Players from all over the world took part in the Isle of Man International Chess Tournament.

It was staged at the Villa Marina in Douglas.

The masters section consisted of 165 players from 37 countries.

There was a large concentration from Europe plus a large contingent from India, and players from USA, Australia, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Participants included Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So from the USA, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, former world title challenger Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk, Levon Aronian from Armenia, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave French number one, Anish Giri from the Netherlands, Viswanathan Anand Indian number one, along with many other grandmasters.

Many of the games were shown live by Chess.com, an online chess playing site.

The Chief Minister Howard Quayle opened the event and made the first move on the top board.

However, the top players in the world did not have it all their way with many drawing against the lower rates players in the early rounds.

The time controls ensured many quality games being played, however there were some matches that lasted well over six hours.

At the end of the nine days of intense games, the International Masters was won by Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland after a play-off match with Arkadij Naiditsch of Azerbaijan. Both players finished the tournament with seven points from nine.

There was a play off between both players and the two games finished with one a piece, so an Armageddon game had to be played which Wojtaszek won and received a prize of £38,000 with £37,500 for Naiditsch.

Seven players finished on 6.5: Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk (both Russia), Hikaru Nakamura, Jeffery Xiong (both USA), Wang Hao (China), Gawain Jones (England) and Baskaran Adhiban (India).

The best performing female prize of £6,000 went to Alina Kashlinskay, who finished with six points and beat American Grandmaster Samuel Sevian in the last round, who is almost 200 rating points higher and also received a Grand Master norm.

It turned out to be a great day as it was also her 25th birthday and she is also married to the overall winner Radoslaw Wojtaszek.

Some Manx players stepped up to the plate. Both Dietmar Kolbus and Li Wu finished with four points. Keith Allen and Baard Dahl also performed well with three and 2.5 points respectively.

There were also two amateur sections, the Major and Minor, which had seven rounds. There was a tie for first place in the Major; Jason P McKenna, Norman Kenneth and David Ireland, all from England, finished on 5.5 points from seven.

Under the tie-break rules Jason P McKenna won overall, however all three players shared a prize of £800.

In joint fourth place was Stephan Briem from Iceland and Manx resident Zahed Miah, who finished with five points.

The Minor section was won on tie break when 2 players finished with 5.5 points from seven.

Pedro Deus from Portugal won on the tie break rules which meant Gary White who has been a regular visitor to the island had to settle for runner-up spot.

Manx residents Paul Smith and Howard Dobson received grading prizes for their performances.

Alan Ormsby was the tournament director.

At the closing ceremony Mr Ormsby thanked the rest of the committee: Brian Woodard, Keith Allen and Zahed Miah, and the arbiters, commentators, staff at the Villa, the Department for Enterprise and the Scheinberg Family who sponsored the event.

The Isle of Man chess club meets every Wednesday at 7.30pm at Braddan Church.