Russian GM Pavel Ponkratov Wins International Chess Open "Ciudad de Leon"
GM Pavel Ponkratov has won the International Chess Open "Ciudad de Leon." The Russian grandmaster emerged victorious from the eight-player knockout that was held after a 10-round Swiss.
As part of the 2020 Leon Chess Festival, the Leon Open started on Tuesday with a 10-round Swiss tournament for titled players at a time control of three minutes plus a two-second increment. A total of 432 players played.
Ponkratov finished first there as well and together with GMs Mikhail Antipov, Anton Korobov, Sam Sevian, Jorden van Foreest, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Maksim Chigaev, and Abhimanyu Puranik qualified for the knockout phase, held on Wednesday.
Before moving on to that, let's first look at a few remarkable game fragments from the Swiss part. Two of these involve a crazy rook.
First, there was GM Baadur Jobava, who managed to swindle his opponent, WIM Nguyen Hong Anh, from a totally lost position (based on a wrong premove earlier in the game).
Normally you would see such an outcome just once per tournament but look at what happened in the following game between GM Bassem Amin and GM Robert Hovhannisyan. The stalemate pattern was even more special.
In the penultimate round, Amin was still in contention for the top eight. The Egyptian grandmaster had a highly disappointing finish of his tournament as he was tricked into a draw again in a winning position vs. GM Matthias Bluebaum.
International Chess Open "Ciudad de Leon" | Swiss Final Standings
| Rk | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Score | SB |
| 1 | GM | @Infernal_XaM | Pavel Ponkratov | 8.5 | 57.25 | |
| 2 | GM | @Antipov_Mikhail_Al | Mikhail Antipov | 8.5 | 45.75 | |
| 3 | GM | @GOGIEFF | Anton Korobov | 8.5 | 39.25 | |
| 4 | GM | @Konavets | Sam Sevian | 8 | 54.25 | |
| 5 | GM | @joppie2 | Jorden van Foreest | 8 | 49.25 | |
| 6 | GM | @crescentmoon2411 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | 8 | 45.5 | |
| 7 | GM | @Fandorine | Maksim Chigaev | 8 | 43 | |
| 8 | GM | @abhidabhi | Abhimanyu Puranik | 8 | 41.75 | |
| 9 | GM | @Borsch7 | Maxim Matlakov | 8 | 41 | |
| 10 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 7.5 | 46.5 | |
| 11 | GM | @GHANDEEVAM2003 | Arjun Erigaisi | 7.5 | 43 | |
| 12 | GM | @abykhovsky | Anatoly Bykhovsky | 7.5 | 42 | |
| 13 | GM | @Dr-Bassem | Bassem Amin | 7.5 | 41.5 | |
| 14 | GM | @Gabrielian_Artur | Artur Gabrielian | 7.5 | 40.25 | |
| 15 | GM | @fireheart92 | Adhiban Baskaran | 7.5 | 39.75 | |
| 16 | GM | @KuzubovYuriy | Yuriy Kuzubov | 7.5 | 39.25 | |
| 17 | IM | @Supernotar | Maly Alexey | 7.5 | 37 | |
| 17 | IM | @Semen_Khanin | Semen Khanin | 7.5 | 37 | |
| 19 | FM | @Kranke007 | Khazar Babazada | 7 | 44.75 | |
| 20 | GM | @jsl796 | Jaime Santos Latasa | 7 | 41 |
The knockout tournament on Wednesday consisted of best-of-four matches, again at the time control of three plus two. In the event of a tie, a single armageddon game (five versus four) was played. Players were seeded by their results in the Swiss from the day before.
Ponkratov first beat Puranik 3-1, next scored 2.5-1.5 against Sevian and then beat Chigaev 2.5-0.5 in the final.
In the match with Sevian, Ponkratov was incredibly lucky in game four, with a score of 1.5-1.5. The American grandmaster was about to win until he blundered terribly. Two question marks don't do justice to this howler of a move. But especially online, such mistakes can happen to anyone.
Ponkratov won the final convincingly so his tournament victory did look well deserved. Here's his first win against Chigaev, who got just one chance in the whole game.
Ponkratov earned 1,200 euros with his victory while Chigaev got 800 euros. Korobov and Sevian earned 400 euros each, and Antipov, Nguyen, Puranik, and Van Foreest all received 250 euros.
The live broadcast of the knockout on Wednesday.
Games final eight
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
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