The 37th Zurich Christmas Open took place on 26-30th December at the Crowne Plaza Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland.
The 7-round Master Tournament, for players rated over 2000, had 118 participants. Polish Grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek took a clear first place with 6,0/7 points to claim the top prize of CHF 5000.
Wojtaszek signed an important last-round win against GM Ivan Popov, while the overnight co-leader Igor Kovalenko could not achieve more than a draw and remained on the shared 2nd place.
The General Tournament (U2050) with 229 participants was also held over 7 rounds of Swiss system. Martin Schweighoffer of Uster emerged sole winner with 6,5/7 points to take the top prize of CHF 1000.
The total prize money of both tournaments exceeded CHF 30,000.
The next tournament in Switzerland is Hilton Basel Chess Festival which is starting on 1st January 2014 in Basel.
Master Tournament final standings (top finishers):
1 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw POL 2711 – 6
2 GM Kovalenko Igor LAT 2643 – 5.5
3 GM Balogh Csaba HUN 2648 – 5.5
4 GM Georgiev Kiril BUL 2648 – 5.5
5 GM Bogner Sebastian SUI 2558 – 5.5
6 GM Gallagher Joseph SUI 2495 – 5.5
7 GM Van Kampen Robin NED 2601 – 5
8 GM Bartel Mateusz POL 2649 – 5
9 GM Alekseev Evgeny RUS 2698 – 5
10 GM Grachev Boris RUS 2669 – 5
11 GM Miezis Normunds LAT 2554 – 5
12 GM Sengupta Deep IND 2570 – 5
13 GM Sebenik Matej SLO 2496 – 5
14 GM Turner Matthew J SCO 2509 – 5
15 GM Mareco Sandro ARG 2581 – 5
16 WGM Kashlinskaya Alina RUS 2422 – 5
17 GM Malakhatko Vadim BEL 2542 – 5
18 GM Bauer Christian FRA 2630 – 4.5
19 GM Popov Ivan RUS 2644 – 4.5
20 GM Fier Alexandr BRA 2572 – 4.5
21 GM Pelletier Yannick SUI 2576 – 4.5
22 WGM Bartel Marta POL 2306 – 4.5
23 IM Mozharov Mikhail RUS 2535 – 4.5
24 FM Gloor Roger SUI 2335 – 4.5
25 WGM Doluhanova Evgeniya UKR 2350 – 4.5
26 Turci Stefano ITA 2219 – 4.5
27 Kaczmarczyk Dennis GER 2361 – 4.5
28 GM Sethuraman S.P. IND 2553 – 4.5
29 WGM Schneider Veronika HUN 2273 – 4.5
30 GM Pikula Dejan SRB 2499 – 4.5
Impressive.