It
was beautiful autumn weather and it were sunny days at the
lake Tegernsee, when in the tournament-hall (Wandelhalle)
the chess-players were struggling hard. Both champions of
2000 (Alexander Graf, GER, ELO: 2610) and 1999 (Alexander
Shabalov, USA, ELO: 2585) took part in the event. Besides
there were 85 international FIDE-title-holders in the
tournament; 32 grandmasters and two female grandmasters
participated. So the tournament in Bad Wiessee in 2001 was
stronger, than ever before.
The highest rated player in the
tournament was Vladimir Akopian (ELO: 2660) from Armenia.
Akopian was in the finals of the world championship 1999.
After the expected wins in the first rounds, he made a draw
against the high talented Andrei Volokitin (ELO: 2566, 15
years) from Ukraine. For this reason Michal Krasenkow (POL,
ELO: 2592) and Eric Lobron (GER, ELO: 2524) took the
leadership in round 5. After their draw in round 6 there was
no-one left with 100%. Due to a lot of draws, noone could
even guess, who would become champion. Eric Lobron, who
started in a glorious way lost against Vladimir Baklan
(UKR,
ELO:2590) und Alexander Graf (ELO: 2610). Even worse was the
experience for grandmaster Mikhail Ulibin
(ELO: 2580) from Russia. He lost against Edin Pezerovic
(BIH, ELO: 2415) and also against Klaus Klundt (GER, ELO: 2368),
two international masters of the chess-club of Tegernsee.
After round 8 there was a leading group with grandmasters
Akopian, Baklan, Krasenkow and
Shabalov. Even after round nine the four of them had the
equal points, but in the end Akopian had the highest
Buchholz. So Akopian won the 5th OIBM in Bad Wiessee with 7½
points. The second place was divided between Baklan and
Shabalov. Krasenkow reached place four.
Also
the fight for the prize of best female was very interesting.
During the whole event, the young Indian chess-player Ramashwamy Aarthie
(ELO:
2301) looked like becoming the champion. But in round 9 she
lost against Holger Grund (GER,
ELO: 2466) and Nino Gurieli (GEO,
ELO: 2343)
succeeded in winning the special prize. Gurieli also was
winning this prize for several times in the last five years.
The prize for the best senior was given to the Croatian Ivo
Vukovic (ELO: 2260). Actually Klaus Klundt should have get
this prize, but he preferred the prize in category
ELO<2400. The best participating youth-player was Andrei
Volokitin. He had such a great performance, that he
succeeded in getting his fourth GM-norm. So Volokitin will
become grandmaster in the next FIDE-congress. The prize for
the best U20 was given to Henning Schneider (GER,
ELO: 2230). Volokitin reached place 5 in the final rankings
and of course he preferred this prize instead of the
youth-trophy.
Winner of rating-prizes were Bryan Smith
(ELO<2400),
Reinhard Jänig (ELO<2200), Werner Frank (ELO<2000), Marco Baldauf
(ELO<1800) and Desiderius Meier (ELO<1600).
During
the closing-ceremony on November 4 the district major
Norbert Kerkel was presenting the trophies. And his special
thanks was for Horst and Thomas Leckner and their
professional and enthusiastic organisation before and during
the tournament. Also Mr. Egidio Parigi of Bank Hofmann
participated in the closing-ceremony. Bank Hofmann was only
co-sponsor in this year after four years of beeing
main-sponsor. Mainsponsor in 2001 was Kreissparkasse
Miesbach, which also provided the great prize-funds of DM
42.000,-.
Horst
Leckner, substitute member of the executive board of
Kreissparkasse Miesbach-Tegernsee and tournament director
had thankful words for all sponsors and especially for the
city of Bad Wiessee, which always supported this event in a
generous way. Also he thanked all the "invisible"
helping persons, which are necessary for such a great
tournament. But Mr. Leckner's very special thank you was for
the extraordinary fair participants of the OIBM. Although
there were 512 participants (and 2.300 games!!), there was
not a single protest during the event.