The 37th Zurich Christmas Open took place on 26-30th December at the Crowne Plaza Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland.
The seven-round Master Tournament, for players rated over 2000, drew 118 participants of which 50 were titled, including 23 grandmasters. Top seed Polish grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek took clear first with 6.0/7 to claim the top prize of CHF 5000.
Grandmasters came from as far as Argentina, such as Sandro Mareco...
...or Brazil such as GM Alexandre Fier
French GM Christian Bauer
Wojtaszek scored an important last-round win against GM Ivan Popov, while the co-leader entering the last round, Igor Kovalenko, was unable to achieve more than a draw and remained in second.
Top seed Radoslaw Wojtaszek was in excellent form and finished first with
6.0/7 and a 2823 performance
[Event "Weihnachtsopen 2013 M"] [Site "?"] [Date "2013.12.30"] [Round "7"] [White "Woitaszek, Radoslaw"] [Black "Popov, Ivan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D11"] [WhiteElo "2711"] [BlackElo "2644"] [PlyCount "67"] [EventDate "2013.??.??"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bg4 5. Qb3 Qb6 6. Nc3 e6 7. Nh4 Bh5 8. h3 Qxb3 9. axb3 Na6 10. g4 Nb4 11. Ke2 g5 12. gxh5 gxh4 13. Bg2 Nxh5 14. Bf3 Nf6 15. Bd2 Nd7 16. Ra5 Nb6 $2 {A mistake that allows White to build his queenside pressure.} 17. c5 $1 Nc8 18. Rha1 Na6 19. Rxa6 $3 {An excellent exchange sacrifice that frees the way for the b-pawns and takes advantage of Black's dreadful piece coordination.} bxa6 20. Rxa6 Kd7 21. b4 Rb8 (21... Ne7 {was better, but would still not extricate Black from trouble} 22. b5 Bg7 23. bxc6+ Nxc6 {and here White has the hammer blow} 24. Nxd5 $3 exd5 25. Bxd5 Rhc8 26. Be4 {Threatening Bf5+} Rc7 27. Ba5 Nxa5 28. Bxa8 Nb3 29. c6+ Kd6 30. Ra4 $18 { And the knight will fall.}) 22. b5 cxb5 23. Bh5 Ke7 24. e4 $1 b4 25. Bg5+ Ke8 26. Na4 Be7 27. Bf4 Rb5 28. Rxe6 dxe4 29. Rc6 Kd7 30. Rc7+ Ke6 31. Ke3 Rd8 32. Kxe4 f5+ 33. Kd3 Ra5 34. b3 {An impressive victory to decide the tournament.} 1-0
Igor Kavalenko had an excellent tournament, coming in second with 5.5/7 and
performing over 100 Elo above his actual rating
Ivan Popov
15-year-old FM Lars Oskar Hauge from Norway
Second seed Evgeny Alekseev, rated 2698, had a lukewarm
tournament and finished with 5.0/7 and ninth
20-year-old WGM Alina Kashlinskaya finished strong with two wins and 5.0/7
Ukrainian WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova
The General Tournament (Under 2050 Elo) with 229 participants was also a seven-round Swiss Open. Martin Schweighoffer of Uster emerged the sole winner with 6.5/7 and took the top prize of CHF 1000.
The total prize money of both tournaments exceeded CHF 30,000.
Organizer Georg Kradolfer together with the winners Igor Kovalenko (second),
Radoslaw Wojtaszek (first), and Csaba Balogh (third)
Final standings
|
Rk
|
Ti.
|
Name
|
Rtg
|
Fed
|
Pts
|
TB
|
|
1
|
GM
|
Wojtaszek Radoslaw |
2711
|
POL
|
6.0
|
32.0
|
|
2
|
GM
|
Kovalenko Igor |
2643
|
LAT
|
5.5
|
32.5
|
|
3
|
GM
|
Balogh Csaba |
2648
|
HUN
|
5.5
|
31.0
|
|
4
|
GM
|
Georgiev Kiril |
2648
|
BUL
|
5.5
|
30.5
|
|
5
|
GM
|
Bogner Sebastian |
2558
|
SUI
|
5.5
|
30.0
|
|
6
|
GM
|
Gallagher Joseph |
2495
|
SUI
|
5.5
|
26.5
|
|
7
|
GM
|
Van Kampen Robin |
2601
|
NED
|
5.0
|
33.0
|
|
8
|
GM
|
Bartel Mateusz |
2649
|
POL
|
5.0
|
33.0
|
|
9
|
GM
|
Alekseev Evgeny |
2698
|
RUS
|
5.0
|
30.0
|
|
10
|
GM
|
Grachev Boris |
2669
|
RUS
|
5.0
|
30.0
|
|
11
|
GM
|
Miezis Normunds |
2554
|
LAT
|
5.0
|
30.0
|
|
12
|
GM
|
Sengupta Deep |
2570
|
IND
|
5.0
|
28.0
|
|
13
|
GM
|
Sebenik Matej |
2496
|
SLO
|
5.0
|
28.0
|
|
14
|
GM
|
Turner Matthew J |
2509
|
SCO
|
5.0
|
28.0
|
|
15
|
GM
|
Mareco Sandro |
2581
|
ARG
|
5.0
|
27.0
|
|
16
|
WGM
|
Kashlinskaya Alina |
2422
|
RUS
|
5.0
|
24.5
|
|
17
|
GM
|
Malakhatko Vadim |
2542
|
BEL
|
5.0
|
24.0
|
|
18
|
GM
|
Bauer Christian |
2630
|
FRA
|
4.5
|
32.0
|
|
19
|
GM
|
Popov Ivan |
2644
|
RUS
|
4.5
|
31.5
|
|
20
|
GM
|
Fier Alexandr |
2572
|
BRA
|
4.5
|
31.0
|
A special thank you to the organizer for not only providing excellent pictures but taking the time and effort to identify the players.
Pictures by Georg Kradolfer
