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 2003 in Review | ||||||||||
| Opens | ||||||||||
|
In the United States, land of the Super Open, the results of the 2002 Grand Prix were announced in May.
GM Alek Wojtkiewicz of Maryland won 1st prize with 407.18 points, ahead of GMs Ildar Ibragimov (2nd, 331.81) and Alexander Stripunsky (3rd, 285.77).
The 12th North American Open, a 6-round event held December 2002 in Las Vegas, was won by GMs Nikola Mitkov and Ildar Ibragimov with 5 points.
The event was organized by the Continental Chess Association (CCA).
The 7-round Foxwoods Open, another CCA event, was held Easter weekend at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket (Ledyard), Connecticut.
GM Ilya Smirin of Israel was the winner with 6.0, a half-point ahead of 7 players.
Ten players tied for first with 7 points in the CCA's 31st World Open, a 9-round event held June/July in Philadelphia.
GM Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia defeated Smirin in a 1-game blitz playoff to become the World Open Champion.
GM Alexander Shabalov finished with 10 points to win the 104th U.S. Open, a 12-round event held August in Los Angeles.
Prizes included qualifying places for the 2004 U.S. Invitational Championship.
IM Varuzhan Akobian tied with GMs Suat Atalik and Pavel Blatny with 6.0 to win the 39th American Open, held November in Los Angeles.
The 8-round Master section fielded 43 players, included 7 GMs and 8 IMs.
Of the many strong opens held outside the United States, one worth mentioning was the 9-round Aeroflot Open, held February in Moscow.
GMs Viktor Bologan of Moldavia, Aleksej Aleksandrov & Alexei Fedorov of Belarus, and Peter Svidler of Russia scored 7 points to tie for 1st/4th.
Bologan finished first on tie-break to qualify for the 2003 Dortmund Super-GM tournament, which he won.
|
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||