 |
 |
Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
|
|
|
|
|
|
© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
28 November 2024
For more information about chess for over-50s, please see our Seniors calendar and our Seniors introduction page and our main Seniors news page. We also now have new pages for British Seniors and Irish Seniors news.
The 11th and final round of the World Senior Individual Championships was played today on the Portuguese island of Porto Santo (near Madeira).
Tiebreaks were required to decide three of the titles. The new champions are:
Women's 50+: IM Masha Klinova (Israel);
Open 50+: GM Alexander Shabalov (USA);
Women's 65+: WIM Birgitte Burchardt (Germany);
Open 65+: GM Rainer Knaak (Germany) - won outright.
The player lists, and full results are available on chess-results. We comment on each of the sections below starting with the 65+ as it was decided first.
The top three boards were drawn very quickly because, it seems, that players in the leading positions did not wish to risk anything. So, after a tournament in which the lead changed hands a few times, the new World Senior Champion is German grandmaster Rainer Knaak who finished with 8.5/11.
In the last round Knaak was Black against IM Christian Maier of Germany who was half a point behind. Maier offered a draw with his fourth move, which was accepted. Maier finished on 8, which could not be worse than joint second, with which he was presumably satisfied.
The board two game between FM Patrick Hugentobler (Switzerland) and IM Alexander Mikhalevski (Israel) was drawn in six moves and board 3 between GM Ljubomir Ftacnik (Slovakia) and GM Zurab Sturua (Georgia) lasted 12 moves. (We are unsure in what order these games finished.)
The board 7 game between IM Boris Maryasin of Israel and FM Terry Chapman of England was also a short draw.
The outcome of this was that Mikhalevski, Ftacnik and Maier finished on 8 points, Hugentobler on 7.5 points while Chapman, Maryasin and Sturua finished on 7.
Boards 4-6 continued play. GM Alonso Zapata of Colombia could join the tie for second place with a win against Spanish GM GM Jose Luis Fernandez Garcia (who was half a point behind) but he lost material in middle-game complications and the Spaniard ultimately won.
When the tiebreaks were applied Mikhalevski won silver and Ftacnik bronze. After his late surge Maier did not win a medal but would have taken home a good prize.
There were also wins for FM Antonio Santos of the host nation, Portugal, who beat GM Jaime Sunye Neto, and for American IM Timothy Taylor, which meant that they and Fernandez finished in joint fifth on 7.5 with Hugentobler.
Chapman with his 7 points was the leading British player. One of the main surprises was that pre-event favourite Sturua (a multiple world 50+ champion) only managed the same total. He lost three games and only took draws in the last two rounds.
English players IM Chris Baker and Brian Hewson both finished with draws and a creditable 5.5/11.
There were no quick draws in the top games in the final round of this tournament. Polish GM Michal Krasenkow, who had a half point lead overnight, got into trouble with White against German GM Frank Holzke (who started a point and a half behind) until Black missed a strong tactics at move 24.
Instead Holzke won a pawn but an endgame with two rooks each and bishops of opposite colours arose in which White found sufficient counterplay.
For quite some time, a glitch on the live board made it appear that Krasenkow had blundered in time trouble and lost. In fact he managed to exchange a pair of rooks, regained the minus pawn and drew after all.
Two grandmasters had started the last round half a point behind Krasenkow: Victor Mikhalevski (Israel) and Alexander Shabalov (USA). After 19 moves Mikhalevski agreed a draw with Ukrainian GM Andrei Maksimenko (who was a point behind).
On board 3 Alexander Shabalov outplayed his fellow American Gregory Kaidanov and finished on eight and a half points, level with Krasenkow. They now had to wait for all games to finish before the tiebreak could be calculated.
Mikhalevski finished in sole third place on 8 points.
Two other players had begun the last round on 7 but boards 4-6 were all drawn so the players who finished with 7.5 were joint fourth.
The leading British player was FM Stephen Dishman who finished on 6 points. He drew eight games and is perhaps disappointed with that.
WFM Petra Fink-Nunn had an excellent tournament. She drew with four IMs and finished on 50% with a performance rating of 2124.
Andrew Burnett and Neil Farrell of Scotland finished on 5 points and Alan Minnican on 4.5. Results suggest they seemed to tire towards the end. There are not many 11-round tournaments for amateurs these days.
The 50+ and 65+ women's championships were combined in one tournament, but with separate awards and prize lists. So 13 women competed for 65+ honours and 17 for the 50+ title and prizes.
There were no ultra-short draws in the top games in the final round of this tournament either, but the top board game was eventually drawn after 25 moves. French IM Silvia Alexieva, who had won the European 50+ championship earlier this month, held the overnight lead overnight and her opponent WGM Monica Calzetta Ruiz (Spain), who was a point and a half behind, could not break down her resistance.
So Alexieva finished on 8.5 which was eventually equalled by IM Masha Klinova after a 42-move win on board 2. So tiebreaks would be needed after all games were finished. Klinova was placed first.
WGM Tatyana Grabuzova (Spain), who was in clear bronze medal place already, won a long game against German WIM Birgitte Burchardt who was overnight leader in the 65+ standings.
Veteran GM Nona Gaprindashvili had played an 11-move draw against her old rival Galina Strutinskaia so finally Burchardt and Gaprindashvili finished level on 6. WGM Tatyana Bogumil also managed to win her game to reach the same score, so tiebreaks were needed to determine the order of medals.
Burchardt had the best tiebreak, reflecting the fact that she was ahead most of the time and therefore met most of the strongest 50+ players (as well as Bogumil). Chess legend Gaprindashvili finished second in the 65+ standings, which is where she was for most of the event. Unfortunately she did not play either of the other medallists.
English-registered WIM Ingrid Lauterbach finished with 6/11 and New Zealand's Helen Milligan (originally from Scotland) scored 50%.
Back to our Seniors news page