Three recent tournaments

16-year-old Polish GM Dariusz Swiercz and Dutch IM Roeland Pruijssers were the last two players to qualify for the C group of the upcoming Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Strong players like Pavel Eljanov and Ruslan Ponomariov participated in the Governor’s Cup of the Kharkiv region in Ukraine – the team from Chernigov led by Baadur Jobava won. Alexander Onischuk won the Thanksgiving Open on tiebreak. A small, combined report on these three tournaments.

Cultural Village

Dariusz Swiercz | Photo © Stichting Schaakpromotie IJmond

The 15th Cultural Village Tournament took place November 15-24 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. It’s the traditional GM tournament that functions as a qualifier for the C group of the big brother held in January in the same coastal town. GM Dariusz Swiercz, GM Oleksandr Sulypa, IM Sahaj Grover, GM Arun Prasad, IM Roeland Pruijssers, IM Twan Burg, IM Piet Peelen, Lars Ootes, Sjoerd Plukkel and Enrico Blees played.

16-year-old Dariusz Swiercz from Poland won the tournament outright and so after taking the bronze medal at the World Junior he will now be playing in the spotlights of the Tata tournament. IM Roeland Pruijssers also qualified for the C group by defeating another contender and compatriot IM Twan Burg in the last round.

Cultural Village 2010 | Final Standings

Governor’s Cup

The 6th “Femida – Governor’s Cup of the Kharkiv region” took place November 23-26 at the Palace of the students of the National Law Academy of Ukraine named after Yaroslav the Wise. The competition was attended by the four best professional chess clubs in the Ukraine: Law Academy, Kharkiv (Ukrainian champion 2000, 2004, 2005), PVC – Kievchess, Kiev (bronze medalist of the 2009 European Club Championship, Ukrainian champion 2007, 2008, 2009), A Dan Dso – PGMB, Chernigov (bronze medalist of the club championship of Europe in 2010, Ukrainian champion 2010) and Rivne FOREST Zubr Rivne (Ukrainian vice-champion, 2010).

The playing hall of the Governor's Cup of the Kharkiv region | Photo © Nastia Karlovich

Many strong players participated, including Ruslan Ponomariov, Pavel Eljanov, Alexander Moiseenko, Andrei Volokitin, Baadur Jobava, Sergei Zhigalko, Evgeny Miroshnichenko, Anton Korobov and 14-year-old talent Ilya Nyzhnyk. The team from Chernigov led by Baadur Jobava won and clinched the first prize of 12,000 USD.

Ruslan Ponomariov, looking at his position, against Baadur Jobava | Photo © Nastia Karlovich

Governor’s Cup of the Kharkiv region 2010 | Final Standings

Thanksgiving Open

Nigel Short (r.) looking at Jim Davies' position during the first round | Photo © Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis

This tournament was a 6-rounder held during the Thanksgiving weekend at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, USA. After six rounds, a four-way tie emerged at the top of the leaderboard to send four grandmasters home with $900 each. After tiebreaks, GM Alexander Onischuk emerged as the overall tourney winner.

Onischuk emerged from the two-day schedule unscathed to take on GM Dmitry Gurevich in round four. In round five, the eventual winner took on GM Yury Shulman in a King’s Gambit that eventually petered out into an uneventful draw. His hard-fought draw against GM Gregory Kaidanov in the final round helped secure a tie for first for both.

English grandmaster Nigel Short also participated and finished the tournament with a score of 4.5/6. After drawing Robson in round four, Short had a lost position against IM Jake Kleiman, but still managed to pull out a draw. His three draws in the final three rounds were not enough to catch the rest of the field.

Thanksgiving Open 2010 | Final Standings