Anish Giri, Gawain Jones Win Dutch, Commonwealth Championships Respectively (and More)
In Anish Giri's case, the triumph came before the tournament finished. With a win over tail-ender Ruud Janssen, Giri pushed his lead over his closest competitors to a point and a half with one round to go. His 6.5/8 gives him a TPR of 2821, cementing his 2700+ rating (which he'll probably maintain for a long, long time to come). One of the three players at 5 points is none other than Wouter Spoelman, who bounced back today by beating the tournament's #2 seed, Jan Smeets. His reward is to have Black in the last round against Giri, but unless Giri is hungry for rating points there might be a quick handshake. (Event website here.)
Meanwhile in South Africa, the Commonwealth Championship finished in a tie for first between Gawain Jones and Nigel Short, with Jones winning the title on tiebreak. Both finished with a hefty 9.5/11, and in Short's case that will probably bring him close to 2700 again.
Finally, that great big Swiss System extravaganza, the World Open, is winding down in Philadelphia (or some suburb thereof). After 7 of 9 rounds, Michael Adams is in clear first with 6 points, half a point ahead of Gata Kamsky, Loek van Wely, Pentelea Harikrishna and Jaan Ehlvest. (Live games [round 8 is underway] here.)
Reader Comments (3)
Funny that van Wely doesn't play the Dutch Championship "because he's on a sabbatical", and instead plays the World Open at the same time. The World Open is financially more attractive if (and only if) he finishes at or near the very top, and doesn't share such a spot with too many other players.
Prize money for the World Open: $25000-12000-6000-3000-1500-1200-1000-800-600-500 (van Wely is seeded third)
Prize money for the Dutch Championship: €7500-4500-3000-2500-2000-1500-1100-800-700-600 (van Wely would be seeded second)
Looks like van Wely finished in a logjam for 3d place at the World Open, leaving him ~$2700 richer. He would have had to secure 2d place in the Dutch championship to do better financially; I'm assuming 1st at the Dutch was out of reach due to Giri's spectacular play. Overall, not a bad trade-off, especially considering the potential reward if he had managed to finish in the top 2 at the World Open.
@Chris Falter - I don't know how you calculate, my figures are as follows: 1$ is 0.7 Euros, so if we assume (for ease of calculation) that van Wely earned 3000$ that's 2100€. From this prize an entry fee of 200$ is deducted, and he probably had to pay his own travel expenses, easily several hundred $. So fifth place in the Dutch championship would have meant more money.
Of coourse there was the thrill to - potentially - earn big money by finishing first or second. Another aspect might be that the World Open meant less pressure for van Wely: whatever he does, it goes rather unnoticed in the Netherlands. And he somehow likes these US Swiss events - he played several ones with mixed results.