Vienna: 16-Year-Old Wins Open; Mamedyarov Beats Ragger

On Sunday, the Vienna Open was sensationally won by 16-year-old IM Francesco Rambaldi. Alongside the tournament, GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov beat GM Markus Ragger 3.5-2.5 in a friendly match. 

All photos by Gerhard Peyrer
courtesy of the Wiener Schachverband.

Italy never had many grandmasters. The first was Sergio Mariotti (69), who secured the title when he won a bronze medal at the Nice 1974 Olympiad.

Two Italian immigrants became grandmaster as well: Cuba-born Lexy Ortega (55) and Argentine-born Carlos Garcia Palermo (61).

At the time of writing, the Italian federation lists 10 GMs. It used to be 11, before Fabiano Caruana's move to the U.S., and it will be 11 again soon.

[Update: In the comments the inactive GM Alexander Zlochevskij was mentioned, which means there are 11 Italian GMs now, and soon 12.] 

Last Sunday 16-year-old IM Francesco Rambaldi fulfilled all requirements for his grandmaster title. Not only did he score a norm; he won an open tournament along the way, and 2,000 Euros with it!

Rambaldi edged out GMs Keith Arkell of England, Tamas Banusz of Hungary, Axel Rombaldoni of Italy and Gergely Antal of Hungary on tiebreak after all five had finished on 7.5/9.

The following game begs to be embedded here. It shows fighting spirit among compatriots, it starts with 1.b3 (with a novelty on move 5!) and ends with a nice combination: 

2015 Vienna Open | Final Standings

Rk.	SNo	Title	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	11	IM	Rambaldi Francesco	ITA	2517	7,5	44,5	56,5
2	16	GM	Arkell Keith	ENG	2488	7,5	43	54,5
3	3	GM	Bánusz Tamás	HUN	2586	7,5	42,5	55
4	12	GM	Rombaldoni Axel	ITA	2515	7,5	41,5	53
5	10	GM	Antal Gergely	HUN	2524	7,5	41	52
6	2	GM	Buhmann Rainer	GER	2613	7	44,5	55
7	37	FM	Carow Johannes	GER	2407	7	43	55
8	8	GM	Brunello Sabino	ITA	2545	7	41,5	53,5
9	23	FM	Moroni Luca	ITA	2461	7	40,5	51,5
10	14	IM	Tari Aryan	NOR	2510	7	40	52
11	15	GM	Kindermann Stefan	AUT	2507	7	39,5	51
12	13	GM	Kurajica Bojan	BIH	2513	7	39,5	50
13	5	GM	Hawkins Jonathan	ENG	2554	7	38,5	49,5
14	61		Dragnev Valentin	AUT	2339	7	38	48,5
15	22	IM	Mons Léon	GER	2464	7	38	47
16	6	GM	Ruck Robert	HUN	2552	7	37,5	48,5
17	75	FM	Schwabeneder Florian	AUT	2299	7	35	44,5
18	1	GM	Safarli Eltaj	AZE	2644	7	34,5	43
19	137	WIM	Gevorgyan Irina	UZB	2206	6,5	44	55
20	112		Pop Alexandru	ROU	2248	6,5	40	52

(Full final standings here.)

Trophies for the top 3: Rambaldi in between Arkell (l.) and Banusz.

Alongside the tournament, in the same playing hall, GM Markus Ragger played a six-game match against GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. After winning the Politiken Cup, the Austrian number-one did reasonably well in this match, losing by the smallest possible margin: 2.5-3.5.

It was Mamedyarov who opened the score in the first game, in an Exchange Ruy Lopez. After game two ended in a draw, the Azerbaijani came up with a stunning almost-novelty, as early as move seven, again in a Ruy Lopez Exchange:

The amazing thing was that Mamedyarov only spent a bit over 22 minutes on the whole game. His longest think was three minutes and 19 seconds on 30.h6. Mind-blowing.

Ragger saved the honor by winning game five. Mameyarov decided that his experiment was for one game only, and deviated with the rare 6.Re1. A quick e4-e5 came anyway, Ragger defended well and easily refuted a piece sac.

Ragger's three white games ended in draws. As the tournament website notes, he might well be the first Austrian player to reach the world's top 50 on the next rating list.