IM Ido Gorshtein and IM Yuliya Shvayger emerged as the winners of the 2022 Israeli Chess Championship.

Held by the Israel Chess Association in collaboration with the Lottery and the Municipality of Arad, the 2022 Israeli Championship (open and women sections) took place in Arad from December 2-13. Arad (not to confuse with the Romanian city Arad) is located on the border of the Negev and the Judean Deserts, 25 kilometers west of the Dead Sea and 45 kilometers (28 miles) east of the city of Beer Sheba. Both events were Swiss tournaments with classical time control.

32 players, including 7 GMs, 9 IMs and 11 FMs competed in a 9 Swiss rounds open category, which saw an impressive success of the "young guns". Ido Gorshtein took a blistering start in the open event, winning four straight games, including an important victory over the defending champion GM Tamir Nabaty in Round 2. After making draws in Rounds 5 and 6 with his main rivals FM Ori Kochavi and GM Avital Boruchovsky he pulled off another two wins and came to the final round a full point ahead of his closest competitor.

The last game vs GM Victor Mikhalevsky was not a walk in the park for the future champion, but eventually, Gorshtein (pictured below) made a hard-fought draw and clinched his maiden national  title with an excellent result of 7.5/9. Boruchovsky also split a point with Or Bronstein and allowed Ori Kochavi, who defeated Semen Dvoirys to catch up and tie for second place. The silver medal goes to Kochavi, thanks to better tiebreaks.

All three medal-winners completed the event undefeated.

Final standings:

The women’s championship turned into an exciting race of two top-rated Israeli female players, the defending champion IM Yuliya Shvayger (pictured below) and IM Marsel Efroimski, dominating the field. It all came to an abrupt end in the penultimate round when Marsel, trailing Yulia by a half-point, suffered an unexpected defeat at the hands of lower-rated Julia Kluchik.

Heading into the final a full point ahead of her main rival, Shvayger made a quick draw and secured the title with an impressive score of 7.5/9. Efroimski finished a half-point behind and took silver. WFM Ronit Levitan netted 6.5/9 and earned bronze.

Final standings:

Photo: Dr. ML-Photo (Mark Livshitz)

Official webpage: chess.org.il/