Other Events: Moiseenko Wins European Championship; Khotenashvili The Geneva Women's Grand Prix
The European Individual Chess Championship finished in a big tie for first, with Alexander Moiseenko, Evgeny Alekseev, Evgeny Romanov, Alexander Beliavsky, Constantin Lupulescu, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Sergei Movsesian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexey Dreev and Hrant Melkumyan all finishing with 8/11. As usual, the title was awarded based on tiebreaks, and Moiseenko was declared the European Champion.
The Women's Grand Prix event in Geneva, Switzerland was a success for Bela Khotenashvili, who - like the European Championship winners - scored 8/11. Anna Muzychuk finished second, half a point behind, while Tatiana Kosintseva and Nana Dzagnidze were a further point behind. Former women's champion Hou Yifan beat Khotenashvili in their individual game, but otherwise had little to feel happy about, finishing tied for 8th-9th with just five points.
Reader Comments (1)
As usual or often (no criticism of Dennis who - fair enough - decided to take care of other events and - even fairer - his back problems) just looking at and reporting the final standings doesn't tell the whole story of an event: Moiseenko was in sole lead since round 4 (briefly joined by Austrian surprise GM Shengelia whom he then duly beat). The mass tie for first place only emerged in the final round when Moiseenko lost against the upcoming Nepomniachtchi (slow start, 4.5/5 finish). So it sort of makes sense that Moiseenko had the best tiebreak - even if he had a tiny edge only on the first tiebreaker (average rating of opponents excluding the weakest one) while he would have been behind on Buchholz.