Paleohora International Open Chess Tournament

Round three report and selected games

The 2nd Paleohora International Open Chess Tournament, organized Municipality of Pelekanos, Chania Chess Academy, Prefecture of Chania and Union of Cretan Chess Clubs, is taking place on 21-28th July in Paleohora, Greece. The 9-round tournament with 8.500 Eur prize fund has attracted massive participation, with 230 players gathered at the playing venue in Municipality of Pelekanos Community Centre.

Three rounds have been played and 18 competitors are currently sharing the first place with maximum score. But some of the Grandmasters have already experienced trouble in the early days. GM Viesturs Meijers' casual play was brutally punished by WIM Vita Chulivska, while Pavlos Katzourakis (rated 2134) gave up a queen for three minor pieces against GM Antoaneta Stefanova and scored a beautiful victory.

But the greatest hero to day is 62-years old FM Ioannis Maris (rated 2152), who first sacrificed a piece to beat GM Robert Fontaine in round two, and then won against Fontaine's wife and 2008 European Women Champion GM Kateryna Lahno in the third round! Mr.Maris is also known as director of the 1984 Thessaloniki Chess Olympiad. (Replay the games bellow)

Final preparation and gifts for the participants

The players taking their places for first round

GM Evgeniy Najer, winner of the 2009 World Open and Richard Riordan Chess Festival

Round 3 top results:

GM Najer Evgeniy 1 - 0 IM Venkatesh M R
IM Harika Dronavalli 0 - 1 GM Kotronias Vasilios
GM Kryvoruchko Yuriy 1 - 0 IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy
IM Hunt Adam C 0 - 1 GM Svetushkin Dmitry
GM Gelashvili Tamaz 1 - 0 IM Bellia Fabrizio
IM Lipka Juraj 0 - 1 GM Banikas Hristos
IM Saptarshi Roy ½ - ½ GM David Alberto
GM Gupta Abhijeet ½ - ½ IM Das Arghyadip
IM Lekic Dusan ½ - ½ GM Neverov Valeriy
GM Turov Maxim 1 - 0 Kanakaris Georgios
IM Turova Irina 0 - 1 GM Parligras Mircea
GM Timoshenko Georgy 0 - 1 IM Maryasin Boris
Sandalakis Angelos ½ - ½ GM Moradiabadi Elshan
FM Hug Marcel 0 - 1 GM Drazic Sinisa
GM Rychagov Andrey 1 - 0 FM Prasanna Rao
WIM Bensdorp Marlies ½ - ½ GM Tukhaev Adam
GM Glek Igor 1 - 0 Markidis Konstantinos
FM Livner Anders 0 - 1 GM Antic Dejan
IM Sengupta Deep ½ - ½ FM Grover Sahaj
WIM Chulivska Vita 1 - 0 GM Meijers Viesturs
GM Lahno Kateryna 0 - 1 FM Maris Ioannis

Round 3 standings:

1-18. GM Kotronias Vasilios GRE 2613, GM Antic Dejan SRB 2523, GM Drazic Sinisa SRB 2538, IM Romanko Marina RUS 2447, IM Maryasin Boris ISR 2348, GM Najer Evgeniy RUS 2663, GM Kryvoruchko Yuriy UKR 2611, GM Gelashvili Tamaz GEO 2605, GM Banikas Hristos GRE 2598, GM Turov Maxim RUS 2561, GM Parligras Mircea ROU 2557, GM Glek Igor GER 2528, IM Haznedaroglu Kivanc TUR 2468, GM Bakre Tejas IND 2453, FM Maris Ioannis GRE 2152, GM Rychagov Andrey RUS 2534 and WIM Chulivska Vita UKR 2304 - 3.0
19-34. GM Tukhaev Adam UKR 2534, GM David Alberto LUX 2565, GM Neverov Valeriy UKR 2561, GM Moradiabadi Elshan IRI 2542, IM Lekic Dusan MNE 2394, IM Das Arghyadip IND 2392, Sandalakis Angelos GRE 2350, WIM Bensdorp Marlies NED 2334, FM Grover Sahaj IND 2310, IM Sengupta Deep IND 2488, GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2565, IM Saptarshi Roy IND 2413, GM Vorobiov Evgeny E RUS 2598, IM Managadze Nikoloz GEO 2459, IM Souleidis Georgios GRE 2435 and IM Smith Bryan G USA 2467 - 2.5 etc

Round 4 top pairings:

GM Antic Dejan - GM Najer Evgeniy
GM Kotronias Vasilios - GM Rychagov Andrey
IM Haznedaroglu Kivanc - GM Kryvoruchko Yuriy
GM Svetushkin Dmitry - GM Glek Igor
IM Romanko Marina - GM Gelashvili Tamaz
GM Banikas Hristos - GM Bakre Tejas
IM Maryasin Boris - GM Turov Maxim
GM Parligras Mircea - WIM Chulivska Vita
GM Drazic Sinisa - FM Maris Ioannis
IM Managadze Nikoloz - GM Vorobiov Evgeny E
GM David Alberto - IM Souleidis Georgios
IM Saptarshi Roy - GM Gupta Abhijeet
GM Neverov Valeriy - Sandalakis Angelos
GM Moradiabadi Elshan - WIM Bensdorp Marlies
GM Tukhaev Adam - IM Lekic Dusan
IM Das Arghyadip - IM Sengupta Deep
FM Grover Sahaj - IM Smith Bryan G
Kokolias Konstantinos - GM Timoshenko Georgy
Balaskas Panayotis - GM Fontaine Robert
Karma Pandya - GM Stefanova Antoaneta

Opening speech by chief arbiter IA Sotiris Logothetis

Greek chess legend - GM Vasilios Kotronias (all photos courtesy of the official website)