Laznicka wins the 38th World open

The 2010 edition took place from the 29th of June to the 5th of July in the 'King of Prussia' which is 20 miles west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The prizes are always sky high which attracts a wide mix of foreign GMs.
Victor Laznicka came out ahead with 7.5/9 and takes $20,000 back with him to the Czech Republic.

The World open is the apex of an American system of open tournaments with mega-prizes, but only a small number of players ever go home happy!

The dramatically named 'World Open' lives up to its name as players from many countries are willing to come to Philadelphia to tempt their chance, some year-after-year.

I counted 24 countries represented in the main section and these from every possible corner of the globe!

In fact in 2010 there were nine different tournaments for all strengths and tastes. The featured event was a nine round Swiss with a classical time limit of 40 moves in two hours followed by an hour to finish the game.

The prizes in the actual World open were as follows:

(all in US $)20000-10000-5000-2500-1200-1000-800-700-600-500

plus some special prizes.

After Laznicka, came Harikrishna, Smirin and McShane on 7/9, who shared second to fourth.

A special rule that may eventually become more widespread was that 'players must submit to a search for electronic devices if requested by the director'. Rules concerning the use of headphones, earphones, or cellphones and the need to ask for permission to leave the same floor of the venue are fairly common in Europe.

Another idiosyncrasy in the US is that players can start late, switch tournaments, take byes and seemingly come-and-go at will! I personally can't see this particular American approach being adopted in the old world.

Here are the players who finished in the prizes. The top 17 are all GMs whilst those finishing 18th and 19th are only IMs.

Final RankingNameCountryRatingPoints/9
1Victor LaznickaCZE26367.5
2Pentala HarikrishnaIND26607
3Ilya SmirinISR26347
4Luke McShaneENG26237
5Loek Van WelyNED26536.5
6Jan GustafssonGER26406.5
7Vladimir PotkinRUS26346.5
8Aleksandr LendermanUSA25986.5
9Francisco Vallejo PonsESP27036
10Gata KamskyUSA27026
11Sandipan ChandaIND26406
12Murtas KazhgaleyevKAZ26096
13Jaan EhlvestUSA25916
14Robert L HessUSA25906
15Giorgi KacheishviliGEO25876
16Alexander ShabalovUSA25856
17Mark C ParaguaPHI24976
18Puchen WangNZL24696
19Salvijus BercysUSA24276

For further information see the Official site

Victor Laznicka earnt a fistful of dollars

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