Home • Learn to Play Chess • Improve Your Game • Chess History • Chess for Fun • Chess Blog
Home
•
Learn to Play Chess
•
Improve Your Game
•
Chess History
•
Chess for Fun
•
Chess Blog
| The Year 2002 in Review | ||||||
| Opens | ||||||
|
In the United States, many of the most prestigious and lucrative events are open tournaments.
These are often modelled after the weekend Swiss and have more participants than can be handled by the number of rounds.
Multiple winners are a common occurrence.
In March, Alex Yermolinsky and Walter Browne won the National Open, Las Vegas.
They finished with 5.5/6 in a field of 197 players.
The same month, six players tied for 1st at the Foxwoods Open, held at the Mashantucket Pequot nation in Connecticut.
Ildar Ibragimov won the 104-player Open section on tiebreak.
Over 550 players participated across all events.
The 30th World Open, held during the 4th of July week in Philadelphia, saw a nine way tie for first.
IM Kamil Miton of Poland, 18-years old, won the playoff.
In August, Gennadi Zaitshik and Eugeniy Najer tied for first with 8/9 at the U.S. Open, Cherry Hill, NJ.
Over 500 players participated.
Seven players tied for 1st in the Atlantic Open, Washington, DC, also in August.
68 players competed in the top section.
Also held in August, the 21st North American Open, Stillwater, Oklahoma, was one of the few tournaments with a clear winner.
GM Alex Baburin of Ireland won with 8.5.
Stillwater is the geographical center of North America.
The 38th American Open, Los Angeles, CA, held end-November, saw 282 players compete in seven sections.
The 47-player Master section ended in a tie between GM Pavel Blatny and GM Yuri Shulman with 6/8.
Finally, of the many important opens held outside the United States, one is deserving of special mention.
The Curacao Open commemorated the 40th anniversary of the final candidates tournament (round robin format), 1962 Curacao.
In November, Viktor Korchnoi and Yona Kosashvili tied with 7/9, Korchnoi taking first on tiebreak. Korchnoi finished 5th in the 8-player 1962 event, behind Tigran Petrosian, who went on to wrest the title from Mikhail Botvinnik.
|
||||||
 |
||||||
|
||||||