GM Levan Pantsulaia claimed his back-to-back national titles after winning the 81st Georgian Championship. The 12-player round-robin with classical time control took place in Tbilisi from January 25 to February 05, 2022. The event brought together the best Georgian players except for Baadur Jobava.

Playing in his home town just like a year ago, Levan Pantsulaia grabbed the lead early and convincingly won the title with a round to spare, scoring 8 points out of 11. Now he has four victories in Georgian Championship under his belt (2008, 2015, 2021 and 2022).

Despite losing to the champion, GM Merab Gagunashvili and IM Noe Tutisani had a good tournament and finished just a half-point behind Pantsulaia. Kudos to the lowest-rated Noe Tutisani (pictured below), who earned bronze, completed his second GM norm and picked 30 rating points along the way.

The rating Mikheil Mchedlishvili became the only participant to defeat the champion in the last-round encounter, but it was his only consolation as he did not get into the top-3.

Final standings:

Photo: Georgian Chess Federation Facebook page