Xtracon Chess Open

The Xtracon Chess Open (formerly the Politiken Cup) is an international chess tournament and the main feature event of the annual Copenhagen Chess Festival. Organized by the Copenhagen Chess Federation (KSU), it was originally set up to give Danish players the opportunity of international experience and title norms. Starting from modest means in 1979, with just 22 contestants, it has grown to become one of the world's largest and most respected open chess tournaments, with numbers of participants rising to 200 in 2003, and nowadays reaching well in excess of 400.

The tournament has attracted many of the world's strongest grandmasters as well as promising youngsters. Former world champion Vassily Smyslov was among the winners in 1980[1] and 1986,[2] while other notable winners have included Viktor Korchnoi as clear first in 1996 at the age of 65 and Nigel Short in 2006.[3] At the Politiken Cup in 2003, Magnus Carlsen achieved his third and final IM norm.

The early editions were held in Copenhagen and its suburbs, before moving to Helsingør. The tournament has always taken the format of a large "Open", accessible to both titled and non-titled players, except in 1983, when there was an invite-only, all-play-all Grandmaster event and a subsidiary Open tournament aimed at International Master level.

In later years the tournament has taken place during July/August, over 10 rounds, at the Konventum, a convention centre and resort set in the scenic surroundings of Helsingør.

From 1979 to 2015, the main sponsor was the Danish daily newspaper Politiken, but new arrangements have been announced for 2016–2018. The main sponsor is now Xtracon A/S, a Danish IT company with a chess playing owner. Accordingly, the tournament has been renamed to reflect the change, although it is anticipated that the format will remain broadly the same.[4]

List of winners (Politiken Cup)

# Year Winners Points
1 1979 Carsten Høi 7½ (10)
2 1980 Vassily Smyslov, Adrian Mikhalchishin 7½ (10)
3 1981 Petar Velikov, Tom Wedberg, Shaun Taulbut 7½ (10)
4 1982 Tom Wedberg 7½ (10)
5 1983 István Csom, Sergey Kudrin 5½ (9)
6 1984 Nick de Firmian, Aleksander Sznapik 7½ (10)
7 1985 Karel Mokry 7½ (10)
8 1986 Vassily Smyslov, Alexander Chernin, Evgeny Pigusov, Laszlo Cserna  7 (10)
9 1987 Bjørn Brinck-Claussen 7½ (10)
10 1988 Rafael Vaganian 8 (10)
11 1989 Lars Karlsson, Aleksander Sznapik, Jens Kristiansen 7½ (10)
12 1990 Konstantin Lerner 7½ (10)
13 1991 Yuri Dokhoian, Yuri Piskov 8 (10)
14 1992 Sergey Smagin, Matthew Sadler, John Emms, Avigdor Bykhovsky 7½ (10)
15 1993 Igor Khenkin, John Emms, Henrik Danielsen 7½ (10)
16 1994 Valery Neverov, Michail Brodsky 7½ (10)
17 1995 Lars Bo Hansen 8 (10)
18 1996 Viktor Korchnoi 8½ (11)
19 1997 Helgi Grétarsson, Carsten Høi, Erling Mortensen, Lars Schandorff 8½ (11)
20 1998 Hannes Stefánsson, Daniel Gormally, Tiger Hillarp Persson
Lars Schandorff, Nikolaj Borge		 8½ (11)
21 1999 Alexander Baburin, Tiger Hillarp Persson 8½ (11)
22 2000 Boris Gulko, Lars Bo Hansen, Jonny Hector 8½ (11)
23 2001 Mikhail Gurevich, Alexander Rustemov, Peter Heine Nielsen
Lev Psakhis, Nick de Firmian		 8½ (11)
24 2002 Sergei Tiviakov, Alexander Beliavsky, Rubén Felgaer 8½ (11)
25 2003 Krishnan Sasikiran 9 (11)
26 2004 Darmen Sadvakasov, Leif Johannessen, Nick de Firmian 8 (10)
27 2005 Konstantin Sakaev 8 (10)
28 2006 Vadim Malakhatko, Nigel Short, Jonny Hector 7½ (9)
29 2007 Michal Krasenkov, Gabriel Sargissian, Emanuel Berg
Nick de Firmian, Vladimir Malakhov		 8 (10)
30 2008 Sergei Tiviakov, Vladimir Malakhov, Yuriy Kuzubov
Peter Heine Nielsen, Boris Savchenko, Jonny Hector		 8 (10)
31 2009 Parimarjan Negi, Boris Avrukh 8½ (10)
32 2010 Pavel Eljanov 8½ (10)
33 2011 Igor Kurnosov 8½ (10)
34 2012 Ivan Cheparinov, Ivan Sokolov, Jonny Hector 8 (10)
35 2013[5] Parimarjan Negi 9 (10)
36 2014[6] Bu Xiangzhi 9 (10)
37 2015[7] Markus Ragger, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Jon Ludvig Hammer
Laurent Fressinet, Tiger Hillarp Persson, Sam Shankland
Sebastien Maze, Mihail Marin, Sune Berg Hansen, Vitaly Kunin		 8 (10)

List of winners (Xtracon Chess Open)

# Year Winners Points
1 2016 Matthias Bluebaum, Alexei Shirov, Bassem Amin, Jonathan Carlstedt
Mihail Marin, Jon Ludvig Hammer, Jean-Marc Degraeve		 8 (10)

References

  1. ↑ British Chess Magazine 1980, p.473
  2. ↑ British Chess Magazine 1986, p.392
  3. ↑ Brief description and year by year tournament results in more detail
  4. ↑ Xtracon sponsorship
  5. ↑ Parimarjan Negi Wins Politiken Cup
  6. ↑ Bu Xiangzhi convincing in Politiken Cup
  7. ↑ Markus Ragger Wins Politiken Cup (on tie-break from 9 others)
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