The World Senior Chess Championship 2023 took place in Terrasini, Italy, with a championship for players age 50+, 65+, and a combined women’s section with prizes both for players 50+ and 65+. At the time of writing, no official photos for the event are available.
It was a “double gold” performance for England, with GMs Michael Adams and John Nunn winning the 50+ and 65+ sections, respectively, each with scores of 8½/11, and each on tiebreaks ahead of one co-champion (Serbian GM Suat Atalik and Slovakian GM Lubomir Ftacnik, respectively).
Despite taking the gold on tiebreaks, it was actually Atalik who was leading by a half-point entering the final round. He managed only a draw, though, allowing Adams to “win on demand” and leapfrog the leader:
The leaderboard in the 65+ Open was even more tense before the final round: six players trailed Argentian GM Daniel H. Campora by only half-a-point. This meant that, if Ftacnik could take out Campora (or hold him to a draw), then as many as three other players could join the leader on 8½/11. This looked likely, as Campora had at least a draw within his grasp for most of the game, until…
From here, boards three and four ended peacefully, but Nunn had already joined his countryman in producing a fantastic example of “must-win” chess. Like Adams, Nunn also boasted higher tiebreaks.
Spanish GM Monica Calzetta Ruiz won the Women’s section outright with a score of 8½/11, and Russian WGM Galina Strutinskaia was the top finisher age 65+, also finishing clear second overall, with 8/11.
After losing to 1866 rated Latvian player Polina Ni in the first round, Calzetta Ruiz roared back with four straight wins to reignite her title chances. Here’s the upset from board three in the first round:
But a sixth-round loss to Strutinskaia put a damper on things:
Or, at least, it would have if Calzetta Ruiz did not go on another four-game streak. As evidenced by her refusal to take a peaceful result against Strutinskaia, this is a player who is set on winning at any cost. Indeed, her only draw in the event was in round 11, by which point a draw was guaranteed to clinch outright first (as Strutinskaia’s game had already finished in a draw). When a player wins eight games in a single event, the losses of course “feel” more newsworthy, but it’s only fair to share at least one of her wins. Here’s the author’s favorite: a slow build-up on the kingside.
A total of 12 Americans participated in the event, with five in the 50+ Open and seven in the 65+ Open. No American women participated, although the U.S. Senior Women’s Championship was run concurrently.
The highest finishing American was GM Maxim Dlugy, with a 7½/11 score in the 50+ Open good enough for a tie for fifth place. Dlugy essayed a number of compelling — not to mention entertaining — wins in the middle of the tournament before ending on three consecutive draws. Despite not losing a game, a few other players just managed to win a couple more than he did.
IM William Paschall also had a nice result in Terrasini, going 7/11 in the 50+ Open and notching a win against Slovenian GM Georg Mohr in the process.
The biggest success ratings-wise was Michael Gilbert in the 65+ Open. A 1905-rated player finishing on a “plus score” with 6/11 is impressive enough, but Gilbert was not paired the first two rounds (and given zero points in each round). So he actually ended up going 6/9 to earn a 2054 performance rating and net 32 points.
Full results available here.
Categories
Archives
- December 2023 (1)
- November 2023 (25)
- October 2023 (37)
- September 2023 (27)
- August 2023 (37)
- July 2023 (47)
- June 2023 (33)
- May 2023 (37)
- April 2023 (45)
- March 2023 (37)
- February 2023 (28)
- January 2023 (31)
- December 2022 (23)
- November 2022 (32)
- October 2022 (31)
- September 2022 (19)
- August 2022 (39)
- July 2022 (32)
- June 2022 (35)
- May 2022 (21)
- April 2022 (31)
- March 2022 (33)
- February 2022 (21)
- January 2022 (27)
- December 2021 (36)
- November 2021 (34)
- October 2021 (25)
- September 2021 (25)
- August 2021 (41)
- July 2021 (36)
- June 2021 (29)
- May 2021 (29)
- April 2021 (31)
- March 2021 (33)
- February 2021 (28)
- January 2021 (29)
- December 2020 (38)
- November 2020 (40)
- October 2020 (41)
- September 2020 (35)
- August 2020 (38)
- July 2020 (36)
- June 2020 (46)
- May 2020 (42)
- April 2020 (37)
- March 2020 (60)
- February 2020 (39)
- January 2020 (45)
- December 2019 (36)
- November 2019 (35)
- October 2019 (42)
- September 2019 (45)
- August 2019 (56)
- July 2019 (44)
- June 2019 (35)
- May 2019 (40)
- April 2019 (48)
- March 2019 (61)
- February 2019 (39)
- January 2019 (30)
- December 2018 (29)
- November 2018 (51)
- October 2018 (45)
- September 2018 (29)
- August 2018 (49)
- July 2018 (35)
- June 2018 (31)
- May 2018 (39)
- April 2018 (31)
- March 2018 (26)
- February 2018 (33)
- January 2018 (30)
- December 2017 (26)
- November 2017 (24)
- October 2017 (30)
- September 2017 (30)
- August 2017 (31)
- July 2017 (28)
- June 2017 (32)
- May 2017 (26)
- April 2017 (37)
- March 2017 (28)
- February 2017 (30)
- January 2017 (27)
- December 2016 (29)
- November 2016 (24)
- October 2016 (32)
- September 2016 (31)
- August 2016 (27)
- July 2016 (24)
- June 2016 (26)
- May 2016 (19)
- April 2016 (30)
- March 2016 (36)
- February 2016 (28)
- January 2016 (32)
- December 2015 (26)
- November 2015 (23)
- October 2015 (16)
- September 2015 (28)
- August 2015 (28)
- July 2015 (6)
- June 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (2)
- April 2015 (1)
- February 2015 (3)
- January 2015 (1)
- December 2014 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- October 1991 (1)
- August 1989 (1)
- January 1988 (1)
- December 1983 (1)
Comments
Immensely njoying John Nunn…
Immensely njoying John Nunn's book on composition solving lately. Good to see his continued success over the board.
Great stuff and thank you Jj…
Great stuff and thank you Jj "the cool" Lang. I will definitely play in Romania ,September2024. Jude Acers/New Orleans
The photos album is posted…
The photos album is posted on UniChess (the organizer) Facebook page.
Did anyone make any title…
Did anyone make any title norms?
Sir Peter...Not In real…
Sir Peter...Not In real deal life.. no absolutely not at the top..Sir Peter.....the one the only Sir Hermann "the Marco Polo of chess"Van Riemsdijk of Brasil.. years ago..........( unlike GM Kaufman2008 Bad Wischenahn,Germany)...... TIED for first gold and was denied the Fide grandmaster title (by an absolute miracle Grandmaster Larry Kaufman got his well deserved FOR DECADES gm title while tying with feisty man of true life adventure..,one thousand epic tales creature ....
GrandmasterSuba) ..it does not matter..competition is truly savage and open to the whole world in 190 world chess federations ..Sir Peter..you do not have to kneel and ask permission of silly stupid local bureaucratic idiots ,LONG GONE rating crooks,and catch 22 rulers to play,..You just go...there are no words to describe it ..you.(I.e. Jump in- the water is fine!"-immortal US 1944 US chess champion Arnold S. Denker) ....Are in competition with yourself to do your best..Soon the entire US championship ...
Will be run absolutely like this..no" You are so special "status privilege for anyone save the defending champion..ONE Player from every single state in America..,regardless of rating, internet stay at home strictly supervised quick world chess cup format internet preliminary play) from all 50 American states in world cup knockout format..all over in 8 murderous savage days flat..LIVE IN PERSON PLAY MANDATORY FOR FINAL BIG MONEY Final ROUNDS ONLY...2 knockout rounds per day.all people can also buy in later like the US OPEN TENNIS EVENT..Masters golf tourney,, national football league.EVERYBODY PLAYS..PERIOD.NO Privileges FOR ANYONE Save defending champion..especially absolutely absurd "will you accept a draw chicken chess" grandmaster rating clubs. Yup..every black kid,every Asian kid,all women get to play in 4 hours flat PERIOD. in a 50 state thriller diller4 hour long Strictly supervised internet US chess championship play in...Sunday 1 pm . Do not kid yourself..because US CHESS HAS BROUGHT CHESS BY HOOK or CROOK TO SCHOOL CHILDREN FOR ALMOST A CENTURY...IT WILL HAVE ABSOLUTE POWER TO ORGANIZE CHESS FOR KIDS ALL THE WAY DOWN THE LINE..PARTICULARLY FOR CHILDREN AT RISK.....US CHESS.ORG IS NOT A JOKE..DESPITE ADMITTEDLY HUGE PROBLEMS..IS GOINGTO LEAD WORLD CHESS..PERIOD. Because it is last to. ..Get serious it will be FIRST!..itis adaptable ,gutsy and is despite flaws open to all children sponsors.IT IS GOING TO BE A MONSTER SPONSOR MAGNET!.The killer all universe HARTMANN-'jj the cool'. chess news web site right here is just the start. US Chess is mercifully also hopefully out of war zones. Simply A huge advantage indeed..-pray this continues forever.
Jude Acers/ New Orleans. ps........ Immortal quote
long ago via Armenian. Television......"I do not really believe I should ever be allowed to offer my opponent a draw" -super grandmaster/certified golden chess golden prince,all American good guy LEVON ARONIAN, world. World Top Ten player for decades.
Add new comment