GM Vitaly Kunin wins 18th Neujahrs Open 2015 on tie-break
The 18th edition of Neujahrs Open was organized by Chess Club “SV Chemie Guben 1990 e.V.” on 2-6th January 2015 in Guben, a town on the Lusatian Neisse river in the state of Brandenburg, Germany.
The event was a 9-round Swiss open tournament with tempo of play 120 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 seconds increment starting from move one and first prize in the amount of 1.000 €.
The venue of play was the splendid Spa Hotel Waldow**** and it gathered 100 players from seven different countries – Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.
GM Vitaly Kunin outplayed GM Mikhail Simantsev in the last round of the open tournament to claim the gold.
Kunin edged grandmasters Mikhail Ivanov and Vladimir Sergeev on tie-break after the whole group finished the event with 7/9 points.
Fourth place was shared in a three-way tie by GM Gyula Pap, GM Mikhail Simantsev and IM Sergey Grischenko with 6.5 points each.
The best female prize went to the 16-year-old Josefine Heinemann, who scored 5.5 points, followed by WIM Ioulia Makka (5/9) and Julia Antolak (5/9).
Manfred Jandke was awarded the best senior trophy for scoring 5.5 points and leaving behind Puchel Werner and Jurgen Schefter (both with 5 points), while Alexander Kitze obtained 6 points to emerge a clear winner in the junior group.
You can see the full standings and the photo report below!
Final standings (top finishers):
1. GM Kunin,Vitaly 2589 Freibauer Mörlenbach-Birkenau GER 7.0
2. GM Ivanov,Mikhail M 2394 SF Bad Mergentheim RUS 7.0
3. GM Sergeev, Vladimir 2437 UKR 7.0
4. GM Pap,Gyula 2543 HUN 6.5
5. GM Simantsev,Mikhail 2432 Chess club Kharkov UKR 6.5
6. IM Grishchenko,Sergey 2417 RUS 6.5
7. Jagodzinski, Piotr 2254 SV Chemie Guben POL 6.0
8. GM Womacka,Mathias 2438 SK Schwäbisch Hall GER 6.0
9. GM Meijers,Viesturs 2483 ESV Nickelhütte Aue LAT 6.0
10. Kitze,Alexander 2180 Grün-Weiß Granschütz GER 6.0
That is impressive.