Grand Swiss Tournament 2019
The Grand Swiss Tournament 2019 is an international chess tournament organized by the world chess association FIDE . It was won by Wang Hao , who also qualified for the 2020 Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg , where the future World Cup challenger will be determined. The tournament took place on the Isle of Man and continued the tradition of the Isle of Man Open . It extended over eleven rounds in classical chess , which were played according to the Swiss system . The prize fund was US $ 432,500 , including US $ 70,000 for 1st place.
The field of participants consisted of 154 players, most of whom were qualified by their Elo rating or otherwise. Other participants were able to enjoy a wildcard from the organizer or from FIDE, with special attention being paid to young players. Almost all tournament participants were title holders . With an Elo average of 2605, the tournament is one of the busiest tournaments ever held in the Swiss system. The most prominent participants included the world chess champion Magnus Carlsen , vice world champion Fabiano Caruana , junior world champion Parham Maghsoodloo , the former world champion Viswanathan Anand , as well as numerous other world class players . Germany was represented by Matthias Blübaum , Niclas Huschenbeth , Vincent Keymer , Elisabeth Pähtz and Dietmar Kolbus , Austria by Markus Ragger .
The tournament was very balanced. Fabiano Caruana led the field for a long time, but was unable to break away decisively. In round 5, he narrowly escaped defeat by Luke McShane , supposedly the best amateur chess player in the world. In the last round Caruana scored an undisputed draw against Hikaru Nakamura and already looked like the sure winner with 8 points. Only Wang Hao was able to overtake him with a win at this point, but the position in his game against David Howell was even and very likely to be a draw. Howell went wrong, however, by sacrificing his queen for rook and bishop , enabling Wang Hao to catch up with Caruana with a win. Due to the fine evaluation (average of the opponents' Elo ratings) Wang Hao won the tournament before Caruana. In addition to Luke McShane, the Spaniard David Anton Guijarro and the young Russians, above all Kirill Alexejenko , were among the positive surprises.
Magnus Carlsen could not play for the tournament victory. Nevertheless, he set a new record: his draw against Lewon Aronjan in the last round was the 101st tournament game in a row in which the Norwegian was unbeaten. No other top player in the world has ever succeeded. From a German point of view, it is remarkable that Vincent Keymer achieved his third GM norm before his 15th birthday.
Closing table
In the event of a tie, the Elo average of all opponents of a player decided the fine evaluation, whereby the lowest Elo number was deleted.
| space | Seeding list | player | Association | Elo | Points | Fine evaluation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15th | Wang Hao |
 People's Republic of China
|
2726 | 8th | 2735 |
| 2 | 2 | Fabiano Caruana |
 United States
|
2812 | 8th | 2720 |
| 3 | 38 | Kirill Alexejenko |
 Russia
|
2674 | 7½ | 2716 |
| 4th | 8th | Levon Aronjan |
 Armenia
|
2758 | 7½ | 2708 |
| 5 | 39 | David Anton Guijarro |
 Spain
|
2674 | 7½ | 2702 |
| 6th | 1 | Magnus Carlsen |
 Norway
|
2876 | 7½ | 2698 |
| 7th | 12 | Hikaru Nakamura |
United States
|
2745 | 7½ | 2674 |
| 8th | 13 | Nikita Vitjugov |
Russia
|
2732 | 7½ | 2663 |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| 81 | 70 | Matthias Bluebaum |
 Germany
|
2643 | 5½ | 2654 |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| 93 | 32 | Markus Ragger |
 Austria
|
2684 | 5½ | 2620 |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| 119 | 121 | Vincent Keymer |
Germany
|
2506 | 4½ | 2661 |
| 120 | 93 | Niclas Huschenbeth |
Germany
|
2624 | 4½ | 2644 |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| 148 | 151 | Dietmar Kolbus |
Germany
|
2300 | 3 | 2486 |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| 154 | 125 | Elisabeth Pähtz |
Germany
|
2489 | 1½ | 2486 |
Web links
- Official website: IOM
- Results, scores, etc .: chess-results
- Games to replay : chessbomb
- Reporting on chessbase.com