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Yes, the Ordix Open has a winner. Wrong, the Ordix Open has several winners. In numerous categories prizes can be won. Senior, juniors, women, rating categories, you name it. And if you combine the Chess960 Open with the Ordix Open, you create a new category and have a combined winner. This year Victor Bologan, winner of the FiNet Open, is the overall winner with a total of 18,5 points. Here we give you an overview of the second day of the Ordix and an overview of the prize winners in the most important categories.

Round 6-8: Only Navara can keep the pace

David Navara was unstoppable in the Ordix Open

Sunday morning, 10.00 AM. Beautiful weather in Mainz. Time to enjoy a quiet breakfast? No way, 762 (corrected number) chess players came to the Rheingoldhalle to play six more rounds in the “battle of endurance”, the world-famous Ordix Open. Yestarday, we closed the Ordix with six players who had a perfect score after five rounds, but on Sunday only David Navara from the Czech Republic could keep the murderous pace by scoring 2,5 points in the first three rounds before the lunchbreak. Victor Bologan, the winner of the FiNet Open was abel to score a draw against the Navara Express. He is now the sole leader after eight rounds with 7,5 points. Born in Prague, in 1985, Grandmaster David Navara has been playing chess since he was six. Numerous coaches helped shape his talents, including Josef Pribyl, Ludek Pachman, and Vlastimil Jansa. He won the championships of the Czech Republic in his age category in 1993-95, but his first great achievement was at the 2001 European Team Championship in Leon, where he scored 7 out of 9 points (performance rating: 2775). Can young David keep the pace? Will Bologan win the "double"? What about Ivanchuk? And Tigran Petrosian has 7 points as well...

Round 9: Tragic loss for Harikrishna

Losing on time against David Navara: Pentala Harikrishna

In the 9th round we saw the top pairing between Pentala Harikrishna and David Navara. “Hari” as the young Indian is called by his friends has had an unbelievable week. He won a tournament in Hungary, the Gyцrgy Marx Memorial this week, just made it on time to play the FiNet Chess960 open and now plays some fantastic games in the Ordix as well. He seems to be in good shape this week! Pentala Harikrishna (born May 10, 1986) is a chess player from Andhra Pradesh, India. He is rated third amongst the top Indian players ranking next to Viswanathan Anand and Krishnan Sasikiran. Harikrishna became the youngest grandmaster from India in 2001. In November 2004, he won the World Junior Chess Championship. In August 2006, he won the Chess960 Junior Chess Championship in Mainz, beating Arkadij Naiditsch 4.5-3.5 in a breathtaking match. Harikrishna and Navara played a long game, in which the young Indian showed his magnificent endgame technique. In a winning position he lost on time against Navara, who still leads the field with 8,5 points. “I played a fine game, but made a mistake and was actually lost. I wanted to resign, but tried one more move. Suddenly my opponent lost on time”, Navara said after the game. “I was just lucky”.

Round 10 David Navara is unstoppable!

Suddenly he was there and grabbed second place : Mikhail Mchedlishvili

In the penultimate round, David Navara met Tigran L. Petrosian, the ICC qualifier. The Armenian won the Chess960 qualifier with 1586 participants and won a trip to Mainz. Petrosian played the FiNet Chess960 Open, in which he scored eight points. In the Ordix he scored eight points in nine rounds! But in round 10 he met his master: in a very sharp game Navara remained calm and added another full point to his breathtaking score. Navara’s most persistant chasers for the Ordix title with 7,5 points like Almasi, Gyimesi, Khenkin, Nielsen and Drozdovskij and Bologan gave up hope and played quick draws to secure a big piece of the prize fund. Sasikiran managed to win his game against Burmakin and now has 8,5 points. In the last round we will see if the Indian is able to stop Navara. Another player with 8,5 points seems to come out of nowhere: Mchedlishvili won against Balogh.

Final round: Navara is number 1, Mchedlishvili and Sasikiran follow.

The final round: Navara blundered against Sasikiran

David Navara from the Czech Republic is the winner of the 14th Ordix Open. Despite his quick loss in the last round against Krishnan Sasikiran, the 22-year old deserves this victory. The Navara express lead the field from the moment go and although Krishnan Sasikiran and Mikhail Mchedlishvili from Georgia, who won in the final round against Alexander Grishuk also scored 9,5 points it was clear before the start of the last round that Navara’s progressive score was more than enough to win the tournament. Nine players scored nine points.

The winners

Many prizes, many winners: Vlastimil Hort scored 8 points in the senior category, Marie-Rachel Sebag also scored 8 points to clinch home the women’s section. Best Junior U20 is GM Igor Lysyj, with 8 points, GM Parimarjan Negi from India won the U14 competition with 7,5 points.

Combined Chess960/Chess518 prizes

The winner of the FiNet , Bologan and the Ordix winner Navara in their game on Sunday

And finally, we have the prize winners for the ones who played the FiNet Chess960 Open and the Ordix Open: overall winner is Victor Bologan with 18,5 points, David Navara scored 18,5 points as well, third place was won by Krishnan Sasikiran. Ivan Farago won the prize in the senior category, Marie_Rachel Sebag also won the combined title in the women’s section. Sergey Karjakin was the overall best U20 player and Parimarjan Negi won the U14 prize.