The 38th edition of Ikaros International Chess Tournament belongs to history. The 134 participants had the chance to take part in a great event, to get to know the beauties of Ikaria, to have fun and enjoy the relaxing pace of the island.
The end of the tournament found, as was already known after the 8th round already, the Hungarian GM Peter Prohaszka in the first place with a perfect score (9/9) and a 3056 rating performance!
Second place went to the Serbian IM Milos Stankovic with 7/9 whie the third place went to to the Australian GMDavid Smerdon with 6.5/9.
The event was organized by the Municipality of Ikaria and Ikaria Chess Club and was sponsored by Hellenic Seaways S.A.
Ikaros 2015 also integrated the Greek Open Championships 2015 for Men and Women. Winner of the title of the Greek Open Champion for 2015 in men’s category is Nikos Galopoulos followed by Thanassis Karagiannisand Ioannis Simeonidis (all with 6.5/9) while in women’s category the title went to Katerina Pavlidou followed by Eleni Stoumbou and Evi Makka.
Aegean Champion for 2015 is Vassilis Sarantos while female Aegean Champion for 2015 is Pothiti Imeneou (Vassilis’ wife :-))
First veteran over 50 years of age was Thanassis Karagiannis while first veteran over 65 years of age was Xrysanthos Pountzas who was also awarded the “Manolis Stavrinadis” Cup.
The winner of Group B was Efthymios Kourouklis (with 8/9) who offered his money prize to the Treatment Center for Addicted People to be used for buying chess boards and chess books for juvenile drug addicts! Second was Antonis Laspas with 7/9 and third Kosmas Nomikos with 6.5/9. Best female in Group B was Angela Karamitani while best Aegean player was 10 year old Sotiris Diamantakos.
Finally an exceptional moment at the closing ceremony was the special award followed by a long round of applause to the group of blind players Marios Doumbos, Giorgo Alijia and Katerina Mandesi who competed equally with the other players showing a fighting spirit and exemplary ethics!
Open A final standings (top 20):
1 GM Prohaszka Peter HUN 2586 9
2 IM Stankovic Milos SRB 2428 7
3 GM Smerdon David C AUS 2523 6,5
4 FM De Wachter Matthias BEL 2268 6,5
5 Galopoulos Nikolaos GRE 2353 6,5
6 GM Velicka Petr CZE 2397 6,5
7 IM Karagiannis Athanasios GRE 2215 6,5
8 FM Simeonidis Ioannis GRE 2282 6,5
9 Sarantos Vasileios GRE 2241 6
10 IM Pastircak Milan CZE 2374 6
11 Verduyn Philippe BEL 2199 6
12 Koukoufikis Alexandros GRE 2216 6
13 WIM Pavlidou Ekaterini GRE 2204 6
14 Mouroutis Konstantinos GRE 2157 6
15 FM Pountzas Hrisanthos GRE 2119 6
16 Kazantzidis Ilias GRE 2115 6
17 De Coninck Rafael BEL 2172 6
18 IM Nadj Hedjesi Balind SRB 2410 5,5
19 IM Pezelj Novak SRB 2466 5,5
20 FM Robulj Nenad SRB 2307 5,5