Korobov crowned Ukraine’s chess champ for second time

Kharkiv’s Korobov crowned Ukraine’s chess champ for second time
Aug. 7, 2012, 8:38 p.m. | Sports — by Mark Rachkevych

After 11 hard fought rounds, Anton Korobov emerged a full point ahead of a strong field of 11 other grandmasters who had a combined average FIDE rating of 2666 – a record for the nation’s top chess honors in the 81 years that it has been held, and by today’s standards would be considered an international super chess tournament.

Seven of the nine Ukrainian grandmasters that are ranked in the top 100 in the world took part in the mind sport event.

Korobov, 27, ended the almost two-week chess battle without losing to opponents that included Ruslan Ponomariov, the 2002 world chess champion, and Ukraine’s 2011 chess champion. Korobov also bested four other ex-Ukrainian title holders along the way earning him a $20,000 prize fund and an above 2700 rating performance.

He scored eight points out of a possible 11 in the single round-robin event, in a field that included six grandmasters rated higher than him leading into the tournament.

Korobov, who is a graduate of Ukraine’s famed Kramatorsk chess school in Donetsk Oblast – along with Ponomariov, Zakhar Efimenko, Oleksandr Areshchenko, and Yuriy Kuzubov – first won the championship in 2002 in the Crimean resort town of Alushta.

Tiebreakers had Areshchenko of Luhansk come in second who trailed whoever was in first place for the latter half of the tournament. In third came Lviv’s Andriy Volokytin who held the lead in the later rounds but dropped crucial points under pressure.

As a testament to the competition’s fierce competitiveness, only four players came out with a plus score after the tournament.

Rated 2691, Areshchenko also had an above 2700 rating performance with Korobov who is currently rated at 2683 by FIDE, the world’s chess governing body.

The total prize fund was $75,000, the same as in 2011.

All the matches can be viewed in PGN format here.

The tournament was held in Kyiv’s President Hotel.

Four of the tournament’s participants will join their compatriot Vasyl Ivanchuk of Lviv on Aug. 27 in Turkey to defend Ukraine’s title in the biennial world FIDE chess Olympiad.

Final Standings of the 2012 Ukrainian Chess Championship, Kyiv, President Hotel

Source:http://www.kyivpost.com