Azerbeidzhan wins Essent

Mamedyarov became the expected winner of the 11th Essent Tournament. He finished clear first with 4,5 out of 6 and it wasn't Ponomariov finishing second but Van Wely, who beat the Ukrainian player in a nice game with Black today that was awarded the brilliancy prize. Andriasian returns home with plenty of experience but zero points, and will need either a pocket chess set in the plane back home or a good drink. The open group was won by fifteen-year-old IM Eltaj Safarli (wh?ɬ°?ɬ°?ɬ°t? who?) from Azerbeidzhan (a-ha).

First yesterday's and today's games of the crown group:



Final standings:

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2752)

In the penultimate round of the open group, Eltaj Safarli had joined the leaders almost without being noticed, by beating David Smerdon while the first five boards had ended in a draw. (The tournament site reports that in the game Nijboer-Visser this happened after some wild scenes. Mutual timetrouble led to a chaotic series of moves while pieces were dropping off the board. At some point Nijboer exceeded the time limit but was given the full point anyway because Visser had prevented him from pressing the clock. After a while, the players shook hands and "overruled" the arbiter's decision to decide on a draw themselves.)

So before the last round Safarli, l'Ami, Winants and Postny were on 6 out of 8. The young Azeri was paired to l'Ami with Black. Despite his shared lead, the Dutch GM was not satisfied about his shape and he kind of proved this by allowing a tactical shot while offering a draw at the same time. Safarli took full advantage, especially after the draw between Gofshtein and Postny on board two and Winants' loss to Smeets, and so he was the only player to finish on 7 out of 9. And so we find Safarli on clear first! Postny finished on the second spot and a bunch of Dutch GM's on places 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12 and 16.

IM Eltaj Safarli (2488)



Here you'll find the full final standings of the open group. The top row of the table is clickable and so you're able to sort the whole thing as you like!

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