GM Francisco Vallejo Pons wins 21st Annual North American Chess Open

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012


Hello everyone,


Some cool chess news from America via www.chessdom.com. It's about how chess was played at a casino. But, of course, we talk about the 21st Annual North American Chess Open that was held at Bally’s Casino Resort, 3645 Las Vegas, Nevada, from December 26-29, 2011.

  

The event had 7 sections: Open, Under 2300, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500 and Under 1250. The projected prize fund was $120,000 with $90,000 guaranteed.

GM Francisco Vallejo Pons won the Open Section with an undefeated 6/7. A final round draw with GM Varuzhan Akobian was enough to secure the title for the well known Spaniard.

Akobian, GM Ivan Sokolov and Roman Yankovsky finished 2nd-4th with 5½/7.

Open section final standings:
1. GM Francisco Vallejo Pons – 6.0 ($9261.00 prize)
2-4. GM Varuzhan Akobian, GM Ivan Sokolov and Roman Yankovsky – 5.5 ($2633.34 each)
5-10. GM Alexander Shabalov, IM Marc Tyler Arnold, IM Adam Hunt, IM Enrico Sevillano ($658.25 each), IM Mackenzie Molner and IM Jake Kleiman ($1680.00 each) – 5.0
11. GM Nikola Mitkov – 4.5 ($363.00) etc (62 players)

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