GM Vahap Sanal of Turkey came out on top in the Fagernes International GM tournament (Norway). A small town of about 2000 inhabitants located 185 km from Oslo, Fagerness hosted a traditional tournament held in two sections: GM and Open. The event, supported by the FIDE Aid Package, took place in the Scandic Valdres Hotel from April 2-9. The 2023 edition of GM tournament is included in the new FIDE Circuit.
All games in both the GM Group and the Open Group, 9-round Swiss tournaments with classical time control, were played together in a big venue in the basement of the hotel. Coffee and ice water were available free of charge outside the playing venue during the playing sessions.
The GM tournament was a close race of several top seed participants, with GM Abhimanyu Puranik of India coming into the final round half a point ahead of GM Vahap Sanal. The highest-rated GM Samvel The-Sahakyan (Armenia), Eduardas Rozentalis (Lithuania) another Indian, IM Adittya Mittal, trailed the leader by a full point.
In the final round, Puranik made a quick draw with Rozentalis, whereas Sanal scored a crucial victory over Mittal. As a result, both Sanal and Puranik finished on 7½ /9 rounds, with the former taking first place thanks to better rating performance (first tiebreaker).
GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia was third with 7 points, half a point ahead of GM Eduardas Rozentalis and GM S.P. Sethuraman (India) on 6½.
Rozentalis took both the veteran prizes, for the highest number of points and rating performance.
Final standings Fagernes GM:
1 | GM Vahap Sanal | 2582 | 7½ |
2 | GM Abhimanyu Puranik | 2599 | 7½ |
3 | GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | 2613 | 7 |
4 | GM Eduardas Rozentalis | 2504 | 6½ |
5 | GM S.P. Sethuraman | 2639 | 6½ |
6 | IM Tor Fredrik Kaasen | 2462 | 6 |
7 | IM Chatterjee Koustav | 2520 | 6 |
8 | IM Mittal Aditya | 2505 | 6 |
9 | IM Elham Abdrlauf | 2519 | 6 |
10 | FM Benny Aizenberg | 2366 | 6 |
The best woman prize goes to GM Monica Socko of Poland, ahead of the two Indians, WGM Vantika Agrawal and WIM Savitha Shri Baskar (pictured below). Agrawal, in addition, got the prize for the highest rating performance among the women.
The Open was won by Sondre Stai of Norway with 7 points. Rune Kleiven Rynning of Norway on 6½ took second place, while Tim R. Spanton of England was third with the best tiebreak of several players on 6 points.
Spanton was best veteran (60+) and Ida Lahlum (sister of the organizer) was the best woman.
Photo: Tom Eriksen
Official website: fagerneschess2023.blogspot.com/