The first Ljubljana Chess Festival 2014 took place in Ljubljana, 15th of March 2014. It was a thematic tournament with Santa Claus visiting in March (aka “Шахматный Фестивал на приз деда Мороза” ) making both children and chess fans happy. The event was a 9 rounds blitz tournament with time control 10 mins + 5 sec, with a hefty prize fund of 11 000 EUR, of which 2000 EUR for the winner.
A total of 229 players from 11 different countries participated in the main event – from Bosna and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Russia, and Ukraine. Parallel to the open tournament, there was a simultaneous exhibition, given by the V.I.P. guest – the former world chess champion Alexandra Kosteniuk.
The organization was at highest level. Tournament directors WGM Darja Kaps (the first Slovenian woman grandmaster) and WFM Indira Bajt had taken care of every detail in the festival, and set stage for multiple charity activities: auction of artworks, simultaneous exhibitions, and chess matches of chess enthusiasts with chess grandmasters. The raised funds server for purchasing chess sets for kindergartens and retirement homes.
The winner of the event was GM Vladimir Dobrov. First place for women took WGM Adriana Nikolova. Scroll down for the final standings. Here is a photo report by Luka Rifelj.
Official website of the tournament: http://www.sah-zveza.si/rez/1403/caissa14/razvrstitev.asp
Top finishers:
1 GM Dobrov,Vladimir RUS 2511 8
2 GM Berkes,Ferenc HUN 2687 7.5
3 GM Lenic,Luka SLO 2654 7.5
4 GM Nabaty,Tamir ISR 2586 7.5
5 GM Georgiev,Kiril BUL 2625 7.5
6 GM Brkic,Ante CRO 2563 7
7 GM Bosiocic,Marin CRO 2554 7
8 GM Mohr,Georg SLO 2483 7
9 GM Cebalo,Mišo CRO 2425 7
10 GM Borišek,Jure SLO 2567 7
11 GM Predojevic,Borki BIH 2607 7
12 GM Rusev,Krasimir BUL 2541 7
13 GM Ajrapetjan,Yuriy UKR 2502 7
14 GM Dražic,Siniša SRB 2415 6.5
15 GM Jovanovic,Zoran CRO 2548 6.5
16 GM Tratar,Marko SLO 2492 6.5
17 GM Lazic,Miroljub SRB 2466 6.5
18 GM Tadic,Branko SRB 2505 6.5
19 GM Horvath,Csaba HUN 2551 6.5
20 GM Arnaudov,G. Petar BUL 2459 6.5
21 GM Jankovic,Alojzije CRO 2569 6.5
22 GM Papp,Gabor HUN 2582 6.5
23 Tica,Sven CRO 2095 6.5
Nice.