GM Hrant Melkumyan is 2011 European Blitz Champion
The European Blitz Chess Championship 2011, under the auspices of Bronisław Komorowski – the President of the Republic of Poland and the European Parliament, was played on 16th December 2011, in The Palace of Culture and Science, Plac Defilad 1, Warsaw, Poland.
The Championship was organized by the Warsaw Foundation for Chess Development in cooperation with the Polish Chess Federation, under the auspices of the European Chess Union.
The tournament was played over 13 double rounds of Swiss system with the time control of 3 minutes for a game for a player, with an increment of 2 seconds per move. 367 players competed.
Grandmasters Alexei Dreev, Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Hrant Melkumyan shared the first place with 20/26 points each. After the knock-out tiebreak with the time control of 4 minutes for white and 3 minutes for black for a game, with an increment of 1 second per move, Hrant Melkumyan took the gold medal, while Alexei Dreev earned the silver.
The total prize fund was 10,000 € – main prizes 7,650 € and special prizes 2,350 €. First place was 2000 € worth.
The competitions continue tomorrow with the European Rapid Chess Championship 2011.
Final standings:
1-3. GM Dreev Aleksey RUS 2710, GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw POL 2705 and GM Melkumyan Hrant ARM 2615 – 20.0
4. GM Socko Bartosz POL 2635 – 19.5
5-8. GM Korobov Anton UKR 2660, GM Polgar Judit HUN 2710, GM Riazantsev Alexander RUS 2710 and GM Moranda Wojciech POL 2568 – 19.0
9. GM Jaracz Pawel POL 2542 – 18.5
10-14. GM Volokitin Andrei UKR 2695, GM Shimanov Aleksandr RUS 2549, GM Timofeev Artyom RUS 2659, GM Gajewski Grzegorz POL 2616 and GM Kravtsiv Martyn UKR 2601 – 18.0
15-28. GM Movsesian Sergei ARM 2710, GM Bologan Viktor MDA 2665, GM Bacrot Etienne FRA 2714, GM Jones Gawain C B ENG 2635, GM Świercz Dariusz POL 2584, GM Ruck Robert HUN 2579, GM Belov Vladimir RUS 2641, GM Olszewski Michal POL 2539, GM Lintchevski Daniil RUS 2575, GM Sjugirov Sanan RUS 2622, GM Kempinski Robert POL 2603, GM Zhigalko Sergei BLR 2651, GM Simonian Hrair ARM 2468 and IM Tomczak Jacek POL 2544 2400 – 17.5 etc
Impressive.