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/