PHOTO: Chania Chess, chaniachess.gr
Looking back at the list of tournaments played this past July, a strange feeling became something considerably more tangible. High level events were sparser than they had been in a good while. Unfortunately, COVID-19 is rearing its ugly head once again, this time in the form of the Delta variant. It is uncertain when the tournament chess scene will recover from this latest outbreak.
With this in mind, it is not difficult to surmise that the recently finished World Cup was by far the strongest event held in the past month, qualitatively at least. However, due to the fact that it was a knockout match-tournament and not one-on-one, it became necessary to look elsewhere. As the World Open is a bit stronger than my target range for events, this search led to the Paleochora Open, held in Greece, which went from July 23-30.
The tournament caught my eye not only due to the strong field, – 18 GMs, 18 IMs, and an impressive average rating of 1880 FIDE – but also due to the traditional format. With one game a day (excepting rounds two and three), fatigue is less likely to be a major factor in the outcome of the battles, leading to higher quality chess. The local players had even more reasons to fight, as the title of Women’s and Overall Greek Champion were on the line as well.
Though many games from the nine-round tournament are not available for review, what is clear is that, as with many other post COVID-19 events, upsets flowed as freely as water from a spring. Already in the first round, third seeded GM Hristos Banikas was nicked for a draw by an opponent rated 700 points lower than himself! Broadcast of the games began in round three, and my eye was quickly drawn to this theoretically important duel in which an experienced GM (who would later go on to tie for first) was apparently out-prepared. Though his position was objectively superior, the position was murky enough to justify his opponent’s sacrifice of Bishop for two pawns.
Another important game from early on was FM Pascal Karsay’s 4th round win as black against an experienced GM, in an impressive 23 moves. This 21-year-old FM was having the run of his life, starting with 4½/5 including wins against an IM and GM! Unfortunately, after falling to two very strong players in a row he came down to earth, finishing with “only” 5½/9. Still an impressive achievement, and worth a whopping 33 rating points.
Being an open tournament with over 300 players, top-notch matchups only began surfacing in round 5. GM Leon Luke Mendonca achieved the first small lead (of many!) over the rest of the pack after winning a very interesting Najdorf against a young IM from Madagascar to reach 5/5. Common knowledge says that black is better in all Sicilian endgames, and this game certainly proved the cliché! It was only a tough luck loss in the last round that prevented Mendonca from finishing in the top ten.
The top seed of this event, GM Johan-Sebastian Christiansen, started well with 4½/5, but failed to achieve the necessary consistency required to win a high-level open tournament. In the sixth round, with everything left to play for, he dropped a critically important point as white against experienced French GM Sebastien Maze, and then another next round as his risky play with black did not pay off. Black’s Caro-Kann formation was solid, and when white’s chances for an advantage did not coalesce into anything real, Christiansen (formerly one of Magnus Carlsen’s helpers) fell apart surprisingly quickly. With this result, Maze took the sole lead, only to finish with an uninspired 1/3.
The seventh round, in my opinion, had a great impact on which players would go on to win the tournament, and which would end the race as has-beens. Greek IM Nikolas Theodorou won a back-and-forth fight after his opponent misplayed a fine endgame. Despite missing one GM Norm at the time of writing, Theodorou is remarkably already closing in on 2600 FIDE! A few boards down, IM Szymon Gumularz began a three-game winning streak to close the tournament by showing the power of opposite-colored bishops in the attack:
Round 8 saw a slew of draws on the top boards. In any large tournament this is a fact of life, and it certainly made the finish that much more interesting, as five players with 5½/7 won to catch up with the six other leaders. Of the winners this round, I especially liked how GM Hristos Banikas put a positional clamp on his opponent from a seemingly sterile position. Though mistakes were made later in the game, white won a pawn and capitalized when black didn’t defend perfectly.
The last round of any open event is always tinged with similar feelings of exhaustion, tension, nervousness, excitement, anticipation, and even relief, for players and spectators alike. With 11 players on 6½/8 vying for first place, top board games really had to be hotly contested! Luckily, on this occasion the players delivered, fighting it out to the death, only recording two draws on the top six boards.
Of the four remaining top games, only GM Yuri Solodovnichenko had an easy day at the office, capitalizing on GM Maze’s uncharacteristic blunder to secure a tie for first. Playing on board one, IM Rakotomaharo was surely enjoying his time in the spotlight! Unfortunately, his remarkable performance was somewhat tainted by a tough last round, as GM Banikas’s experience showed in another Sicilian endgame. I am sure we will soon be hearing more about this young, talented IM.
IM Gumularz played a very clinical game to exploit GM Mendonca’s “hanging pawns”, and eventually transpose to a rook endgame with an extra pawn. His opponent, likely discouraged by this point, failed to defend a position that may well have been holdable. With both players down to seconds, one more draw was missed much later in the game, and in the end, white converted a very favorable Queen vs. Rook to end this tense struggle in his favor.
Finally, IM Theodorou showed why the accelerated Polish against the Reti is a very risky option for black, at least against a strong, knowledgeable player. By move 15 his positional advantage was already close to insurmountable, and eventually white achieved an opposite-colored bishop endgame with two extra pawns, which was easily converted to a win.
All good things, as the old saying goes, must come to an end. GM Yuri Solodovnichenko was crowned the tournament winner on tiebreaks, and IM’s Theodorou and Stavroula Tsolakidou became the Overall and Women’s Greek Champions respectively. The Paleochora Open is one of those little-known tournaments that often goes under the radar, but still produces many interesting games. Especially amid a renewed wave of COVID-19, it is amazing – and gratifying – to see such events continue to prosper.
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