Surprise winners in Hastings

by André Schulz
1/8/2016 – The Hastings Chess Congress has a very long tradition and the legendary Hastings tournament 1895 was one of the strongest tournaments of its time. Emanuel Lasker, Wilhelm Steinitz and Siegbert Tarrasch took part but in the end the American Harry Nelson Pillsbury won the tournament. A real surprise at that time. This year's Congress also had two surprise winners.

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This year a number of strong players and grandmasters travelled to England to pay tribute to the long chess tradition of Hastings. Elo-favorites were GM Ferenc Berkes from Hungary and GM Igor Khenkin from Germany. But in the end neither of them won the tournament. After nine rounds both had half a point less than GM Jahongiv Vakhidov from Uzbekistan and  GM Aleksander Mista from Poland. The two surprise winners shared first place with 7.0/9 each.

The tournament venue leaves no room for doubt: chess is sport.

Dominic Lawson, president of the English Chess Federation
during the opening ceremony.

Masters A: Final standings

Rk. SNo   Name FED Rtg  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 5 GM Vakhidov Jahongir UZB 2546 7,0 42,25 2792
2 3 GM Mista Aleksander POL 2567 7,0 40,00 2762
3 6 GM Sulskis Sarunas LTU 2535 6,5 38,25 2693
4 2 GM Khenkin Igor GER 2605 6,5 36,75 2659
5 8 GM Fodor Tamas Jr. HUN 2492 6,5 36,25 2675
6 1 GM Berkes Ferenc HUN 2650 6,5 36,00 2677
7 15 IM Sarkar Justin USA 2407 6,5 32,75 2605
8 13 IM Bagi Mate HUN 2440 6,0 32,25 2603
9 12 GM Flear Glenn C ENG 2459 6,0 30,00 2485
10 18 IM Krishna C R G IND 2367 6,0 29,00 2533
11 23 FM Batchelor Peter J ENG 2307 6,0 26,25 2420
12 17 IM Eggleston David J ENG 2396 6,0 26,00 2438
13 4 GM Pap Gyula HUN 2551 5,5 30,25 2526
14 11 GM Romanishin Oleg M UKR 2462 5,5 29,00 2531
15 10 GM Hebden Mark L ENG 2469 5,5 27,50 2439
16 16 IM Nagy Gabor HUN 2403 5,5 27,25 2482
17 14 GM Williams Simon K ENG 2439 5,5 27,00 2437
18 7 GM Gormally Daniel W ENG 2506 5,5 26,50 2417
19 9 GM Arkell Keith C ENG 2490 5,5 25,75 2406
20 19 IM Bates Richard A ENG 2331 5,5 24,50 2350
21 82 FM Radovanovic Jovica SRB 2321 5,5 23,25 2354
22 25   Wadsworth Matthew J ENG 2273 5,5 23,25 2330
23 28 IM Prosviriakov Vladimir USA 2232 5,5 22,25 2292

...

Proud winners

 

Games

 

 

Surprise winner Jahongir Vakhidov

Igor Khenkin missed shared first prize by half a point.

As did Ferenc Berkes

ChessBase author Simon Williams

Chess legend Oleg Romansihin

Brendan O'Gorman (Photo by Arthur Hibbitt)

 

Photos: Brendan O'Gorman (Tournament page)

 

Tournament page...

 


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

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