Lviv resident ties for first at World Open Chess Tournament (07/27/03)

Lviv resident ties for first at World Open Chess Tournament

by Dr. Swiatoslaw Trofimenko

PHILADELPHIA - At the World Open Chess Tournament in Philadelphia that ended July 6 and drew over 1,200 participants, a young Ukrainian from Lviv, Nazar Firman, tied for first place with nine grandmasters, each with a score of 7:2.

This was in the top group of 238 contenders, among them 40 grandmasters, which makes Firman's achievement even more remarkable as he was the only non-grandmaster among the winners (he is an international master).

The grandmasters whom he tied were: Ilya Smirin and Leonid Yudasin (both from Israel), Jaan Ehlvest (Estonia), Alexander Onischuk, Alexander Goldin, Alex Shabalov, Gennadi Zaitshik, Balabaskoulu Annakov (all from the U.S.), and Alek Wojtkiewicz (Poland). Most of them are players from the former USSR. Only a few years ago Onischuk played on Ukrainian national teams. Although Ehlvest was declared the official winner based on secondary points and a play-off victory against Smirin, the first prize was divided equally among these 10 players.

Firman is the champion of Ukraine in the under-20 category, and he was a member of the Lviv team in the recent European team championship. Tying for first place in such a strong field as the World Open is undoubtedly his best achievement so far.

Ukrainian women also participated in the World Open Class Tournament. Anna Zatonskih, who until recently represented Ukraine and is now living in the United States, tallied a positive score of 5.5:3.5. Seventeen-year-old Iryna Zeniuk, originally from Ivano-Frankivsk and now from New York, achieved an even score 4.5:4.5, which qualified her for the U.S. women's closed championship, which was what she was striving for. Her achievement was recognized by the local press, which interviewed her and took photographs.

Alex Pelekhaty, a 13-year-old from Brooklyn, also played in this tournament, although in the next lower group (below masters). He did not do especially well here, but earlier this year, Alex, a seventh-grader from lntermediate School No. 288 in Brooklyn, N.Y., became U.S. co-champion among junior high-school students. He also tied for second place last year at the chess championship of the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada.

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