Naiditsch superb at Neckar Open, tough weekend for Bacrot

The 15th Neckar Open was won by Arkadij Naiditsch. The German grandmaster scored a very convincing 8.5/9 in Deizisau, Germany. This year the tournament might well have been the biggest open in the world, with 753 participants. One of them, French top GM Etienne Bacrot, managed to lose 19 rating points in five days.

The 15th Neckar Open took place April 21st till 25th, 2011 in the Public Hall and the Gymnasium of Deizisau (Stuttgart Region), Germany. As always, the tournament was held during the long Easter weekend and to keep open the possibility of scoring norms, nine rounds were held in just five days. There were three independent tournaments (A/B/C-Open), all with the time control of 2 hours 40 moves + half an hour to finish the game. The prize fund for the A group was 11,600 Euro.



This year the Deizisau story was the story of one man: Arkadij Naiditsch. The Dortmund resident won the largest open chess tournament in Germany with the outstanding score of 8.5 out of 9. He started with 7/7, including victories against GMs Arik Braun and Alon Greenfeld. Only then did he play a quick draw to blow off some steam, against David Baramidze.

In the last round, the German number one faced Falko Bindrich. A draw was enough to win the tournament outright, but Naiditsch continued press from a slightly better position. Eventually he won a rook ending and the winner's check of 3000 Euro.



Top seed Etienne Bacrot from France didn't go so well. After winning three games, the French top grandmaster was just outplayed by Dutch IM Twan Burg (2432). Bacrot then repaired the damage somewhat with two White wins, only to lose yet again with the black pieces against an IM: Oleg Spirin of Russia. The story got even worse for Bacrot when he drew with FM Christian Schramm in round 8 and then finished with another draw against Dutch FM Raoul van Ketel. A tough schedule led to the loss of 19 valuable rating points in one (long) weekend for the French top player, if we may believe this chart. Ouch.



On the other hand, with this strong performance, Naiditsch got his rating over 2700 Elo, proving once again that he is the best player in Germany. The other places on the podium were taken by two other local grandmasters: Arik Braun and David Baramidze, who both scored 7.5 points.

The ladies prize was won by Joanna Majdan-Gajewska. Before the last round, the Polish lady was half a point behind three competitors. These players all lost, while Majdan-Gajewska could defeat her opponent. Her reward for a good performance in Deizisau was 500 Euro.



The 15th edition of the Neckar Open had 753 participants playing in Deizisau, which was a new record. It's certainly one of the biggest opens in the world, if not the biggest.

Selection of games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Videos

A number of videos were made during the tournament. Here's one that gives a good idea about the atmosphere in Deizisau.

15th Neckar Open 2011 | A group | Final Standings (top 40)

#	Player	Ti	Rtg	Fed	W	D	L	Pts	Buchh
1.	Naiditsch,Arkadij	GM	2684	GER	8	1	0	8.5	56.0
2.	Braun,Arik	GM	2542	GER	7	1	1	7.5	57.5
3.	Baramidze,David	GM	2554	GER	6	3	0	7.5	56.5
4.	Huschenbeth,Niclas	IM	2465	GER	6	2	1	7.0	54.5
5.	Erdös,Viktor	GM	2597	HUN	6	2	1	7.0	54.0
6.	Greenfeld,Alon	GM	2571	ISR	6	2	1	7.0	53.5
6.	Gajewski,Grzegorz	GM	2567	POL	6	2	1	7.0	53.5
8.	Shytaj,Luca	IM	2475	ITA	6	2	1	7.0	52.0
9.	Schneider,Ilja	IM	2511	GER	5	4	0	7.0	51.0
10.	Epishin,Vladimir	GM	2567	RUS	5	4	0	7.0	50.5
10.	Prohaszka,Peter	GM	2545	HUN	5	4	0	7.0	50.5
12.	Piorun,Kacper	IM	2521	POL	6	2	1	7.0	50.0
13.	Svetushkin,Dmitri	GM	2543	MDA	6	2	1	7.0	48.5
14.	Heimann,Andreas	IM	2491	GER	5	4	0	7.0	47.5
15.	Bindrich,Falko	GM	2523	GER	5	3	1	6.5	54.0
16.	Burg,Twan	IM	2432	NED	6	1	2	6.5	52.5
17.	Spirin,Oleg	IM	2474	RUS	5	3	1	6.5	51.0
18.	Yemelin,Vasily	GM	2575	RUS	6	1	2	6.5	50.5
18.	Grimberg,Boris	FM	2333	GER	6	1	2	6.5	50.5
20.	Moor,Roger	IM	2395	SUI	5	3	1	6.5	50.0
21.	Rombaldoni,Axel	IM	2449	ITA	5	3	1	6.5	49.5
21.	Hirneise,Tobias	IM	2431	GER	5	3	1	6.5	49.5
23.	Raykhman,Alexander	FM	2372	GER	6	1	2	6.5	49.0
24.	Skembris,Spyridon	GM	2461	GRE	5	3	1	6.5	48.5
25.	Kotainy,Jens		2370	GER	5	3	1	6.5	48.0
26.	Lobzhanidze,Davit	IM	2489	GEO	5	3	1	6.5	47.5
27.	Bogner,Sebastian	GM	2541	GER	4	5	0	6.5	47.5
28.	Petr,Martin	IM	2499	CZE	6	1	2	6.5	47.0
29.	Fedorovsky,Michael	IM	2411	GER	5	3	1	6.5	46.5
30.	Blübaum,Matthias		2246	GER	5	3	1	6.5	45.5
31.	Rietze,Clemens		2226	GER	6	1	2	6.5	45.0
32.	Van Ketel,Raoul	FM	2285	NED	6	1	2	6.5	44.5
33.	Banusz,Tamas	GM	2563	HUN	6	1	2	6.5	41.5
34.	Dausch,Rene	FM	2371	GER	6	0	3	6.0	54.0
35.	Abel,Dennes		2411	GER	4	4	1	6.0	54.0
36.	Renner,Christoph	IM	2431	GER	5	2	2	6.0	53.5
37.	Lubbe,Nikolas		2396	GER	5	2	2	6.0	53.0
38.	Majdan-Gajewska,Joanna	WGM	2325	POL	4	4	1	6.0	51.5
39.	Bacrot,Etienne	GM	2718	FRA	5	2	2	6.0	51.0
40.	Trella,Thomas	FM	2400	GER	4	4	1	6.0	51.0

Photos © Georgios Souleidis

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