The 36th Zurich Christmas Open took place on 26-30th December at the Crowne Plaza Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland.
The 7-round Master Tournament, for players rated over 2000, had 133 participants. Romanian Grandmaster Levente Vajda took a clear first place with 6,0/7 points to claim the top prize of CHF 5000.
Vajda started furiously with five consecutive wins, including those against the heavyweights Alexei Shirov and Hrant Melkumyan, and then drew the final two rounds.
The General Tournament (U2050) with 218 participants was also held over 7 rounds of Swiss system. Serbian junior Maksimilijan Boskovic from Kraljevo emerged sole winner with 6,5/7 points to take the top prize of CHF 1000.
Master Tournament final standings:
1. Vajda Levente GM 2603 ROU – 6.0
2-8. Bartel Mateusz GM 2629 POL, Melkumyan Hrant GM 2649 ARM, Bauer Christian GM 2627 FRA, Shirov Alexei GM 2708 LAT, Bindrich Falko GM 2545 GER, Pelletier Yannick GM 2604 SUI and Kurnosov Igor GM 2645 RUS – 5.5
9-21. Grachev Boris GM 2688 RUS, Ghaem Maghami Ehsan GM 2572 IRI, Istratescu Andrei GM 2654 FRA, Cvitan Ognjen GM 2535 CRO, Sanikidze Tornike GM 2567 GEO, Bogner Sebastian GM 2562 GER, Fier Alexandr GM 2567 BRA, Pikula Dejan GM 2485 SRB, Lekic Dusan IM 2405 MNE, Arribas López Angel IM 2477 ESP, Anton Guijarro David IM 2558 ESP, Zude Arno IM 2467 GER and Pavlovic Milos GM 2513 SRB – 5.0 etc
The total prize money of both tournaments exceeded CHF 30,000.
The 29th Genève International Chess Open was held concurrently with the Zurich Open. The next tournament in Switzerland is Hilton Basel Chess Festival which is starting on 1st January 2013 in Basel.
