Congratulations to GM Alexandr Fier for an amazing 100% against a strong field. His partner Nino Maisuradze came joint first of the ladies with Hastings local Rasa Norinkeviciute on 5 points.
10 year old Dev Shah from India made an amazing +2.88 x20 on his rating, this means he scored nearly 3 more points than expected against his field! This meant he was top in all three ‘extra’ prize categories: Junior, Rating and Under 1800 but as he could win only one cash prize two other juniors came into the money. Boris Stoyanov, aged only 9, recorded an excellent score of 4 ½ and an improvement on his rating of +2.66 x20 and Akito Oyama, U18 on 5.
One key match was between GMs Jakhongir Vakhidov and Alexander Fier. Alex won this after a hard fight and went on to get 9/9.
There was an excellent turnout for the event and everything went smoothly. The atmosphere was great as usual at the White Rock Hotel, and the hotel announced some excellent rates for chess players for next year!
[photographs by Lara Barnes here]