Viktor Laznicka Wins World Open
The 22-year old Czech player Viktor Laznicka won the World Open in Philadelphia, taking the first prize ahead of a strong field.
It was his first visit to the USA, and presumably he was very happy with the result!
Laznicka started with 6 wins out of 6 in this Swiss style competition, and drew the remaining three to finish on 7.5/9, half a point clear.
A selection of games from the main event are below. All games are available at the official website.
The top finishers were:
| 1 | Viktor Laznicka | 2636 | CZE | 7.5 |
| 2 | Pentala Harikrishna | 2660 | IND | 7.0 |
| 3 | Ilya Smirin | 2634 | ISR | 7.0 |
| 4 | Luke McShane | 2623 | ENG | 7.0 |
| 5 | Loek Van Wely | 2653 | NED | 6.5 |
| 6 | Jan Gustafsson | 2640 | GER | 6.5 |
| 7 | Vladimir Potkin | 2634 | RUS | 6.5 |
| 8 | Aleksandr Lenderman | 2598 | NY | 6.5 |
| 9 | Francisco Vallejo Pons | 2703 | ESP | 6.0 |
| 10 | Gata Kamsky | 2702 | NY | 6.0 |
| 11 | Sandipan Chanda | 2640 | IND | 6.0 |
| 12 | Murtas Kazhgaleyev | 2609 | KAZ | 6.0 |
| 13 | Jaan Ehlvest | 2591 | NY | 6.0 |
| 14 | Robert L Hess | 2590 | NY | 6.0 |
| 15 | Giorgi Kacheishvili | 2587 | GEO | 6.0 |
| 16 | Alexander Shabalov | 2585 | PA | 6.0 |
| 17 | Mark C Paragua | 2497 | PHI | 6.0 |
| 18 | Puchen Wang | 2469 | NZL | 6.0 |
| 19 | Salvijus Bercys | 2427 | NY | 6.0 |
