Hess’ success at Negroponte Open

Fantastic Atalik Wins Negroponte Open
9th to 17th August, in the city of Chalkis, Greece
Report by Chessdom

The 1st international chess tournament “Negroponte 2010” was played from 9th to 17th August, 2010, at the beautiful city of Chalkis, Greece.

The tournament was managed by the Chess Academy Chalkis “Palamedes Evia”, and played as 9-round Swiss Open with total prize fund of 25.000 EUR. The first prize is 3.500 EUR, and there were special awards for women, juniors, rating performance, etc. 204 people from 29 countries competed.

GM Suat Atalik was unstoppable, scored seven victories and conceded only two draws, for a total of impressive 8.0 points from nine games in such a strong field with more than 30 Grandmasters. In the last round he defeated the top-seeded GM Denis Khismatullin with black pieces. Atalik recently returned to tournament arena after a two-year hiatus and a court case against the Turkish Chess Federation, which he won.

American GM Robert Hess bounced back after a loss to Atalik and with a string of victories collected 7.5 points to reach a clear second place.

Round 9 top results:

GM Burmakin Vladimir – GM Hess Robert ½ – ½
GM Khismatullin Denis – GM Atalik Suat 0 – 1
GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan – GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar ½ – ½
GM Sandipan Chanda – GM Moradiabadi Elshan 0 – 1
GM Parligras Mircea – GM Rozentalis Eduardas ½ – ½
GM Papaioannou Ioannis – GM Zablotsky Sergei ½ – ½
GM Nikolaidis Ioannis – GM Vorobiov Evgeny E 1 – 0
GM Graf Alexander – IM Melia Salome 1 – 0
GM Bosiocic Marin – GM Halkias Stelios 1 – 0
GM Andriasian Zaven – Baghdasaryan Vahe ½ – ½
IM Atalik Ekaterina – GM David Alberto 1 – 0
GM Gupta Abhijeet – GM Mastrovasilis Athanasios ½ – ½

Final standings:

1. GM Atalik Suat TUR 2607 – 8.0

2. GM Hess Robert USA 2588 – 7.5

3-7. GM Burmakin Vladimir RUS 2605, GM Graf Alexander GER 2590, GM Bosiocic Marin CRO 2543, GM Nikolaidis Ioannis GRE 2493 and GM Moradiabadi Elshan IRI 2571 – 7.0

8-17. GM Andriasian Zaven ARM 2588, GM Papaioannou Ioannis GRE 2621, GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan IRI 2585, GM Parligras Mircea ROU 2574, GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar IND 2655, GM Rychagov Andrey RUS 2538, Baghdasaryan Vahe ARM 2229, GM Rozentalis Eduardas LTU 2631, GM Zablotsky Sergei RUS 2553 and IM Atalik Ekaterina TUR 2444 – 6.5 etc.