Kavala Chess Open: GM Abhijeet Gupta Wins Clear First

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

Hi everyone,

Indian national chess champion GM Abhijeet Gupta has won the 21st Kavala International Open Tournament. The event was held from July 25 to August 1 in Kavala, Greece. The chess tournament had three sections: Open A for those rated above 1900, Open B for the U2000 participants and Open C for U1050 and juniors born after 1.1.2000.

Abhijeet Gupta won the Open A with 7.5/9 points and took home the first prize of 2,500 EUR from a total prize fund of 10.000 EUR. Six players shared the second place with 6.5 points each. The best player among women was WGM Jolanta Zawadzka from Poland.

Abhijeet Gupta played the entire tournament in good form winning six and drawing three games. When asked about his best effort, he said, "I was black against Petrosian and playing against the top rated, he won a pawn but I was somehow able to get some forceful counter-play which really had him in troubles all along."

"It's normally one or two games that decide your fate in the tournament, here fortunately I was able to do well in them, something that had not been happening for some time even though I got a good result in Asian team championships some months back. I hope to carry this form forward," he said.

Final standings:
1. GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2627 – 7.5
2. IM Valsecchi Alessio ITA 2425 – 6.5
3. GM Sethuraman S P IND 2535 – 6.5
4. GM Damljanovic Branko SRB 2564 – 6.5
5. IM Azaladze Shota GEO 2484 – 6.5
6. IM Ashwin Jayaram IND 2476 – 6.5
7. GM Bosiocic Marin CRO 2570 – 6.5
8. GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar IND 2627 – 6
9. GM Petrosian Tigran L ARM 2661 – 6
10. GM Papaioannou Ioannis GRE 2597 – 6
11. GM Sanikidze Tornike GEO 2596 – 6
12. GM Mastrovasilis Dimitrios GRE 2616 – 6
13. GM Jankovic Alojzije CRO 2543 – 6
14. GM Marjanovic Slavoljub SRB 2466 – 6
15. GM Antic Dejan SRB 2506 – 6
16. IM Pavlidis Antonios GRE 2462 – 5.5
17. GM Volkov Sergey RUS 2594 – 5.5
18. Markidis Konstantinos GRE 2291 – 5.5
19. Kerigan Demre TUR 2205 – 5.5
20. GM Neelotpal Das IND 2456 – 5.5
21. Galopoulos Nikolaos GRE 2406 – 5.5

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