Kaidanov wins Gausdal Classics

The American grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov has won the Gausdal Classics this year. With his 7/9 score he left no doubt who was the strongest.

The Gausdal Classics took place in Gausdal, Norway from 8 till 16 April 2008. As always, there were two "GM groups": one ten-player round-robin and one open group, a 9-round Swiss for players rated > 2149. This "B group" ended in a joint victory for GMs Kveinys and Levin, and IM Hammer, who all ended on 6.5/9. Kveinys was declared winner on tiebreak.

The "A group" was won very convincingly by Greg Kaidanov, who conceded only four draws and won his other five games. Second finished Geetha Narayanan Gopal and third was Vasilios Kotronias. Eric Moskow, the internal medicine doctor from South-Florida who's been sponsoring himself every year to try his luck in Gausdal, hoping for an IM norm, hasn't been very succesful this time.

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Here you'll find all games by Kaidanov. It's funny to see how he beats Krush and Kotronias almost exactly the same, in a sideline of the Sveshnikov that's not known to be very dangerous.



Typical Norwegian weather...

The playing hall

Gregory Kaidanov

Vasilios Kotronias

Eric Moskow - better luck next time?

Arun Prasad, who played in the B group

ChessVibes editor and endgame specialist Yochanan Afek gives a lecture...

...to a lovely audience

Photos ?Ǭ© Bj?ɬ?rn Berg Johansen

Links:

• "Portisch still going strong at Gausdal Classics" (2007 report)
• Tournament website
• Games in PGN