Marijan Petrov wins Vienna Open

Marijan Petrov won one of the stronger summer opens of 2011: the Vienna Open. The Bulgarian grandmaster edged out David Shengelia of Austria on tie-break after both had finished on 7.5/9.

The stunning playing hall inside the Vienna Town hall | Photo © Heinz Herzog

The Vienna Open took place August 13-21 in the beautiful Vienna Town Hall. About 700 participants from over 40 countries played in four Elo groups: the A group for 2000+ players, a B group for Elo below 2000, a C group for Elo below 1600 and a D group also for Elo below 1600 but with only five rounds. There was also a blitz tournament (won by GM Evgeny Gleizerov) and a children’s event. The rate of play was 40 moves in 90 minutes plus 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment from move 1.

After six rounds there were three leaders: Austrian GM David Shengalia, IM Egor Krivoborodov of Russian and GM Igor Khenkin of Germany. All three players had only conceded one draw thus far. Top seed Khenkin suffered a loss in the 7th round against another German grandmaster, Rainer Buhmann. By then a pack of seven players were in shared first place: the already mentioned Shengelia, Buhmann and Krivoborodov together with GM Mikhail Ulibin of Russian, IM Alexander Fauland of Austrian, GM Marijan Petrov of Bulgaria and GM Tomas Polak of the Czech Republic.

It got even more crowded at the top when the games at the top three boards ended in draws in the penultimate round. There was now a group of no less than 11 players with 6.5 points. Again several games finished in draws in the last round, but two players fought themselves outside and above the pack: Shengalia beat Hertneck on three, and Petrov defeated Khenkin on board one. Prizes were not shared in Vienna, so Petrov took home the full 2,000 Euros and Shengalia got 1,500.

In the B group, our friend and colleague Macauley Peterson (who, amongst many other things, produces theFEB) played an excellent tournament. He was fighting for the prizes all the time, and suffered his only loss in the last round but still pocketed a modest money prize.

Vienna Open 2011 | Round 9 (Final) Standings (top 30)

#	Title	Name	Fed	Elo	Pts	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Petrov Marijan	BUL	2537	7.5	55.5	44.5	45.25
2	GM	Shengelia David	AUT	2513	7.5	55.0	44.0	44.50
3	GM	Buhmann Rainer	GER	2582	7.0	57.5	45.0	43.25
4	GM	Ulibin Mikhail	RUS	2538	7.0	57.0	45.5	43.00
5	IM	Krivoborodov Egor	RUS	2507	7.0	54.0	42.5	40.25
6	GM	Polak Tomas	CZE	2540	7.0	53.0	41.5	40.00
7	IM	Rau Hannes	GER	2448	7.0	52.5	41.5	39.25
8	GM	Stanec Nikolaus	AUT	2536	7.0	52.0	41.0	38.50
9	IM	Rombaldoni Denis	ITA	2495	7.0	51.5	40.5	39.25
10	GM	Farago Ivan	HUN	2485	7.0	49.0	38.0	37.25
11	GM	Khenkin Igor	GER	2629	6.5	54.5	43.5	36.50
12	IM	Lekic Dusan	MNE	2378	6.5	53.5	41.5	37.00
13	IM	Fauland Alexander	AUT	2477	6.5	53.0	42.0	36.25
14	GM	Hertneck Gerald	GER	2551	6.5	53.0	42.0	35.75
15	FM	Ortmann David	GER	2322	6.5	52.5	41.0	35.00
16	IM	Riff Jean-Noel	FRA	2493	6.5	51.5	41.0	35.50
17	IM	Schneider-Zinner Harald	AUT	2346	6.5	51.0	39.5	34.50
18	FM	Schachinger Mario	AUT	2360	6.5	51.0	39.0	36.00
19	IM	Pötsch Hagen	GER	2403	6.5	50.5	39.5	35.75
20	FM	Wallner Joachim	AUT	2328	6.5	50.5	38.5	34.25
21	FM	Georgiadis Nico	SUI	2328	6.5	50.0	39.5	33.25
22	IM	Jakovljevic Vlado	BIH	2377	6.5	49.0	37.5	33.50
23		Feher Adam	HUN	2323	6.5	48.5	37.0	32.75
24	GM	Gleizerov Evgeny	RUS	2590	6.5	48.0	38.5	32.75
25	IM	Gozzoli Yannick	FRA	2532	6.5	48.0	38.0	33.25
26	FM	Fröwis Georg	AUT	2329	6.5	48.0	36.5	32.50
27	IM	Biti Ozren	CRO	2400	6.5	47.5	37.0	34.50
28	IM	Kummer Helmut	AUT	2362	6.5	47.0	37.0	32.25
29	FM	Stromboli Carlo	ITA	2304	6.5	47.0	37.0	32.25
30	FM	Certek Pavel Dipl. Ing.	SVK	2314	6.5	47.0	36.5	33.25