Rapid tournament, 9-11th January
ESS KALEV Paul Keres Memorial with rapid time control was held on 9-11th January in Tallin, Estonia. After the preliminary fight in two qualifying tournaments, the final eight in both women and men section were set to play a 7-games round robin.
The top-seeded player in women section, Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany, claimed the victory with 6.0 points, half a point clear of the local WIM Viktoria Bashkite. Men’s Group saw more tension and uncertainty, and finally Russian players Vasily Yemelin and Alexey Dreev shared the first place with 5.0 points each. Third was legendary Evgeny Sveshnikov, half a point behind the winners.

Elisabeth Paehtz
Final standings (men):
1-2. GM Alexey Dreev (RUS 2688) and GM Vasily Yemelin (RUS 2578) – 5.0
3. GM Evgeny Sveshnikov (LAT 2535) – 4.5
4. GM Alexey Lugovoi (RUS 2531) – 4.0
5. GM Igor Rausis (CZE 2501) – 3.5
6. IM Aleksandr Volodin (EST 2401) – 3.0
7. IM Olav Sepp (EST 2457) – 2.0
8. Grigory Sharankov (RUS 2192) – 1.0
Final standings (women):
1. WGM Elisabeth Paehtz (GER 2455) – 6.0
2. WIM Viktoria Bashkite (EST 2160) – 5.5
3. WIM Monika Tsiganova (EST 2189) – 5.0
4. Katrina Skinke (LAT 2211) – 4.0
5-7. WIM Tatyana Fomina (EST 2233), Triin Narva (EST 1835) and Olga Kozjukova (LAT 2045) – 2.5
8. Jana Airapetjan (EST 1694) – 0.0
