Boris Grachev Wins Basel Chess Festival
The 2012 Basel Chess Festival took place from 1-5 January 2013 in northwest Switzerland.
The main event was a 7 round Swiss Open with a strong field of 89 players competing. The 26 year-old Russian Boris Grachev claimed victory by a superior tie-break score after four players finished tied for first with 5½/7 points. Levente Vajda of Romania took second place and Robin van Kampen of the Netherlands came third.
Boris Grachev started with 4 straight wins and drew his last 3 games for the overall victory. He is currently ranked #14 in Russia and #63 in the world.
Top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave could only finish in fifth place.
The medalists (left to right): Levente Vajda, Boris Grachev, Robin Van Kampen
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The top finishers in the 2012 Basel Masters Open
| # | Name | Fed | Elo | W | L | D | Pts | TB |
| 1 | Grachev, Boris | RUS | 2688 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 5½ | 25 |
| 2 | Vajda, Levente | ROU | 2603 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5½ | 23½ |
| 3 | Van Kampen, Robin | NED | 2581 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 5½ | 23 |
| 4 | Istratescu, Andrej | FRA | 2654 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 5½ | 22½ |
| 5 | Vachier-Lagrave, M | FRA | 2711 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 22½ |
| 6 | Fier, Alexandr | BRA | 2573 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 22 |
| 7 | Melkumyan, Hrant | ARM | 2656 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 21 |
| 8 | Edouard, Romain | FRA | 2686 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 21 |
| 9 | Ghaem Maghami, Ehs | IRI | 2572 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 20½ |
| 10 | Pelletier, Yannick | SUI | 2604 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 20 |
| 11 | Vorotnikov, Vladis | RUS | 2464 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 20 |
| 12 | Bartel, Mateusz | POL | 2629 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 19½ |
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Swiss #2 Yannick Pelletier finished in 10th place
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The playing area at the Basel Hilton
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No tournament is complete without a chess bookstall!
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Photos from the official website. Games via TWIC.
