Easter opens in Canberra, Deizisau, Philly (and Victoria)

During the Easter weekend a number of traditional open tournaments were held on different continents. Adam Horvath edged out Gergely-Andras Szabo, Levente Vajda and K. Rathnakaran on tiebreak at the Doeberl Cup in Canberra (Australia), Andrei Istratescu was the strongest at the Neckar Open in Deizisau (Germany) and Magesh Panchanathan won in Philadelphia (USA). Hikaru Nakamura played chess as well.

Doeberl Cup

The Doeberl Cup was held April 4-9 at the Olympus Room of the Hellenic Club of Canberra, Australia. To celebrate the 50th anniversary a impressive book about half a century of Doeberl Cups was presented during the tournament.

As always the schedule was tough: a 9-rounder with on the first four days two games a day and one on the last day. The time control was 40 moves in 90 minutes plus 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds per move from move 1. Besides the Premier tournament there were smaller events for lower rating groups.

Shaun Press blogged on a daily basis about the tournament. About the finish he wrote:

The 2012 O2C Doeberl Cup ended in a 4 way tie for first place, after Indian IM K Rathnakaran defeated countryman IM P Karthikeyan in a dramatic last round game. Once the result of that game was known, GM's Adam Horvath and Gergely Szabo immediately shook hands to ensure a share of first place. On board 3 GM Levente Vajda then ground out a win against GM Deep Sengupta to become the fourth player on 7/9. Not only did the win for Rathnakaran leave him in first place, but he also scored a GM norm, and picked up a bonus $1000 as the sole recipient of the tournaments fighting fund. However the ultimate destination of the Doeberl Cup trophy was GM Adam Horvath who had the best tie-break of the 4 players.

During the tournament GM Ian Rogers gave commentary during every round, and this was captured in the following videos produed by Macauley Peterson. Below you'll find some games in the game viewer.

Selection of games

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Neckar Open

The Neckar Open was held April 5-9 as well, at the Public Hall and the Gymnasium of Deizisau (Stuttgart Region), Germany. And like in Canberra, the players had to play two games a day, but in Deizisau they started with one game on Friday and ended with two on Monday. The rate of play was the more classical 2 hours for 40 moves plus 30 minutes finish the game, so no increment. The tournament was devided into three rating groups (>1800, <2000 and <1400).

Andrei Istratescu became the winner of the 16th edition of the largest chess tournament in Germany. The Frenchman finished on 7.5/9, like Konstantine Shanava but he had a higher Bucholz score. Third came Etienne Bacrot, who had the best tiebreak of thirteen players who scored 7/9.

Selection of games

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Philadelphia Open

The Philadelphia Open was held April 4-8 at the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA). Besides an open groups there were also sections for under 2200, under 2000, under 1800, under 1600, under 1400, under 1200 and even under 1000, as well as several side events. The time control was 40 moves in 90 minutes plus 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds per move from move 1.

GM Magesh Panchanathan finished atop the standings in the open with 7/9. This was a surprising result as Panchanathan beat GM Tamaz Gelashvili in the final round from what seemed to be a worse position around the time control. The Indian thus secured victory after the other GMs that were tied with him going into the round all drew. There was a logjam of GMs just a half-point behind the leader.

Selection of games

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Grand Pacific Open

Another open tournament, held over Easter weekend, was the Grand Pacific Open in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The reason we mention it is the participation of none less than super GM Hikaru Nakamura. The American scored 6/6 in a (for him) very weak field and collected 4,8 rating points. On March 7th, Nakamura tweeted:

After seeing people picking up rating points off of beating weaker players, I am convinced chess ratings should be weighted like in tennis.