The 2019 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Tournament in the island finished with two joint winners taking home $60,000 each.

A ’Swiss’ tournament is a non-eliminating tournament where players face opponents with a similar score every round and the player with the highest number of points at the end wins the tournament.

In total there were 154 players from all over the world including the top players from Europe, India, USA, Russia and China competing in the tournament that was sponsored by the Scheinberg Family.

The world champion Magnus Carlsen was top seed, being the highest rated player, while the lowest rated player, was island resident Baard Dahl.

Chinese grand master Wang Hao won the gold medal with eight points from his 11 games, and having a better tie-break than Fabiano Caruana, who finished runner-up, despite being also on eight points. The two players received $60,000 each.

Six players tied for third place, Levon Aronian, David Anton Guikarro, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Nikita Vitiugov and Kirill Alekseenko.

Kirill from Russia won the bronze medal, due to a better tie-break. Harika Dronavali from India took the best female prize ahead of Dinara Saduakassova due to a better tie break score, as both had finished with 5.5 points out of 11.

The tournament was 11 rounds long and took place in the newly refurbished Comis Hotel at Mount Murray from October 10 to 21.

Each of the island-based players, Dietmar Kolbus, Li Wu, Keith Allen and Baard Dahl finished with three points.

The Isle of Man chess club meets every Wednesday at 7.30pm at Braddan Church. For more information, visit www.iomchessclub.co.uk/home-page/ or call Howard Dobson on 233303 or email: [email protected].

Left to right: Chief Minister Howard Quayle, Fabiano Caruana (USA), Wang Hao (China), Kirill Alekseenko (Russia) and Alan Ormsby tournament director