4th Paleochora Open
The 4th Paleochora Open was held from 20th to 27th July 2011 in Paleohora, a small city belonging to the Municipality of Kandanos – Selino, located 60 km southwwest of the city of Chania, in Greece. the tournament was organized by the Municipality of Kandanos – Selino in cooperation with Chess Academy of Chania.
Ukrainian Grandmaster Yuriy Kryvoruchko won the tournament by edging GM Alberto David on better tiebreak. Both players have collected 7.5 points from nine rounds. Moreover, Kryvoruchko continued the string of successes, as he also won the 3rd Rethymno Open which ended few days before Paleochora, and was also the winner of the 3rd Paleochora Open last year. Crete must be his dream island.
Tigran Simonian from Armenia claimed an IM norm. Top placed woman is WGM Sopiko Guramishvili and best placed junior is GM Alexander Ipatov.
The Chania prefecture is the western of the four prefectures of the island of Crete and one of the most popular touristic destinations in Greece, during the summer. Accessing Chania is easy, due its popularity and can be done either by boat or by airplane, since the city has an airport (visit transition). Especially in the summer there are directs flights departing from the most European cities.
The southern part of Chania prefecture is exceptionally beautiful and thousands of tourists are visiting during the summer. The traveler can visit the astonishing Samaria Gorge and the blue-flagged beaches following the southern coastline of the prefecture. The municipality of Kandanos – Selino is famous for its beaches, especially the magic Elafonisi beach, as well as the city of Paleohora, a graphical city with rich nightlife.
Final standings:
1-2. GM Kryvoruchko Yuriy UKR 2652 and GM David Alberto LUX 2609 – 7.5
3-12. GM Banikas Hristos GRE 2593, GM Svetushkin Dmitry MDA 2576, IM Yilmaz Mustafa TUR 2519, GM Sandipan Chanda IND 2656, GM Zubarev Alexander UKR 2597, GM Maiorov Nikita BLR 2535, GM Zinchenko Yaroslav UKR 2543, GM Kharitonov Alexandr RUS 2539, GM Prohaszka Peter HUN 2547 and WGM Guramishvili Sopiko GEO 2329 – 7.0
13-22. GM Ipatov Alexander ESP 2562, Simonian Tigran ARM 2294, GM Nikolov Momchil BUL 2589, IM Sivuk Vitaly UKR 2422, FM Danilenko Dmitriy UKR 2360, FM Chatzidakis Mihail GRE 2311, FM Khabarov Sergey RUS 2305, IM Ashwin Jayaram IND 2449, IM Bae Torstein NOR 2414 and IM Burg Twan NED 2450 – 6.5 etc.
A pretty good score for the winners/