World Open: Petrosian wins, Abdumalik is sensation

No tiebreak needed

This tournament is one of those annual tournaments that essentially every relatively strong American chess player has been to at least once in their life. It is almost a pilgrimage of sorts, even for many players who are not at that level. With over $200,000 in the prize pool and many side events such as a blitz tournament and women’s championship, people were sure to travel from all over to spend a good three, four, five, or even six days playing chess!

The winner of the tournament was most likely going to be one of the stronger grandmasters. Many thought the winner would be GM Le Quang Liem, the top seed of the tournament and a strong 2700 FIDE player.

GM Le Quang Liem  | Photo: Vanessa Sun

However, GM Tigran L. Petrosian edged out Le Quang, and many other players, for first place. GM Petrosian achieved clear first with a score of 7.5/9 and only one loss total to GM Jeffery Xiong in the tournament. This is the second huge win for GM Petrosian, following his success as the winner of the National Open tournament, which took place in Las Vegas this past June.

GM Petrosian’s tournament win was not a given until the very end of the tournament.

Jamaal Abdul-Alim’s U.S. Chess article explores the grandmaster’s thought process going into the last round, knowing that if he drew against GM Oliver Barbosa, his last round opponent, there would be a big prize split. Although GM Yaro Zherebukh, one of the participants of the tournament, had a disappointing result himself, he offered to annotate GM Petrosian’s last game, which sealed the big prize money:

Tigran Petrosian - Oliver Barbosa (annotated by GM Yaro Zherebukh)

Surprisingly enough, GM Petrosian did not have enough of chess and played in the World Open Blitz Championship side event. It was held after the ninth round of the tournament and he won that, too, with a 9.0/10 score!

Despite not winning the tournament, GM Le Quang Liem later commented on his experience more clearly for ChessBase readers: "This is the first time I played the World Open - I don't play a lot of open tournaments in the US - so getting used to the tight schedule was a big challenge. It was nice to see so many chess players and friends during the tournament. I didn't put any pressure on myself at the start, and just wanted to warm up after a long break (nearly three months) from chess. I think my performance was decent, but I definitely have to improve a lot for the upcoming tournaments."

Those tournaments are: the Danzhou Super GM tournament (July, China), the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz in the Grand Chess Tour (August, USA), and the World Chess Cup (September, Georgia).

GM Le Quang Liem shared some thoughts about his recent and upcoming activities

The Vietnamese grandmaster’s win over GM Jianchao Zhou was his highest rated of the event:

Le Quang Liem - Zhou Jianchao (annotated by GM Yaro Zherebukh)

The real superstar of the tournament, though, was IM Zhansaya Abdumalik of Kazakhstan. Perhaps the most impressive result of the entire tournament was her win over Zherebukh in Round 8. The young woman had the strongest showing of all the non-GMs in the tournament, winning the top 2300-2449 prize. In fact, she played so well that she earned a GM norm!

Reflecting on her performance, Abdumalik said, "It is difficult for me to get used to the time control and the fact that most tournaments in America are held two rounds a day. My best game was against GM Yaro Zherebukh. I played reliably in it and the position was almost equal to the end of the game. Then he made a blunder that solved the result of the game. He was my first 2600+ GM win."

As to where she goes from here, Abdumalik will play Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games 2017 and the World Girls U-20 Championship. Many congratulations to IM Abdumalik, possibly the happiest player of the tournament.

17 year-old IM Zhansaya Abdumalik scored a GM norm and was one of the sensations at the World Open | Photo: Vanessa Sun

Other players, especially other grandmasters, did not fare so badly, either. GMs Jeffery Xiong, Yuniesky Quesada Perez, Jianchao Zhou, and Andrey Stukopin all scored 7.0/9, like GM Le Quang Liem.

Jianchao Zhou scored 7.0/9 and won $4000 | Photo: Francine Silver

GM Jeffery Xiong had a unique perspective about the event overall, "For the last 12 months, I mostly just play in one game per day round robins. The World Open gave me a chance to play in a faster paced tournament format. I needed to warm up for the Match of the Millennials (which is two games per day) and wanted to play good chess, just like every other chess player. I went to have fun and got to see a lot of friends from all over."

And playing good chess was certainly something he did. Here is one of his wins:

Jeffery Xiong - Aleksandr Lenderman (annotated by GM Yaro Zherebukh)

Jeffery Xiong also tied for 2nd-6th with 7.0/9 | Photo: Vanessa Sun

According to one of the tournament directors, this year’s World Open tournament attracted players from more than 30 countries. These foreign players were not only traveling grandmasters, either. One astonishing success story unrelated to the successes of the top finishers in the open section was from an Indian chess player, Meet Puri, who traveled all the way from India to play in the U1800 section of the tournament. Meet also competed in the last installment of Millionaire Chess this past October, winning $3,000.

Meet Puri with GM Maurice Ashley at Millionaire Chess 3

The Indian chess player came back to play in the United States specially for the World Open, despite the doubts of a few friends. He tied for 2nd in his section and even tied for first place for Mixed Doubles with his partner, Saikhanchimeg Tsogtsaikhan. The other team that tied for first place for mixed doubles was none other than a brother and sister duo: GM Ruifeng Li and his sister, Rachael.

Li Ruifeng talks to Rachael before a game | Photo: Vanessa Sun

Even with these successes, many other players who may not have done so well in the tournament expressed disappointment over results at the World Open (myself included, but not due to my score performance or lack of prize). However, it is worth noting that the nine rounds were long for everyone — anyone who got through it, especially amateurs, should be proud of their hard work. Those who did well in the tournament are most likely still beaming with joy when people ask how their weekends went. Those who did not do as well hopefully still had fun or learned something to improve on their game.

GM Oliver Barbosa, who tied for 7-10th place and tied for 4th-5th place for mixed doubles | Photo: Francine Silver

A special thanks to GM Yaro Zherebukh for sharing his analyses with the readers

Final Standings

Click for complete standings

Special thanks to Francine Silver, Patrick Tang, and Tim Hanks for the pictures, GM Yaro Zherebukh for the annotated games, and GM Jeffery Xiong, GM Le Quang Liem, and IM Zhansaya Abdumalik for the quotes.