by Assi Philosoph
At the beginning of the last round, Kobo was leading with 5.5 points after a draw with Parkhov in the 8th round. In second place with 5 points were Smirin, who lost to Tzidkiya, and Postny, who defeated Dvoirys after a tactical mistake by the Russian player.
The top three players all played White in the last round so we had an exciting finale. Smirin tried to generate play against Dvoirys, but couldn’t find anything that would work, so after 21.Be3 offered a draw:
This is the third Maccabiah medal of the Israeli National Team member. The first was silver in 2005, and the second was gold in Saturday’s blitz tournament.
Postny, also a member of the Israeli National team, won against Ginsburg in the last round, completing an impressive 3 consecutive wins and finishing second with an equal number of points to Kobo (6 points), but with a worse tiebreak (Berger).
An interesting fact is that Postny played his previous and first Maccabiah in 1997. It was the junior tournament held in Zikhron Ya’acov where he also won the silver medal. Further information can be found in the following article:
http://www.maccabiahchess.co.il/we-are-waiting-for-you-come-to-play-with-us/
Taking into account Smirins’ draw, and despite Postny’s win, a draw would most likely have guaranteed the gold medal for Kobo, since before the round he had significantly better tiebreaks than Postny. But even from his better position, the Israeli GM continued to fight for a win against Tzidkiya until the very end – literally. This was the last game of the Maccabiah and ended in a draw, which was sufficient for the gold.
Kobo,Ori (2534) – Postny,Evgeny (2564)
GM Maccabiah 2022 Jerusalem, Israel Round 5 – 17.07.2022
In his win against Postny in the 5th round, Kobo played 39.Re1 setting up a trap for Black who was in time trouble. Black replayed 39…Rxe5 and lost on time. Can you figure out what Ori’s idea was?
It is curious that the gold medal, which theoretically could be flying now to any part of the world, stayed a few minutes’ walk from the hall, in Kobo’s apartment. Kobo, who is having a fruitful year after qualifying in April for the Fide World Cup by finishing 14th in the European Chess Championship 2022 (Slovenia), said after the final ceremony:
“For me, it was special to play here, since I achieved my second IM norm in this same hotel in 2015 (European Chess Championship). I’m happy.”
In the open section, everything was undecided before the final round, with 4 players on 6.5 points. Three wins in the first three boards determined the stage: Daniel Moskovich won against Yehonatan Fadida, Alexey Streltsov against Sophie Aflalo, and Moshe Gal against Yochai Vazana.
Moskovich, who gained 7.5 points, finished the game with a smile. The diagram shows the position after 34…Bh6 – an already winning position:
Moskovich,Daniel (2210) – Fadida,Yehonatan (1822)
Maccabiah Open 2022 Jerusalem, Israel Round 9 – 21.07.2022
Alexey Streltsov, who according to the tiebreaks finished second with 7.5 points as well, was the only undefeated player in the tournament, with a result and performance that definitely could have ended with the gold medal in a less competitive tournament.
Moshe Gal, who joined the last “parking space” on the podium with his win, finished with 7 points. It was not his first medal, since he won the gold in 2017, also in the open category. Find Yochanan Afek’s report here:
http://www.maccabiahchess.co.il/chess-in-the-20th-maccabiah-final-report/
The junior tournament had 4 leaders with 4.5 points out of 6 before the last round – the first three boards ended in a draw making the last round’s fight for medals very tight.
Daniel Ser from Lithuania, the youngest player in the junior tournament (13), won against the Israeli Tomer Gilad, but finished second since Kyle Lancman (USA) had a better tiebreak after winning against Jack Lieberman (USA). Ilya Zuev (ISR) gained the bronze after drawing on the 3rd board with the South African Jacobson Gabriel Kenneth.
To conclude, in Jerusalem’s closing ceremony, Moshe Slav, the organizer of the chess event, thanked Maccabi for their support of chess and added that chess has had an honourable place in Maccabiah’s history since 1935 (Find more details in Dr. Kandelshein’s article: http://www.maccabiahchess.co.il/the-jewish-mind-the-jewish-game-and-the-jewish-olympics/). He also thanked the General Manager of the Israeli Chess Federation, Gil Boruhovsky, for the Federation’s support of the event.
Slav also expressed gratitude to the staff for the well-organized tournament: IA Alon Cohen (Director and Chief arbiter) and NA Mark Flaum (Deputy arbiter) and the photographer of the main events in Jerusalem, Dr. Mark Livshitz. The same appreciation goes for the Haifa organizers: FA Vladimir Veinshtein (Director and Chief arbiter), Natalia Vovinkina (Deputy arbiter), and Ritvo photography, covering the junior tournament in Haifa.
Finally, he thanked Etty Hadar for the website support and the appeals committee, consisting of IA Dr. Shlomo Kandelshein, IA Israel Gelfer, and IA Assi Philosoph, who finished without work, fortunately.
The full results can be found here:
GM: https://chess-results.com/tnr626113.aspx?lan=1
Open: https://chess-results.com/tnr617466.aspx?lan=1
Junior: https://chess-results.com/tnr643234.aspx?lan=1
Blitz: https://chess-results.com/tnr656743.aspx?lan=1
See you at the next Maccabiah!