Egyptian GM Adly Wins Historic Sunway Sitges International Online Chess Open

GM Ahmed Adly won the Sunway Sitges International Online Chess Open, the first-ever open Swiss tournament held online with a classical time control. The Egyptian grandmaster beat IM Liam Vrolijk of the Netherlands in the knockout final.

Just like at the regular tournament in Sitges, held each December, the players had to play for their prizes in what was a 16-player knockout on the final day.

These 16 came from the main event: a nine-round Swiss held April 19-27 with 224 participants from 57 federations in the A group, including 16 GMs and 30 IMs. The time control was 90 minutes per player for the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move. 

Read our earlier article "Sunway Sitges: The First Ever Online Classical Swiss"

Sunway Sitges International Online Chess Open | Standings After Round 9 (Top 16)

(Full final standing here.)

Here are some setups that players taking part in our online tournament these last 9 rounds shared with us. An interesting way of playing online chess, which was allowed thanks to the classic time control of this first-ever online Swiss!@ChesscomNews @Anna_Chess @DanielKingChess pic.twitter.com/9Dfyn2UkAK

— Sunway Chess Open (@SunwayChessOpen) April 28, 2020

In Tuesday's playoffs, Adly defeated Danish GM Jesper Sondergaard Thybo, the Uzbek player Bobir Sattarov, the young American IM Christopher Yoo, and then 17-year-old Vrolijk. All matches consisted of two games of five minutes plus a three-second increment, and if needed, an armageddon with six vs. five and Black having draw odds.

Especially epic was the semi-final with 13-year-old Yoo, the youngest IM in American history. Adly's young opponent found himself in a lost endgame twice but managed to hold those to a draw, showing incredible resilience for his age.

Here's their second game, which saw a difficult and instructive rook endgame:

This is GM Ahmed Adly's from Egypt playing from home. Current African Chess Champion (and a very nice guy), he has played last 2 editions of our regular tournament and is now participating in our online event (#2 ranked player with a rating of 2615) while he'll celebrate Ramadan! pic.twitter.com/qpKnJndKBd

— Sunway Chess Open (@SunwayChessOpen) April 24, 2020

Adly won both games against Vrolijk to take the 1,500-euro first prize. In the first game, he showed better (rook) endgame technique—in fact, this was quite smoothly played. Vrolijk won 750 euros.

The Chilean grandmaster Rodrigo Vazquez Schroeder won 500 euros as he defeated Yoo in a mini-match for third place. There were many more prizes, also for the B group, including Chess.com memberships.

Replay the broadcast of the final day with commentary by GM Daniel King and IM Anna Rudolf.

The registration fee for the tournament was 15 euros or $16.50. All benefits went to a local hospital (Hospital Residencia Sant Camil) fighting COVID-19 after the deduction of tournament costs. You can still donate here, mentioning in the donation message it's intended for Sitges.

On the occasion of this first-ever classical Swiss held online, the organizers made the video below. In order of appearance are:

• Fran Dubon Sanchis, Director of Sunway Playa Golf Sitges Hotel & Spa, showing the playing hall that will hopefully host another over-the-board edition in December
• International Arbiter Nuno Filipe Andrade, the chief arbiter of the Sunway Sitges International Online Chess Open
• International Organizer Gonzalez Alonso, the tournament director
• Pepe Vinas Racionero, president of the Catalan Chess Federation
• Aurora Carbonell I Abella, mayor of Sitges
• Anatoly Karpov, 12th world chess champion
• Susan Polgar eighth women's world chess champion
• Ruslan Ponomariov, FIDE world champion 2002-2004
• Veselin Topalov, FIDE world champion 2005-2006
• Vladimir Kramnik, 14th world chess champion
• Judit Polgar, greatest female player of all time
• Viswanathan Anand, 15th world chess champion

Previous reports:

• Sunway Sitges: The First Ever Online Classical Swiss
• Sunway Sitges International Online Chess Open (info article)