CHESS TRAIN 2016

90-year-old Marianne, 11-year-old Nela and all the winners

[12.10.2016 00:00:00] - The Chess Train is back in Prague after its five-day journey; and with the final glass of wine, the winners were awarded prizes in the Governmental Lounge at the Prague Main Railway Station.

The Chess Train 2016 tournament was dominated by the Turkish GM Suat Atalik, who got 9.5 points out of 10 games, with only the Ukrainian master Roman Chajeckij managing to draw with him in the last round. The second place went to the German translator Sven Römling (8 points) and thanks to the better helping rating, the third place was taken by the Dutch chess player Brent Burg. The team competition winner was the Czech Railways team, which consisted of Czech Railways employees (Ladislav Winkelhöfer, Pavel Popelka, Jan Štursa, Taťána Šeráková), the best Czech chess player Jaroslav Satranský and the grandmaster Suat Atalik.


The managing director of the Czech Railways Pavel Krtek is awarding the tournament winner Suat Atalik with the trophy – a glass locomotive by the Ajeto Glassworks. The ceremony is watched by Antonín Blažek, the managing director of the Railway Research Institute, who travelled onboard the Chess Train during the final stage of its journey from Český Krumlov to Prague.

The best female chess player was Ada Leona Van Der Giessen, the best junior was Jakub Kůsa, the best player in the ELO difference (the biggest difference between the starting ELO and ELO performance – the biggest improvement in the tournament) was Savanali Nuradilov.

But also other players were awarded; special prices went to the most loyal participants of the Chess Train, who attended it for the fifth time already (Hana Modrová, Sven Römling and Ladislav Winkelhöfer) or even for the sixth time (Karel Šlechta, Jiří Navrátil, Günter Hälsig, Josef Bára and Pavel Popelka).

The oldest participant of the tournament was the 90-year-old Marianne Hartlaub, the youngest one was Nela Viktorie Michálková. The 79-year’s difference between them encompassed the remaining 114 chess players from 18 countries all over the world, who took part in the tournament.


The most improving player of the tournament (the player with the biggest performance over his or her ELO) was the Russian chess player Savanali Nuradilov, who played 795 ELO over his rating. He was awarded the superb Sporten Glider 5 downhill ski.


The Czech Railways team drafted the Turkish grandmaster and it was also because of this great acquisition policy that it won the team competition. Such was the end of another amazing journey of the Chess Train. If you would like to participate next year, like it on Facebook (Chess Train or Facebook) or follow this web. The Chess Train 2017 will travel from 13 to 17 October on the route Prague – Olomouc – Trenčín – Bratislava – Lednice – Praha.

The complete Chess Train tournament results can be found at Chess-Results.
The Chess Train photo gallery provided by the court photographer of the Prague Chess Society Anežka Kružíková can be found here.

| Pavel Matocha | visits(5602x)