Winners crowned at Trinidad and Tobago International Open 2022
The Trinidad and Tobago International Open 2022 took place at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre from July 2-7, 2022. The atmosphere in these six amazing days of chess was filled with positive vibes and all-around good camaraderie. The event attracted ten players in the Masters Category and 58 players in the Open Section. There was also a Blitz tournament on the final day with 54 participants battling it out. Dutch GM Robby Kevlishvili won the Masters Section with 8 points. FM Ryan Harper and FM Joshua Johnson made Trinidad and Tobago proud as they took 2nd and 3rd places respectively in the Masters section, both scoring 6 points each. It was quite inspiring to see the performance of local players against their higher-ranked opponents. FM Ryan Harper made a real splash winning over GMs Robby Kevlishvili Alonso Zapata from Colombia. FM Joshua Johnson also secured a victory against GM Alonso Zapata and managed a draw against GM Juan Borges Matos from Cuba. FM Isaiah Mc Intosh, who scored 5.5 points, earning him 4th place in the section, defeated GM Juan Borges from Cuba in the 5th round. FM Kevin Cupid became the top under 2200 player after finishing in 7th place. The Open Category also saw many competitive games. In the end, the top seed Patrick Terhuven of Germany raised to the occasion and netted 8 points, finishing a half-point ahead of a former National Champion, CM Ravishen Singh. There was a tie for 3rd place between Emar Edwards from Barbados and T&T’s Kishore Ramadhar, both on 7 points. The best female player prize went to Ysvett Hermoso Joel ( Rodriguez) from Venezuela, who chalked up 6 points. She was closely followed by WCM Shemilah James on 5.5 points. The 3rd place female was awarded to Amy Ali, who scored 4 points. Other females on 4 points were Denique Absolam, Kayla Martin, Kiara Brathwaite, and Celine Mohammed. The best Under 20 player was awarded to Keagan Ragobar on 5 points, followed by Amir Mahadeo and Kayla Martin, both on 4 points. The Under 16 section was a close race with three players tying for first place. Kael Samuel Bisnath came out on top thanks to better tiebreaks, followed by Brad Munroe Brown and Chandresh Prabhakar. Kiara Brathwaite is the top U-16 female player. In the Under 12 category, there was also a tie for 1st place, with Tristan Balliram and Kyan Muradali both scoring 5 points. Tristan with tiebreaks favouring the former. They were followed by Luke Gillette on 4.5 points, who was placed 3rd, and Taydan Balliram, also on 4.5 points, but 4th on tie break. The top Under 12 female was Adaya Johnson. GM Robby Kevlishvili emerged as the winner of the blitz event with a perfect score of 9/9, followed by FM Joshua Johnson (7.5/9) in second and FM Kevin Cupid (7/9) in 3rd. The top female was Jennika Lynch, who ended with 5 points, and the top junior was eleven-year-old Kyan Muradali, who scored 5.5 points. The TTCA President was grateful and elated by the success of the event and the tremendous support by all stakeholders. “All I can say is that this was just an amazing event. It exceeded all expectations, given some of our constraints leading up to the start. The level of performance by local players in both sections keeps me optimistic about the future of chess in Trinidad and Tobago! I am also so happy to be part of this venture with my executive team, who continues to provide all the support and effort needed to pull off an event at such a high standard!” she said during the closing ceremony. Special thanks go out to the Chief Arbiter IA Rohan Waithe from Barbados, Deputy Chief Arbiter NA Roderick Noel, David Martin, TTCA Secretary Sandy Razark, as well as TTCA Executive members Sadiqah Razark and Keelan Hunte. Kudos to the Ministry of Sport and Community Development, FIDE via the Open Aid package, Chess24 for the live streaming of games, all the staff at Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, all the players, parents, guardians, coaches and anyone else who helped to make the event a great success.
Bundesliga 2022: OSG Baden-Baden takes title
OSG Baden-Baden became the champions of Bundesliga 2022 for the 15th time in the last 16 seasons, winning all fifteen matches. Still, as in the previous season, it was an extremely close race for the title. Suffice it to say that the runner-up, SC Viernheim, scored more game points than the champions. The chess Bundesliga is one of the world’s top chess leagues, with 16 teams competing for the German Championship in a single round-robin format. The competition features some of the world’s best GMs, with each team fielding eight players in any match from a roster of 18. A match win earns two match points, and a draw is worth one. It all boiled down to a direct duel played on Saturday, July 9, in which the co-leaders Baden Baden and SC Viernheim clashed. For the most part, Baden-Baden did not seem to win on any board, while Viernheim’s Dennis Wagner got a decisive advantage against Arkadij Naiditsch on the eighth board. Things turned upside down in the end as Wagner allowed a perpetual in a time scramble, while Francisco Vallejo and Richard Rapport outplayed Yuriy Kryvoruchko and David Anton in drawish endings to secure the 5-3 victory for Baden Baden. A vague hope that Solingen could pull off a magic act and defeat Baden-Baden on Sunday, July 10, was gone very soon. The squad lead Fabiano Caruana won 5.5:2.5 and completed the event with a perfect team-point score. Despite losing the last match to the champions, SG Solingen comfortably took third place. Final standings: 1 OSG Baden-Baden 30 80 2 SC Viernheim 27 84 3 SG Solingen 23 76 4 Schachfreunde Deizisau 19 74 5 SK Doppelbauer Turm Kiel 17 65½ 6 SV Werder Bremen 17 63 7 SF Berlin 17 59 8 SV Mülheim Nord 16 59 9 Münchener Schachclub 1836 15 63 10 FC Bayern München 15 62 11 Hamburger SK 14 58½ 12 USV TU Dresden 9 57½ 13 Düsseldorfer SK 9 44½ 14 BCA Augsburg 8 47 15 SK König Tegel 3 32 16 Aachener SV 1 31 Photo: Paul Meyer-Dunker/German Chess Federation Official website: www.schachbundesliga.de
Jonny Hector wins Swedish Championship
Jonny Hector is a new Swedish champion. The 58-year-old native of Malmo claimed his second national title, twenty years after his first triumph back in 2002. The Swedish Chess Championship 2022 took place in Uppsala from July 1-10 and was played in several different classes – from a beginner’s tournament to the battle for the Swedish Championship gold in the Swedish Champion class, a round-robin with classical time control, featuring several Sweden’s best chess players. Hector grabbed the lead in the middle of tournament distance after stringing together three victories and was coming into the final round a full point ahead of Jung Min Seo and the defending champion Tiger Hillarp Persson with an excellent score of 6½/8. In the final round, the leader fell to GM Jonathan Westerberg with white pieces after his opponent made a brilliant breakthrough in the center and gave one of his rivals (they faced each other) a chance to catch up with him. Luckily for Hector, Hillarp Person and Seo drew their game and finished a half-point behind the new champion together with Westerberg. The tiebreaks favoured Jonathan Westerberg and Tiger Hillarp Persson, who took silver and bronze, respectively. Westerberg and Seo completed the event unbeaten. Final standings: 1 GM Hector, Jonny 2445 6½ 2 GM Westerberg, Jonathan 2485 6 3 GM Hillarp Persson, Tiger 2512 6 4 IM Seo, Jung Min 2483 6 5 GM Blomqvist, Erik 2523 5½ 6 IM Johansson, Linus 2451 4 7 GM Cramling, Pia 2458 4 8 GM Carlsson, Ludvig 2423 2½ 9 GM Smith, Axel 2421 2½ 10 FM Jogstad, Martin 2351 2 Check out full results in all categories Photo: Official website Official website: www.schack.se