Omer Reshef leads the 2nd Gideon Japhet Memorial Open Tournament – Photo report
Jul 20, 2014
The 2nd Gideon Japhet Memorial Open Chess Tournament 2014 has a surprising leader. After 3 rounds Omer Reshef (ELO 2275) is clear first with 3,0/3, leaving behind many Grandmaster and titled players. See the full standings below.
The High school at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem began nine days of celebration with the participation of 192 chess players from all over the country, from Nahariya to Ashkelon. The tournament is part of a large festival, where one of the headliner events is the match Gelfand – Svidler.
The second edition of the festival was opened with a brief but impressive ceremony by Dr. Philip Zisman, Chairman of the organizing club Iroshhmt, Gilad Japhet, son of Gideon and the moving spirit behind the tournament with key financial and organizational support, Arie Elder, CEO of the Israeli Chess Federation andFA Alen Cohen – Revivo, Tournament Director.
Highpoint of the ceremony was a short movie about Gideon, emphasizing his love to his family, chess ans sports and his motto “Mens sana in corpore sano” (A healthy mind in a healthy body).
The second day was marked by the simultaneous exhibition, given by the first seeded GM Alexander Huzman, who has been a personal coach of GM Boris Gelfand for many years. He played 31 games and won 30 of them, The 15-year-old talented Elnatan Hochman took advantage of the opponent’s mistakes and convincingly won the simultaneous game in 23 moves.
Right after the exhibition GM Huzman couldn’t defeat his tournament opponent Jonathan Bakalchuk and the game ended in a draw.
Omer Reshef was the only player, who outplayed his rival in the third round of Open A. He won against Gindi Shahar with White pieces in 44 moves and solely led the tournament.
Official website/ About Gideon Japhet (1928-2013)/ Follow Open A LIVE
Good tournament.