Kalamaria Open 2008

222 participants from 19 countries. Gelashvili and Rozentalis tied first

The 5th Open Kalamaria Chess Tournament took place between 27th August and 3rd September in Kalamaria, Thessaloniki, Greece. The top-seeded GM Tamaz Gelashvili and GM Eduardas Rozentalis finished tied first with 7.0 points after 9 rounds, but Gelashvili took the trophy on better tiebreaks. The best placed woman was Romanian WIM Paulet Jozefine with 6.0/9, which also earned her an IM norm. There were total of 222 participants from 19 countries, divided in two rating groups. 26 titled players and 12 GM played in the A group of the tournament and the total prize fund was 8.300 euros.

All the participants enjoyed the venue and the accommodation at the 4* hotel Golden Star. The Municipality of Kalamaria, Pireus Ban, OPAP and Vivartia were the main sponsors of the event. The official website provided pgn files, photos and all the details of the tournament.

Final standings:

1-2. GM Gelashvili Tamaz 2612 GEO and GM Rozentalis Eduardas 2599 LTU - 7.0
3-9. GM Berg Emanuel 2592 SWE, IM Haznedaroglu Kivanc 2444 TUR, IM Milanovic Danilo 2529 SRB, GM Andriasian Zaven 2533 ARM, IM Salem A R Saleh 2443 UAE, GM Stocek Jiri 2559 CZE and GM Jankovic Alojzije 2532 CRO - 6.5
10-15. GM Timoshenko Georgy 2572 UKR, WIM Paulet Iozefina 2275 ROU, GM Carlsson Pontus 2514 SWE, GM Iotov Valentin 2519 BUL, GM Mastrovasilis Athanasios 2518 GRE and IM Dimitrov Pavel 2415 BUL - 6.0

Tamaz Gelashvili

Eduardas Rozentalis

IM norm for Iozefina Paulet

Ageliki Papathanasiou won the 'B' Group

The playing hall

News and photos: Giannis Antoniadis