Wang Hao beats Ponomariov in Kings’ Tournament’s final round
In the last round of the Kings’ Tournament in Bucharest Wang Hao defeated Ruslan Ponomariov in a Semi-Tarrasch to finish on 4.5/8. The Chinese GM ended only half a point behind tournament winner Fabiano Caruana, who drew his last-round game with Teimour Radjabov quickly.
Fabiano Caruana became the winner of Kings’ Tournament 2013. After a quick draw in the last round with the black pieces against Radjabov, the Italian GM scored 5 points out of 8 and secured the first place.
Wang Hao-Ponomariov was a long game, where Black equalized after the opening, but then started to face some problems which the Ukrainian GM failed to solve. In the resulting endgame with rooks and opposite-coloured bishops Wang Hao won a pawn and then converted his material advantage to achieve his second win in a row in Bucharest.
Caruana tweeted:
Not a great finish, but still managed to win the Kings' Tournament. Traveling to Rodos tomorrow for the ECC. Hoping my team SOCAR will win!
— Fabiano Caruana (@FabianoCaruana) October 16, 2013
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Kings’ Tournament 2013 | Final Standings
| # | Player | Rating | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Score | Perf |
| 1 | Caruana,F | 2779 |  |
½0 | 1½ | 1½ | ½1 | 5.0/8 | 2808 |
| 2 | Wang Hao | 2733 | ½1 | |
0½ | ½½ | ½1 | 4.5/8 | 2775 |
| 3 | Nisipeanu,LD | 2674 | 0½ | 1½ | |
½½ | ½½ | 4.0/8 | 2746 |
| 4 | Radjabov,T | 2723 | 0½ | ½½ | ½½ | |
½½ | 3.5/8 | 2691 |
| 5 | Ponomariov,R | 2751 | ½0 | ½0 | ½½ | ½½ | |
3.0/8 | 2639 |
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Photos courtesy of the Kings’ Tournament; round reports thanks to GM Dorian Rogozenco
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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