Bologan wins Cebanenco Memorial

Top Moldavian player GM Viktor Bologan emerged winner of the International Rapid Chess Festival – Veaceslav Cebanenco Memorial after an exciting last round and Armageddon tie-break.

The Veaceslav Cebanenco Memorial took place on 1-2nd April at the Republican Chess and Draughts Club, Sciusev street 111, in Chisinau, Moldova.

The main open tournament A for players rated higher than 2200 FIDE had 37 participants. The playing format was 9-round Swiss, FIDE rated, with time control 15 min + 10 sec.

Both leaders after the penultimate round, Alexei Shirov and Yuriy Kuzubov, lost in their last games with white pieces against Vitaliy Bernadskiy and Vladimir Malakhov, respectively.

Bologan took advantage of this development to leap ahead to the first place by defeating former World ChampionZhu Chen.

The overall winner was to be decided in a mini-match between two top finishers – Bologan with 7 points and Malakhov with best tie-break in the group with 6,5 points.

They exchanged a win for each, but then Bologan won the Armageddon tie-break to claim the top prize.

Replay games with analysis

Tournament website

Final standings:

1 GM Bologan Viktor MDA 2680 – 7
2 GM Malakhov Vladimir RUS 2777 – 6.5
3 GM Shirov Alexei LAT 2742 – 6.5
4 GM Kuzubov Yuriy UKR 2583 – 6.5
5 IM Bernadskiy Vitaliy UKR 2552 – 6.5
6 GM Lysyj Igor RUS 2666 – 6
7 IM Nigalidze Gaioz GEO 2421 – 6
8 GM Zhu Chen QAT 2438 – 5.5
9 GM Svetushkin Dmitry MDA 2628 – 5.5
10 Golub Dan MDA 2290 – 5.5
11 IM Zajarnyi Anatolyi MDA 2274 – 5
12 IM Hamitevici Vladimir MDA 2494 – 5
13 GM Sanduleac Vasile MDA 2397 – 5
14 FM Vavric Pavel MDA 2271 – 5
15 IM Itkis Boris ROU 2342 – 5
16 Iovcov Valerii MDA 2237 – 5
17 Bizovi Mihai MDA 2050 – 5
18 IM Slovineanu Viacheslav MDA 2431 – 4.5
19 IM Martemianov Iaroslav MDA 2365 – 4.5
20 Fedotov Eduard MDA 2208 – 4.5
21 IM Vedmediuc Serghei MDA 2327 – 4.5
22 FM Ogleznev Alexandr MDA 2264 – 4.5
23 GM Rogozenco Dorian ROU 2513 – 4
24 GM Nanu Costica-Ciprian ROU 2532 – 4
25 GM Solodovnichenko Yuri UKR 2564 – 4
26 FM Ungureanu Vlad ROU 2337 – 4
27 WIM Dragomirescu Angela ROU 2262 – 4
28 IM Soltanici Ruslan MDA 2359 – 4
29 FM Agafii Victor MDA 2291 – 4
30 Cerbulenco Liviu MDA 2114 – 4
31 Gorbanovsky Oleg MDA 2035 – 3.5
32 Chetrari Nikita MDA 1890 – 3.5
33 Procop Egor MDA 2070 – 3
34 Chircu Vadim MDA 2209 – 3
35 IM Petrenko Svetlana MDA 2225 – 2.5
36 Martinenco Sergiu MDA 1891 – 2.5
37 WGM Ionescu Irina ROU 2191 – 2