CZECH OPEN 2014
25th year of international chess, bridge and games festival
10.7. – 27.7. 2014, Pardubice, CEZ Arena
http://www.czechopen.net
Last Thursday, all attention on the International Chess and Games Festival Czech Open 2014 was focused on the attempt of a Czech record in simultaneous multigame challenge. “It was definitely one of the biggest crowd-pullers of this year’s festival and I think everything went the way we had planned,” stated the director of the festival Jan Mazuch.
Even in the morning, television crews were arriving in the Pardubice ice arena, as the preparations for the afternoon event were reaching a climax. In the remaining hours, the protagonist, David Kotin, had been preparing the tactics for various board games.
There were forty-five different games in total, each forcing Kotin to clash with a different opponent. His task was to go from table to table and finish all games. “It was a challenge, to complete a single circle took me about half an hour, but we finally made it and I am glad it means an entry in the Book of Records,” stated Kotin after the successful attempt.
In order to proceed in accordance with the rules, representatives of Dobrý den agency from Pelhřimov were present – this agency takes patronage over the domain of records and curiosities in the Czech Republic. “The main goal was to provide sufficient number of players, so that Kotin could play against a different individual at each table. Carefully observed indicators of the event included the total time, the youngest participant (aged seven), the number of wins, losses, ties and many others,” explained the record commissioner Lenka Vratišovská. “The record is valid and therefore constitutes a founding entry in the Czech Book of Records, as no similar record has ever been entered,” Vratišovská added.
Kotin, an American based game collector, managed to score 31 wins and 9 ties. The very last game finished 5 hours and 14 minutes after the commencement of the attempt. “It was a demanding challenge, but Mr Kotin and me finally agreed on a tie. I am very glad I could participate in this event, it was definitely an interesting experience,” remarked one of the last remaining opponents after a tie in the game of checkers.
Last week, several popular rapid chess tournaments also took place, of which the most sought after is traditionally the PARDUBICKY KRAJ OPEN, i.e. Czech Open Championship in rapid chess, part of the ACP TOUR. Among the total number of 143 chess players in the start list, a number of resounding names could be found. See the first twenty-five top seeds in the following table; full start list is available on our website:
No. Name FED Rtg (top seeds)
1 GM NISIPEANU Liviu-Dieter GER 2661
2 GM NAVARA David CZE 2630
3 GM OPARIN Grigoriy RUS 2596
4 GM BRYZGALIN Kirill RUS 2582
5 GM VAJDA Levente ROU 2561
6 GM PETR Martin CZE 2559
7 GM BABULA Vlastimil CZE 2549
8 GM CHERNYSHOV Konstantin RUS 2542
9 GM SERGEEV Vladimir UKR 2537
10 GM MEGARANTO Susanto INA 2531
11 GM LALIC Bogdan CRO 2527
12 GM CVEK Robert CZE 2524
The total of 24 grandmasters, 27 international masters and 34 chess players holding a title took part in this tournament. The participants came from 18 different countries.
After nine rounds, a leading group of nine players was established, each of them reaching the amount of seven points, which meant an auxiliary evaluation had to decide. The lucky winner was GM Levente Vajda of Romania, second place went to his compatriot GM Nisipeanu, who represents Germany this year. The third place was claimed by GM Bryzgalin.
In the first four games, GM Vajda did not lose a single point and confirmed his dominance by beating GM Navara with black pieces.
PARDUBICKY KRAJ OPEN has also the status of Czech Championship in rapid chess. The best home player, GM David Navara, ended up on the sixth place and reached for Czech Championship gold. Silver medal went to GM Martin Petr who gave a solid performance and confirmed his form before the upcoming Chess Olympiad. Bronze was claimed by GM Babula.
A fantastic event.