Yannick Pelletier wins 5th Swiss title

by Albert Silver
10/6/2014 – Thanks to an easy victory against IM Oliver Kurmann in the final round of the men's title tournament, Yannick Pelletier, who resides in France, won the title of Swiss Champion for the fifth time after winning it in 1995, 2000, 2002 and 2010. It was but one of the highlights in a series of events surrounding the 125th anniversary of the Swiss Chess Federation. A pictorial report.

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The idyllic view

The Kultur Casino where the chess activities took place

The sumptuous playing hall awaiting the competitors

The championship showed how active chess continues to be there

In second place was IM Roland Loetscher who surprised everyone considering the competition such as top-seed Vadim Milov, who had to content himself with third, or defending champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. Loetscher unexpectedly beat Kosteniuk in the first round, but then followed this up with a superb event all the way to the end, and earning a GM norm with 6.5/9. Winning the women's title for the first time was WIM Gundula Heinatz while the Senior champion was FM Vjekoslav Vulević for the second consecutive time.

18-year-old IM Nico Georgiadis

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk

IM Roland Loetscher scored a GM norm on his way to silver in the Swiss championship

GM Yannick Pelletier is now the five-time Swiss champion, having won
his first title nineteen years ago

The 2014 Swiss Championship competitors

In order to promote the noble game, a window was set up with not only chess material...

...but even chess games with clocks that drew a number of spectators

Naturally, if you wanted to buy chess books or DVDs, you did not need to look far

There was also a simul with the 12th World Champion, Anatoly Karpov

Not your usual hourglass

After the games, you were invited to indulge in some "chess wine"

"What do you mean I missed a mate in 17?!"

The top three finishers: Roland Loetscher (silver), Yannick Pelletier (gold), and Vadim Milov (bronze)

Photos by Georg Kradolfer 

Final standings

Links

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Born in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.

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