambit, and White is quite happy if he can achieve a slight advantage. According to the Icelandic grandmaster Henrik Danielsen, to get this White should accept the gambit and go on to fianchetto his king's bishop. The key move is 10.Rb1 — meaning that at any point White is prepared to play b3. And the key game is Kramnik-Topalov from Wijk 2003 — since then the Bulgarian has never again played the Benko. With his video series the author provides a complete repertoire for White against this gambit which still remains very popular with club players.

Once Stupak got the lead, he kept it right until the very end and won the tournament with a score of 7.5/9 and a superior tie-break over Nikolov and Bernadskiy. Although Paleochora is known for its beach, Kirill did not step into the water even once during the seven days of the tournament. Was he preparing hard for the games? It seems so, but he also mentioned that he spent quite some time at the bar. The band-aid on his forehead (picture at right) attests to some of the late night adventures that Stupak had during this event! When he was asked for his favourite game from the tournament, Kirill was confused. He thought for a long time and replied, "None!" He wasn't particularly happy with any of his games, but he added that from the competitive point of view and tournament standings, his game against Sadzikowski was very important as the Polish player had a half point lead over him and the other players.

One of my favourite chess books is Jonathon Rowson's 'Chess for Zebras'. In it Rowson mentions the importance of 'doing and being' in chess. Many chess players are often simply obsessed with doing something in a position. But sometimes, it is just enough to be. Not do anything stupid. This was shown perfectly in the game between Momchil Nikolov and Zbynek Hracek, where the Bulgarian GM didn't do much apart from not making any bad moves! If you ask me, that's a really difficult art to master.

Nikolov had a great tournament. He performed at an impressive 2689 Elo and gained 15 rating points. He beat some strong players like IM Harsha Bharathakoti, and GM Vitaliy Bernadskiy in addition to top seed GM Zbynek Hracek.

The look says it all. Top seed and experienced GM Zbynek Hracek, who has represented the Czech team in innumerable Olympiads, didn't have a great event as he finished 21st.

The joint winners of the tournament: Kirill Stupak (first on tiebreak) and Vitaliy Bernadskiy (third)

Bernadskiy is a young dynamic player from Ukraine. His games were filled with energy and fireworks. One of his combinations that especially caught my attention was against Maria Gevorgian in round three. Bernadskiy had not only seen the piece sacrifice, but also calculated all the way upto mate. Can you calculate as accurately as him?

David Alberto (left) finished fifth. It must be mentioned that the Italian GM simply loves Paleochora. He is the only grandmaster who has attended all the ten editions of this tournament right from 2008 to 2017! Greek grandmaster Hristos Banikas (right) was sixth.

Three Bulgarians: Momchil Nikolov, Sveta Galunova and Ivajlo Enchev (seventh)

Ivajlo Enchev finished seventh and was unbeaten throughout the event. One game of his that caught my attention was his last round win over Radoslaw Barski. The game is very interesting from a strategic point of view. Usually White plays on the queenside in the King's Indian and Black plays on the opposite wing. But here things were completely different. Enchev castled short and hurled his pawns down the board with g4 and h4. While this is normal for any player who has studied the King's Indian opening theory, for someone who is not initiated to this system, this game could be quite a revelation. Hence, I have annotated it like an amateur, who is simply unable to understand what the white player wants to achieve in the game!

Final standings (top 20)

Joanna Worek of Czech Republic scored 6.0/9 and was the best woman player of the event

WIM Tsveta Galunova botched up many winning positions, yet managed to score 6.0/9 and win the second prize in women 

The top three women players: (From left to right) Mengjie Qiu (third), Sveta Galunova (second) and Joanna Worek (first)

Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean. It is the fourth largest island in the world filled with a lot of biodiversity. But when it comes to the development of chess, it is lagging behind quite significantly. However, there is one young boy....

...Fy Antenaina, who is the highest rated player from Madagascar. He is an IM with an Elo of 2424. Although he now lives France, he learnt chess in Madagascar and still represents it at the Olympiad. We caught up with him and asked about the chess scene in Madagascar and what his future plans are:

Short chat with Fy Antenaina

The participation of woman players was quite high at the event, and so was the style quotient!

Continue to Part II of the 10th Paleochora Open 2017. It contains the story of how chess developed in this small town and how it was able to host such a huge event. Also you will be able to see some beautiful pictures of the place and decide for yourself if you really want to miss out on the 11th edition of the Paleochora Open in 2018!

Links

• Official site
• Full results (Chess-Results)
• An Indian chess wedding