ASTANA – Uralsk Open 2023 international chess tournament, a stage of Kazakhstan’s Cup among men and women, took place from July 21 to 28 in Uralsk city with the participation of world chess champions, reported the Kazakhstan Chess Federation’s press service.
Uralsk Open 2023 international chess tournament. Photo credit: Kazakhstan Chess Federation.
The tournament, with a total guaranteed prize pool of 23 million tenge ($51,487), brought together 176 participants from 13 countries, including 16 male grandmasters (GMs) and one female GM, who competed in nearly 800 games.
American chess star Hans Niemann (20) took the lead with 6.5 points scored out of 7 possible and significantly outperformed Indian GM Panayappan Sethuraman (30), who took the second place, and Armenian GMs Manuel Petrosyan (25) and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (29), who shared the third and fourth prizes.
Kazakh chess players lost all the prominent awards to the guests, with 15-year-old Yernur Amangeldy and Daniyal Sapenov showing the best result of 5.5 points each.
In the tournament B open amateur, which featured games among young chess players, Asylkhan Kumar won with 8 points out of 9. Yersultan Kambar, Adilet Serikov, and Ali Onoglu scored 7.5 points each.
The tournament included a simultaneous chess display on 17 boards, started by Armenia’s reigning champion and silver medalist of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai , Ter-Sahakyan.
The match’s total score was 16.5:0.5 in favor of Ter-Sahakyan, with the only game ending in a draw against Artyom Pankratov of Russia.
