2013 World Senior championship

Chess club Rijeka has, under the sponsorship of the City of Opatija, City of Rijeka, Mountain litoral county, and tourist boards of Opatija and Kvarner, just organized the 23rd World Senior Chess Championship for men and women.

Opatija is a town in western Croatia, just southwest of Rijeka on the Adriatic coast. It is a popular summer and winter resort, and is surrounded by beautiful woods of bay laurel. The whole sea-coast to the north and south of Opatija is rocky and picturesque, and contains several smaller winter resorts.

The croatian town of Opatija

Maiden with the seagull

Opatija is known for the Maiden with the seagull, a statue by Zvonko Car (1956), which is positioned on a promontory by the Juraj Šporer art pavilion. It has turned into one of symbols of Opatija. A gilded variant of the statue Madonna, that once stood here but was demolished by communists after the end of World War II, now stands in front of Saint James's Church.

The opening ceremony gets the red carpet treatment

In the men's competition there were 201 participants from 40 countries of which ten were grandmasters, 25 international master and 33 FIDE masters.
After eleven rounds, first place was taken by GM Anatoly Vaisser, who ws undefeated with 8.5/11, which landed him the title for the second time after his win in 2010.

Checking the pairings board for the next victim

The bones may creak more, but not the brain

Second place was taken by last year's winner Jens Kristiansen with the same amount of points but due to the weaker tiebreak, this year it was not enough for the title. Croatian grandmaster Krunoslav Hulak ended on third place with 8.0/11.

Saving the moment

French IM Nicolas Giffard (left) was one of France's very first IMs

Hailing from distant Brazil is David Borenstajn with quite a vest!

In the women's tournament there were 25 players from nine countries and the first name of the tournament was the former women world champion and overall grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili (Georgia).

The women's competition was no less hard-fought and awards the WGM title
to any winner who does not already have it

Surprisingly the title was won by the women's Fide master Yelena Ankudinova (Kazakhstan) with 7.5/9 who by winning this title became a women's grandmaster.

The tournament poster

Second place was taken by Nona Gaprindashvili (Georgia) with 6.5/9 and third by Tamar Khmidashvili (Georgia) with 6.0/9. Last year's winner Galina Strutinskaya ended the tournament with 6.0/9 but only sixth place due to a worse tiebreak.

The winners GM Anatoly Vaisser and WGM Yelena Ankudinova (formerly WFM)

There was also a blitz tournament won by GM Yuri Balashov with 10.5/11

The women's blitz tournament was won by WGM Galina Strutinskaya with 6.0/7

Final standings of men's event

Rk	SNo	Tit	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB
1	1	GM	Vaisser Anatoly	FRA	2523	8.5	55.5
2	10	GM	Kristiansen Jens	DEN	2407	8.5	50.0
3	2	GM	Hulak Krunoslav	CRO	2473	8.0	52.0
4	8	GM	Suba Mihai	ROU	2413	8.0	50.0
5	5	GM	Balashov Yuri S	RUS	2440	8.0	49.0
6	15	FM	Herzog Adolf	AUT	2379	8.0	47.0
7	6	IM	Rogulj Branko	CRO	2420	7.5	52.0
8	12	IM	Mochalov Evgeny V	BLR	2404	7.5	51.0
9	14	IM	Kakageldyev Amanmurad	TKM	2384	7.5	48.5
10	24	IM	Van Riemsdijk Herman C.	BRA	2347	7.5	48.5
11	21	IM	Berkovich Mark A	ISR	2357	7.5	47.5
12	11	IM	Rukavina Josip	CRO	2405	7.5	47.0
13	71	FM	Vokoun Jan	CZE	2185	7.5	44.5
14	35	FM	Thormann Wolfgang	GER	2271	7.5	44.5
15	28		Wahlbom Magnus	SWE	2304	7.5	44.5
16	20	IM	Pritchett Craig W	SCO	2359	7.5	42.0
17	3	GM	Vasiukov Evgeni	RUS	2457	7.0	49.0
18	61		Karason Askell O	ISL	2220	7.0	46.5
19	18	IM	Mishuchkov Nikolai M.	RUS	2367	7.0	46.5
20	32	IM	Filipenko Alexander V	RUS	2288	7.0	46.0
21	13	GM	Chernikov Oleg L	RUS	2400	7.0	46.0

Click for complete standings

Final standings of women's event

Rk	SNo	Tit	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts
1	9	WFM	Ankudinova Yelena	KAZ	2121	7.0
2	1	GM	Gaprindashvili Nona	GEO	2312	6.5
3	5	WGM	Khmiadashvili Tamar	GEO	2158	6.0
4	3	WGM	Fatalibekova Elena	RUS	2252	6.0
5	4	WIM	Miednikova Swietlana	RUS	2166	6.0
6	2	WGM	Strutinskaya Galina N	RUS	2299	6.0
7	11	WFM	Bogumil Tatiana	RUS	2074	5.5
8	13	WFM	Khropova Larisa	RUS	2009	5.5
9	8	WIM	Melashvili Nino	GEO	2126	5.0
10	17		Baliuniene Margarita	LTU	1885	5.0
11	10	WIM	Beltz Martina	GER	2100	5.0
12	7	WIM	Lauterbach Ingrid	ENG	2132	5.0
13	14	WFM	Kierzek Mira	MKD	2005	5.0
14	15	CM	Milligan Helen	NZL	1977	4.5
15	18		Khalturina Tatiana	RUS	1823	4.5
16	12	WFM	Beliaeva Natalia	RUS	2027	4.5
17	6	WIM	Titorenko Natalia I	RUS	2143	4.0

Click for complete standings

FIDE World Senior Champions crowned

The 23rd FIDE Individual World Senior Championships 2013 were held on 11-24th November, 2013, at the conference centre Tamaris in Grand Hotel 4.Opatijska Cvijeta in Opatija, Croatia.
 
The Championships were organized by the Chess Club “Rijeka” in agreement with FIDE and Croatian Chess Federation, under the auspices of the Mountain-littoral County, the City of Rijeka and the City of Opatija.

The Women Section had 25 players competing over nine rounds of Swiss system. The surprising winner is WFM Yelena Ankudinova from kazakhstan (rated 2121) who edged the former champions Nona Gaprindashvili, Tamar Khmiadashvili, Elena Fatalibekova and Galina Strutinskaya.

The Open Section had 200 participants from 40 countries, including 10 Grandmasters and 25 International Masters. The playing format was 11-round Swiss.

The 2010 World Senior Champion GM Anatoly Vaisser from France and the 2012 World Senior Champion GM Jens Kristiansen from Denmark shared the first place with 8,5/11 points each. Vaisser took his second title thanks to the superior tie-break.

The 23rd World Senior Chess Championships for men and women were open to all players representing the FIDE Chess Federations, regardless of their title or rating, providing that the men are older than 60 (born in 1953 or earlier) and women are older than 50 years of age (born in 1963 or earlier).

Tournament website