The 35th Zurich Christmas Open was held on December 26-30, 2011, at the “Crowne Plaza Zürich”, Badenerstr. 420, 8040.
The Open consisted of two playing groups, Master tournament and Under-2050 tournament. Both groups were played over 7 rounds of Swiss system.
Russian Grandmasters Igor Kurnosov and Boris Grachev shared the first place with 5.5 points each.
Master tournament final standings:
1-2. Kurnosov Igor 2648 RUS and Grachev Boris 2693 RUS – 5.5
3-16. Alekseev Evgeny 2670 RUS, Prohaszka Peter 2564 HUN, Vorobiov Evgeny 2589 RUS, Turov Maxim 2645 RUS, Baramidze David 2597 GER, David Alberto 2597 LUX, Sanikidze Tornike 2531 GEO, Bartel Mateusz 2653 POL, Halkias Stelios 2593 GRE, Pelletier Yannick 2581 SUI, Héra Imre 2542 HUN, Miezis Normunds 2547 LAT, Ghaem Maghami Ehsan 2580 IRI and Heimann Andreas IM 2459 GER – 5.0 etc (113 players)
Thomas Künzli (1966) from Winterthur, Switzerland, is the sole winner in the Under-2050 section with 6.5/7 points. 180 players competed.
Prizes in the Master were CHF 5000, 4000, 3000, 2000, 1500, 1000 etc (20 prizes).
Prizes in the U2050 event were CHF 1000, 800, 600, 500, 400, 300 etc (20 prizes)
Total prize fund was 24200 EURO.
A Blitz tournament was played on Wednesday 28th December with CHF 300 in prizes. GM Tornike Sanikidze won convincingly with 8.0/9.
Igor Kurnosov
GM Boris Grachev
