Vitaliy Bernadskiy the Winner of Tsaghkadzor Open

The solemn closing ceremony of Tsaghkadzor Open International Chess Tournament took place on December 1 at Tsaghkadzor Marriott Hotel. The first vice-president of the Armenian Chess Federation, the Founder and President of the Chess Academy of Armenia Smbat Lputian delivered a speech noting that Tsakhkadzor Open was held at a high level. About 160 chess players representing 17 countries, among them 22 Grandmasters, participated in the tournament. The strong and high-class composition of the tournament was a great chance for the Armenian chess players to achieve Grandmaster and International Master norms, as well as to measure their forces with GMs and gain the necessary experience for further competitions. Tsakhkadzor Open was successfully launched thanks to the sponsorship of the main sponsor of the tournament - NORFOLK CONSULTING and its director Armen Unanyan.

Mr. Lputian emphasized that tournaments like Tsaghkadzor Open are of great importance for the development of chess in Armenia.

Further on, the Chief Arbiter of the tournament, international arbiter Norayr Kalantaryan summed up the results of the tournament. Mr. Kalantaryan stressed that the tournament was held in a tense and uncompromising struggle, and happily added that during the tournament there were no incidents which deserved praise.

After summarizing the results, the director of the general sponsor of the tournament NORFOLK CONSULTING Armen Unnanyan and Smbat Lputyan, awarded the winners and prize holders of A and B tournaments.

It should be noted that the organizers had also prepared special prizes for women, senior and young chess players.

Vitaliy Bernadskiy of Ukraine became the winner Tsakhkadzor Open. He scored 7 points out of 9 and was half a point ahead of 5 chess players sharing the 2nd-6th places. After the calculation of the additional indices, Marin Bosiocic representing Croatia became the second and Tigran L. Petrosyan from Armenia took the third prize.

The organizers had also prepared a number of special awards: Anna Sargsyan showed the best result among women, Arpine Grigoryan was the second and Nino Maisuradze took the third prize.

Rafael Vaganian showed the best result among senior chess players.

Armenak Yeghiazaryan showed the best result among chess players with the rating up to 2400, and Daneshvar Bardiya was the best among the participants with the rating up to 2200.

Director of general sponsor of the tournament "NORFOLK CONSULTING" Armen Unnanyan had also prepare special prizes for the three USSR champions - Lev Psakhis, Rafael Vaganian and Artashes Minasyan and the chess player who played the most beautiful game during the tournament. The most beautiful game of the tournament was Shant Sargsyan's victory over Alexandr Fier.

During the closing ceremony the winners of B Tournament were also awarded. 3 chess players - Sargis Vasilyan, David Davtyan and Gor Seyranyan scored 7,5 points out of 9 and shared the 1st-3rd places. The winner of B Tournament became Sargis Vasilyan, Davit Davtyan became the second and Gor Seyranyan took the third place.

The organizers had also prepared special prizes for junior chess players. Alberto Atoyan showed the best result in the age group under 8, Erik Gasparyan scored the highest point in the age group under 10 and Hasmik Kochinyan was the best among the girls under 12.

Photos of the opening ceremony are available here.