Surprising Winner At Strong Keres Memorial, Or Not?
Not Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, nor Pavel Eljanov. The winner of the Keres Memorial rapid tournament, held last weekend in Tallinn, was won by Igor Kovalenko.
The Keres Memorial was held 8-10 January in the Park Inn by Radisson Meriton Conference & Spa Hotel Tallinn. It was organized by the Estonian Sports Association Kalev in cooperation with the Estonian Chess Federation and the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP).
The Keres Memorial took place on the occasion of Paul Keres's 100th birthday on 7 January. And the Estonians did much more to commemorate their great player: a 2-Euro coin was issued with Keres's face, and a stamp as well.
The coin started circulating on Friday and is valid as legal tender throughout the euro area. The coin was designed by Riho Luuse. 500,000 coins will be minted; 5000 with a high-quality finish intended for collectors and priced at 10 euros each.
The same designer also created a stamp; here on the First Day Cover.
You can read more about the coin and stamp here. A nice article about “the gentleman GM” and “the greatest player never to challenge for the world title,” can be found here, written by Ian Rogers.
Back to the tournament, which was quite a strong rapid event. It was an 11-round Swiss held over three days, with four rounds on Friday, four on Saturday and three on Sunday. The time control was 15 minutes plus 10 seconds increment.
Some big names participated, such as Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, Pavel Eljanov and David Howell. However, it was someone else who won: Igor Kovalenko of Ukraine, but playing for Latvia.
At first sight this is a surprising result, but Kovalenko was in fact the second seeded player. He is the world 29 in the January FIDE Rapid Rating list. One place above him, on #28, is Peter Svidler — the top seed in Tallinn.
Kovalenko had a decent but not very special first half, scoring 4.5/6 (which included a loss to 2371 rated Vladimir Sveshnikov in round three). But his finish was excellent: wins against Aleksandr Volodin, Alexander Motylev, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Peter Svidler and a draw with Boris Gelfand.
The finish of his game with Motylev was spectacular:
The top fight between Kovalenko and Svidler was absolutely crucial for the tournament obviously. It was played in the penultimate round, when the two were tied for first place together with Boris Gelfand; all had scored 7.5/9.
tournament was officially opened. | Photo Vladimir Barsky.
Kovalenko played a good, positional game and ended up with an extra pawn. The endgame deserves a deeper analysis; for now it's only clear that Svidler erred and blew away the draw in the rook endgame.
In the final round Gelfand didn't get anything out of the opening as white against Kovalenko
and a draw was agreed as early as move 19. | Photo Vladimir Barsky.
Earlier in the tournament, in round 2, the great Israeli player had become the victim of a brilliant combination. Can you find it?
Kovalenko finished on 9.0/11. Gelfand had to be satisfied with a shared second place; he scored 8.5 points just like Surya Ganguly of India and David Howell of England. The latter played a fine combination himself in round 8. Here it is, again as a puzzle:
Top seed Peter Svidler finished in shared fifth place as Kamil Miton of Poland held a draw in the final round. Apparently there was a win somewhere following a funny computer line at the end (really something completely unhuman) that ended in a minor promotion.
@chess24com Wow! I expect at least 3 tweets from @polborta on this topic in the next 12 hours!
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) January 10, 2016
@anishgiri @chess24com OK, if Anish insists... It's somewhat relevant to note that the game did not reach anywhere near this position.
— Peter Svidler (@polborta) January 10, 2016
@anishgiri @chess24com It's 4 moves moves deep in a line which starts with a move (Rd2) I would potentially get disqualified for.
— Peter Svidler (@polborta) January 10, 2016
The total prize fund was 15,000 Euros (US $16,380) and Kovalenko won 2,000 Euros ($2184). He does seem to be some kind of a rapid specialist.
Igor Kovalenko: "There's life in the old dog yet! The taste for 1st place is a drug!" https://t.co/qF8S1KMJVF
— chess24.com (@chess24com) January 10, 2016
2016 Keres Memorial Rapid | Final Standings (Top 30)
| Rk. | SNo | Title | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 |
| 1 | 2 | GM | Kovalenko Igor | LAT | 2734 | 9 | 73,5 | 67,5 |
| 2 | 10 | GM | Howell David W L | ENG | 2646 | 8,5 | 73,5 | 67,5 |
| 3 | 3 | GM | Gelfand Boris | ISR | 2733 | 8,5 | 73 | 67,5 |
| 4 | 11 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | IND | 2615 | 8,5 | 71 | 65 |
| 5 | 14 | GM | Duda Jan-Krzysztof | POL | 2603 | 8 | 76 | 70 |
| 6 | 12 | GM | Georgiev Kiril | BUL | 2612 | 8 | 76 | 69,5 |
| 7 | 1 | GM | Svidler Peter | RUS | 2736 | 8 | 75,5 | 69 |
| 8 | 6 | GM | Berkes Ferenc | HUN | 2685 | 8 | 73 | 67 |
| 9 | 9 | GM | Motylev Alexander | RUS | 2651 | 8 | 72,5 | 67 |
| 10 | 27 | GM | Kosteniuk Alexandra | RUS | 2514 | 8 | 71 | 65,5 |
| 11 | 20 | GM | Tregubov Pavel V. | RUS | 2566 | 8 | 71 | 65 |
| 12 | 16 | GM | Miton Kamil | POL | 2597 | 8 | 69 | 63,5 |
| 13 | 19 | GM | Neiksans Arturs | LAT | 2579 | 8 | 69 | 63 |
| 14 | 8 | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | RUS | 2665 | 7,5 | 73,5 | 67 |
| 15 | 18 | GM | Mikhalevski Victor | ISR | 2590 | 7,5 | 73 | 67 |
| 16 | 5 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | RUS | 2686 | 7,5 | 73 | 66,5 |
| 17 | 35 | GM | Yevseev Denis | RUS | 2442 | 7,5 | 71 | 65,5 |
| 18 | 17 | GM | Jumabayev Rinat | KAZ | 2590 | 7,5 | 70,5 | 64,5 |
| 19 | 26 | GM | Romanov Evgeny | RUS | 2529 | 7,5 | 70,5 | 64,5 |
| 20 | 4 | GM | Fridman Daniel | GER | 2688 | 7,5 | 69,5 | 63,5 |
| 21 | 13 | GM | Sutovsky Emil | ISR | 2604 | 7,5 | 68,5 | 62,5 |
| 22 | 21 | GM | Rakhmanov Aleksandr | RUS | 2564 | 7,5 | 67 | 61,5 |
| 23 | 7 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | UKR | 2683 | 7,5 | 64,5 | 59 |
| 24 | 38 | GM | Balashov Yuri S | RUS | 2423 | 7 | 72 | 66,5 |
| 25 | 22 | GM | Lintchevski Daniil | RUS | 2549 | 7 | 70 | 64 |
| 26 | 24 | GM | Goganov Aleksey | RUS | 2545 | 7 | 69,5 | 64 |
| 27 | 29 | IM | Sveshnikov Vladimir | LAT | 2467 | 7 | 68 | 62,5 |
| 28 | 44 | IM | Kashtanov Ruslan | RUS | 2379 | 7 | 67,5 | 62,5 |
| 29 | 45 | Putka Verners | LAT | 2366 | 7 | 67,5 | 62,5 | |
| 30 | 28 | GM | Kulaots Kaido | EST | 2484 | 7 | 67 | 61,5 |
(Full final standings here.)
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. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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