Dragan Solak wins the Turkish Chess Championship
The Turkish Chess Championship for men was held over 10 rounds of Swiss system from 29th January to 5th February in Kemer, Antalya.
309 participants (52 more compared to previous year), including 19 titled players sorted as 4 GMs, 6 IMs 6 FMs and 3 CMs took part in the championship.
Dragan Solak became the winner of the Turkish Championship after his victory in the last round against the youngster Ege Koksal. It was the first Turkish championship for Dragan Solak, who recently completed the transfer from Serbian Chess Federation and is going to represent the Turkey in the next Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.
IM Mert Erdogdu made a draw against Ogulcan Kanmazalp and finished second. 18-years-old IM Firat Burak took the bronze medal.
Turkish Chess Federation and general sponsor Is Bank provided a prize fund of about 12500 Euro.
The Turkish Women Championship with 69 players concluded on 3rd February. Kubra Ozturk won the title after edging the defending champion Betul Yildiz in the play-off match.
Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich
Your link about the Istanbul Olympiad is dated 2008!! Is there still no confirmation of the event? Has the contract still not been signed? Does FIDE think all us small countries can just drop everything at a moment’s notice to play? It is getting somewhat annoying…
Too many questions, man.
The Olympiad has become a useless event. No wonder Vishy and all the others never play. Who wants to play low-rated patzers anyway??
1. FIDE MUST make the Olympiad NOT RATED.
2. FIDE MUST rank federations not by whatever nonsense they are using now, but by results of federations at the Olympiad.
Maybe then some more stronger players will agree to play.
I know Dragan Solak very well. He was a Turkish prodigy when he was young.