World Open 2010

video and information after round 3

The World Open 2010 will take place from June 29 to July 5, 2010 at the Valley Forge Convention Plaza. Each tournament will be over 9 rounds with norms available in the Open and Under 2400 Sections. The projected prize fund is $250,000 and at least $175,000 is guaranteed!

The tournament has multiple sections - Philadelphia open tournament, U2400, U2220 etc until U900 section.

Open section

The Open section is the main event of the World Open. The seven days section of the event has one player from the 2700 club - GM Vallejo Pons (Spain), and his main competition comes from Anand's second GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, the Indian GMs Harikrishna and Sandipan Chanda, the British GM Luke McShane, and the Dutch GM Loek Van Wely, a;; with 2,5/3 after 3 rounds. The strongest local is GM Alexander Onischuk at 2,0/3, same as GM Evgeny Najer, GM Jan Gustafsson, and IM Tobias Hirneise.

In the five days section GM Gata Kamsky, GM Viktor Laznicka, GM Vladimir Potkin, GM Alexander Shabalov, GM Mark C Paragua, and a total of 36 players won in round 1.

For the playing hall and atmosphere, check out the video at the top of the article.

Philadelphia 2010

The side event Philadelphia International 2010 was won by IM Bryan Smith who finished on 7/9, a half-point ahead of five other players. Smith was unfortunately a victim of his own success as he missed out on a GM norm having failed to have played against the 3 GMs required.

However, FM Farai Mandizha and Amanda Mateer both put in great performances and managed to play against the necessary opponents for them to score IM and WIM norms respectively.

1 IM Bryan G Smith 2468 USA 7
2 GM Magesh Panchanathan 2549 IND 6.5
3 GM Falko Bindrich 2539 GER 6.5
4 GM Sundaraja Kidambi 2520 IND 6.5
5 IM Anthony Bellaiche 2442 FRA 6.5
6 Mackenize Molner 2439 USA 6.5
7 GM Mark C Paragua 2497 PHI 6
8 IM Gabriel Battaglini 2427 FRA 6
9 IM Samuel Shankland 2507 USA 5.5
10 GM Mikheil Kekelidze 2436 GEO 5.5

Total: 59 players