Commonwealth and South African Open Chess Championships
GM Gawain Jones grabs the gold on better tiebreak
Chess South Africa on behalf of FIDE and the Commonwealth Chess Association organized the 2011 Commonwealth & South African Open Chess Championships. The Championships were played from Saturday 25th June 2011 until Sunday 3rd July 2011.
The playing venue was at the Emperors Palace Hotel Casino & Convention Resort in the City of Ekurhuleni in Gauteng, South Africa. Guaranteed total prize fund was raised to R205 000 = approx 20.000 EUR.
The Championships included the following three individual events:
– The 2011 Commonwealth & South African Open Chess Championships (Main event)
– The 2011 Commonwealth & South African Open B – section
– The 2011 South African Open Blitz Chess Championships
The South African Open Blitz Championship 2011 was played on 25th June and England’s GM Gawain Jones convincingly won the title with a crushing 9/9 score. Second is Indian hope IM Grover Sahaj with 8.0 points.
The Open events continued with massive participation of 388 players in the Main Event and 324 in the B Section.
After the exciting finish two English Grandmasters, Gawain Jones and Nigel Short, shared the first place with 9.5 points each. In the last round they defeated GM Abhijeet Gupta and GM Pablo Lafuente, respectively.
Short succeeded in his intentions revealed in an interview with Vijay Kumar, however Jones was declared the winner on slightly better tiebreak score. German junior IM Niclas Huschenbeth reached excellent position in the shared 3rd place.
Final standings, Commonwealth & South African Open 2011 Open Section:
1-2. GM Jones Gawain CB ENG 2596 and GM Short Nigel D ENG 2682 – 9.5
3-5. GM Smerdon David AUS 2520, IM Huschenbeth Niclas GER 2502 and GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2526 – 9.0
6-11. GM Lafuente Pablo ARG 2555, FM Jere Daniel ZAM 2344, IM Grover Sahaj IND 2485, GM Laxman Rajaram IND 2446, IM Ringoir Tanguy BEL 2399 and IM Karavade Eesha IND 2343 – 8.5
12-28. GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2604, FM van der Nat Nicholas P RSA 2308, IM Harika Dronovali IND 2520, IM Kobese Watu AKW RSA 2355, WGM Ghate Swati IND 2317, IM Mokal Prathamesh S IND 2405, CM Bouah Lyndon RSA 2147, WGM Subbaraman Meenakshi IND 2317, Dole Anant RSA 2103, IM Mabusela Johannes M RSA 2272, Makoto Rodwell ZIM 2166, Anderson Gavin A RSA 2157, CM Cawdery Daniel J RSA 2274, FM Phiri Richmond ZAM 2165, Simutowe Musa ZAM 2119, Ovcina Denis RSA 2248 and CM Notha Moakofi BOT 2123 – 8.0 etc
So Short choked again?
Way to go Gawain !!!
The LOC wants to thank all the participants, especially all the GM’s who came to our lovely country and had a ball of atime!