GM Alexandre Danin wins Paul Keres Memorial
To celebrate the 98th birth anniversary of the legendary Estonian chess grandmaster Paul Keres, the Estonian Chess Federation held a chess festival from January 3 to January 16. Paul Keres was elected the Estonian Sportsman of the Century.
The festival comprised two events: from January 3 to 6, two youth tournaments (for boys and girls) took place, and from January 10 to 16 the main event – International Paul Keres Memorial 2014 – was held.
The youth tournaments saw 88 participants from Estonia, Russia, Latvia and Sweden. The boys’ tournament was won by Kirill Chukavin and the girls’ tournament was won by Anna Sagadijeva.
More detailed information about the youth event can be found from the tournament website: http://www.maleliit.ee/tabelid/2013/Keres/index.php?akt=2.
International Paul Keres Memorial 2014 drew 67 chess players from 13 federations. Grandmaster Alexandre Danin emerged a clear winner with 7 points out of 9. IM Artem Smirnov won the second place and the bronze medal went to GM Alexander Yemelin. All three players were from Russia.
The best representative of Estonia was FM Ottomar Ladva (5,5 points; 13. place) who was also the best ranked U18 player. After the seventh round, Ladva held the second place and had the IM norm within reach but unfortunately missed a win and eventually lost a study-like endgame against GM Evgeny Gleizerov in round 8, and in round 9 was defeated by GM Viorel Iordachescu.
The home audience could rejoice over Robert Dubrovin’s IM norm, at least. Toms Kantans from Latvia also achieved the IM norm.
More detailed information, photos, games etc. can be found from the festival webpage: http://www.maleliit.ee/tabelid/2013/Keres/index.php
Impressive.