Pawel Sowinski triumphs in Slovakia Chess Open
Slovakia Chess Open 2024 concluded in Piestany. Held with financial support from the FIDE Aid Package, the chess festival featured two tournaments Open A and Open B running from July 09-17. Both competitions, 9-round Swiss tournaments with classical time control, attracted about 200 players representing 19 national federations. The Open A tournament saw a minor sensation as the 17th seed, 14-year-old FM Pawel Sowinski of Poland (pictured below, right), navigated a strong field to score an impressive 7/9. The second seed, Tomas Laurusas, also netted 7/9 but finished runner-up due to the inferior Buchholz tiebreaker. Both finished the event unbeaten, picking up 25 and 8 rating points, respectively. A large group of players tied for the third position with another youngster, Ilamparthi A R of India, completing the podium. Final standings Open A 1 FM Sowinski, Pawel POL 2433 7 2 GM Laurusas, Tomas LTU 2563 7 3 IM Ilamparthi, A R IND 2434 6½ 4 GM Shyam, Sundar M. IND 2493 6½ 5 GM Demchenko, Anton SLO 2609 6½ 6 GM Aczel, Gergely HUN 2498 6½ 7 IM Moksh, Amit Doshi IND 2368 6½ 8 IM Haring, Filip SVK 2497 6½ 9 IM Aradhya, Garg IND 2418 6 10 IM Hrbek, Stepan CZE 2402 6 Complete final standings Open A Complete finals standings Open B Photos: Slovakia Chess Open Facebook Official website: slovakiachessopen.sk/piestany_2024/