The first tournament of 2024 followed our standard format of 7 rounds with a 5+3 time control. Over 40 people took part in this exciting and smoothly unfolding tournament, with a big thank you to all our participants for the amiable vibes and great chess. We hoped you enjoyed it!
This tournament featured a couple of new players who registered with a very high rating, and we therefore looked forward to see whether these new players could dethrone our regular players and take a shot at first place…
That one of these players – Vincent – was going to make a big impression became immediately clear after the first two rounds. He won both in record time, not giving his opponents any chances. However, he was not the only new player making a good impression. After two rounds, the first two boards featured no less than three of these new players, showing a real possibility that a new champion would reign.
The fourth round pitted old against new, with Batu (2nd in Christmas Tournament) defeating Vincent on the first board and Anton (3th in Christmas Tournament) losing against Milko on the second board. After this round, only Markus, Batu and Milko were still unbeaten.
The fifth round seemed to become decisive for determining the winner of the tournament, with Batu and Markus fighting it out on the first board. However, after a very long game continuing long after all other games ended, the game ended in a draw. More importantly, Vincent was able to beat Milko on the second board, completely opening the field again and putting no less than 7 players within 0.5 points of each other.
The sixth round allowed Batu to become sole leader, with Anton and Vincent each following only half a point behind. Fun fact about this round: the first 7 boards all ended with black winning!
Entering the final round, Anton and Batu played on the first board. Anton was able to defeat Batu, and Vincent was able to beat Markus, making Anton and Vincent shared leader, with Batu taking the third place. However, due to a better tie-break, Vincent eventually took home the first place, ensuring that a new champion reigns! Congrats everyone and we hope you enjoyed it!
Below you can find the full ranking and some pictures 🙂
| Rank | Name | Rtg | Score | BH | BH-C1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vincent Christien | 2132 | 6.0 | 29.0 | 28.5 |
| 2 | Anton Hul | 2000 | 6.0 | 28.5 | 26.5 |
| 3 | Mustafa Batuhan Iliev | 2100 | 5.5 | 33.5 | 30.5 |
| 4 | Milko Bakalov | 2100 | 5.0 | 33.0 | 30.0 |
| 5 | Lorenzo Vettor | 2000 | 5.0 | 27.5 | 25.5 |
| 6 | Nicolas Piro | 2050 | 5.0 | 27.5 | 24.5 |
| 7 | Giacomo Colombo | 2100 | 5.0 | 27.0 | 25.0 |
| 8 | Markus Fasching | 2029 | 4.5 | 34.0 | 30.0 |
| 9 | Alexandre Terrail | 1700 | 4.5 | 28.5 | 27.0 |
| 10 | Daniel Paleka | 1900 | 4.5 | 28.0 | 25.5 |
| 11 | Yun Pan | 2169 | 4.5 | 27.0 | 24.0 |
| 12 | Marcus Imris | 1800 | 4.5 | 23.5 | 21.5 |
| 13 | Vladislav Koshelev | 2000 | 4.0 | 27.5 | 25.5 |
| 14 | Dorian Quelle | 1800 | 4.0 | 27.0 | 24.5 |
| 15 | Jakob Egger | 1457 | 4.0 | 25.5 | 23.5 |
| 16 | Jonas He | 1400 | 4.0 | 25.5 | 23.0 |
| 17 | Ramon Alhambra | 1400 | 4.0 | 25.0 | 23.0 |
| 18 | Ana Marija Vego | 1700 | 4.0 | 24.5 | 23.0 |
| 19 | Asaf Amitai | 1400 | 4.0 | 24.5 | 23.0 |
| 20 | Nahin Khan | 1300 | 4.0 | 24.0 | 21.5 |
| 21 | Alexandre Nozadze | 1300 | 3.5 | 21.0 | 20.5 |
| 22 | Constantin Schalast | 1800 | 3.0 | 27.5 | 25.5 |
| 23 | Ceyhun Acikmese | 1400 | 3.0 | 27.0 | 25.5 |
| 24 | Bas Niekel | 1450 | 3.0 | 25.0 | 23.0 |
| 25 | Edward Glöckner | 1300 | 3.0 | 22.0 | 21.5 |
| 26 | Alexander Martinez Ciani | 1700 | 3.0 | 22.0 | 20.5 |
| 27 | Yann Spillmann | 1450 | 3.0 | 21.0 | 19.5 |
| 28 | Giorgs Cechladze | 1700 | 3.0 | 20.0 | 18.5 |
| 29 | Chamith Karannagodage | 1300 | 3.0 | 20.0 | 18.5 |
| 30 | Matthias Lobmayer | 1619 | 3.0 | 17.5 | 16.5 |
| 31 | Wu Kevin | 1600 | 3.0 | 16.5 | 15.0 |
| 32 | Javier A | 1300 | 2.5 | 21.5 | 20.0 |
| 33 | Jan Ruh | 900 | 2.5 | 21.5 | 20.0 |
| 34 | Ahmad Mahmood | 1300 | 2.5 | 21.0 | 19.0 |
| 35 | Tim Vaughan-Whitehead | 1800 | 2.0 | 29.5 | 27.0 |
| 36 | Paschoud Jérôme | 1200 | 2.0 | 22.0 | 21.5 |
| 37 | Christopher Narayanan | 1100 | 2.0 | 22.0 | 19.5 |
| 38 | Nicola Kong | 1200 | 2.0 | 21.5 | 19.5 |
| 39 | Dario Monopoli | 1200 | 2.0 | 19.5 | 19.0 |
| 40 | Nicolas Kowenski | 1400 | 2.0 | 15.0 | 14.5 |
| 41 | Joshua Müller | 1500 | 1.0 | 18.0 | 17.5 |
