Award winners of 7th International Chess Tournament "Vardaris" 2024

The 7th Vardaris International Tournament returned after a 4-year absence due to the "Covid" pandemic

It was held at the City Hall of Thessaloniki in the Manolis Anagnostakis Hall during the period 14-18 March 2024.

The tournament was the twinning of the Chess Club SAX Thessaloniki with the team of the Chess Club of West Lesvos "Aristotle".

The tournament was part of the European program Thessaloniki European City of Sport and the opening ceremony was attended by the Deputy Mayor of Sports, Youth and Volunteerism Mrs. Kyriaki Giannakidou.

The winners were the following:

Α' Group

Final standings

1st Tsaknakis Zisis

2nd Dogias Christos

3rd Rahmanidis Petros

4th Krallis Christos

5th Markidis Konstantinos

6th Loukopoulos Panagiotis Athanasios

1st Female

Gkoutzouki Aikaterini Argyro

Veteran S50

1st Madebrink Lars

U1800

1st Balafoutis Ilias

U2000

1st Kalogridis Themistoklis

Boys U16

1st Boutikos Eleftherios

Girls U16

1st Nenova Andzhelika

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Β΄ Group

Final standings

1st Petridis Dimitrios Panagiotis

2nd Keramaros Vasileios

3rd Balafoutas Alexandros

1st Female 

Maniati Konstantina

Veteran S50

1st Avgitidis Isaak

Boys U16

1st Mitsopoulos Ioannis

Girls U16

1st Giakoustidou Evgenia

Boys U14

1st Papakyriakou Petros

Girls U14

1st Pehlivanova Aleksandra

Boys U12

1st Xouplidis Filippos

Girls U12

1st Marinova Mihaela

Boys U10

1st Skodras Dionysios Eleftherios

Girls U10

1st Kalyva Ioanna

We believe that every "Vardaris" is unique, however the 6th Vardaris was definitely very special, since one day before the start of the tournament, the first incident of coronavirus in Greece was announced, in fact in Thessaloniki. Panic prevailed for two days! All the phones, even the mobile ones of the organizing committee wouldn't stop ringing. There were many participants who canceled, even more who called to ask if the tournament would eventually take place and many who rebroadcast the news from television and radio.

On Tuesday morning we arrived at the Holiday Inn hotel, the playing venue and started the preparations. Late at night everything was ready. Our organization and satisfaction was unimaginable. Of course, no one could imagine the sequel... A day later, we felt that everything was falling apart!

On Thursday the situation had become even more pressing... The pairings were published with a slight delay (at 16.30 instead of 16.00), we had the pleasure to announce the brotherhood with the Chess Club of Xanthi and by announcing the start of the games, we did not really know what we will face after all.

And yet, people were there!!! It is indeed a small organizing miracle, the games started on time and the majority of participants were there!

The 6th Vardaris had started!

In A Group, all participants played on brand new wooden chessboards and 20 electronic chessboards broadcast live the most important games of each round. In all groups, each chess player had a printed card with his/her name, his/her ELO and the flag of his/her country.

 

2nd day of the tournament (Friday 28 February 2020)

On Friday morning, we had organized a guided tour for foreign chess players in the city of Thessaloniki. The White Tower, Thessaloniki seaside, the Castles and Agios Dimitrios Church were our stops...

The impressions of the participants were excellent. A really beautiful 3-hours tour for all the chess players and the attendants who registered.

 

Before the beginning of the 2nd round, the arbiter with a continuous presence from the 1st Vardaris, Nikos Freggidis, was honored for his contribution with a commemorative collector's medal.

Also, from the 2nd day, a painting exhibition of the Russian chess player Maria Yugina was presented on the playing venue, with her paintings decorating all the halls of the games.

An amazing image, another wonderful binding between our favorite game and art!

 

3rd day of the tournament (Saturday 29 February 2020)

Once every 4 years someone has the opportunity to play chess on a day like this. So this day you will need your charm. All the chess players were given a commemorative badge of the 6th Vardaris with a lucky horseshoe.

Rumors say that those who kept the badge won, while those who ignored it, were punished by Kaissa, the Goddess of chess...

Before the beginning of the 4th round, Christos Bousios, our Pairings Chief and companion from the 1st Vardaris, was honored for his offer.

 

4th day of the tournament (Sunday 1 March 2020)

Another difficult day for the chess players with another double round. The battles on the chessboards were very strong.

At the beginning of the 6th round, there was a small gift on the players' tables. A soap, expressing our solidarity for the employees of VIOME factory, the 1st factory occupied by its workers since 2011 and operate it since then, under direct democratic workers' control.

In addition to the action on the chessboards, a commemorative collector's medal was awarded to the Norwegian Grandmaster Kjeti A Lie, leader of the largest mission from a foreign country that participated in Vardaris with 12 chess players and 2 escorts - coaches.

 

 

5th day of the tournament (Monday 3 March 2020)

Before the start of the last round, a commemorative medal was awarded to Fontas Makris of Chess Club of Corfu, a club with which we came in brotherhood in the 2nd Vardaris and supports us ever since, being the club with the largest number of participations.

 

The tournament run normally. 279 chess players from 18 countries participated, including 6 GM, 2 IM and 1 WIM.

The winner of A Group was the Chinese Grandmaster Zeng Chongsheng with 7 points in 7 games. In positions 2 to 5 we had a draw with 5.5 points, but based on criteria the 2nd place was taken by the other Chinese Lu Shanglei, the 3rd place by Lambros Giannoulakis, 4th place for the Argentine Grandmaster Krysa Leandro and 5th for the Greek Chess Champion Kourkoulos-Arditis Stamatis. In the 6th place based on criteria, was the Norwegian Vestby-Ellingsen Mads with 5 points.

In B Group, the winner was chess player Demelkas Giannis with 6.5 points in 7 games, followed by Dogias Christos (2nd place) and Zaires Karanasios Konstantinos (3rd place).

In C Group, the winner was Konstantinos Papasynnefakis with 7 points in an equal number of games, 2nd place for George Varnas and 3rd place for Charalambos Papakyriakou.

In D Group, where children under 8 participated, the winner was Paterakis Panagiotis, 2nd place for Alexandra Giamouzi and 3rd for the Romanian Sava Natalia.

At the awards ceremony, we had the honor and pleasure to have together with us, the great Greek actor and chess lover, Mr. Takis Papamattheou.

 

Reaching the end, we would especially like to thank Takis Papamattheou for the honor he did us to award all the trophies and medals, changing and burdening his program a lot.

In fact, as he told us, he considers it's his duty to help chess in any way he can. After all, his dream was to become a professional chess player and travel all around the world carrying just a suitcase, playing chess.

The route of life may have changed a bit, but we, the people of Vardaris, are always along with those who dream… And Takis Papamattheou is clearly one of them!

We thank him from the bottom of our hearts, as well as all those who participated, chess players and attendants, in the 6th International Chess Tournament "Vardaris".

Last but not least, a huge thank you to all the tireless people of the organization. With passion and most of all our love for what we do, we always achieve the impossible!

See you next year!

7th Vardaris : March 11 - 15, 2021 !!!

A' Group

Final Standings

1st Zeng Chongsheng
2nd Lu Shanglei
3rd Giannoulakis Lampros
4th Krysa Leandro
5th Kourkoulos-Arditis Stamatis
6th Vestby-Ellingsen Mads

Women
1st Gu Tianlu
2nd Androni Konstantina
3rd Yugina Maria

Veteran S50
1st Marin Mihail

U2200
1st Tsaknakis Zisis

U2000
1st Tsironis Alexandros

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B΄ Group

Final Standings

1st Demelkas Ioannis
2nd Dogias Christos
3rd Zaires Karanasios Konstantinos
4th Tsouchnikas Orestis
5th Toliopoulos Konstantinos
6th Georgiadis Athanasios Kat

Women
1st Tsakona Maria
2nd Dereka Konstantina
3rd Mplitsa Artemis

Special Categories:

Boys U16
1st Tsilidis Christos

Girls U16
1st Tsivelekidou Anthoula Elpida

Boys U14
1st Dristellas Neoklis

Girls U14
1st Kalamoukou Giolanta

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C΄ Group

Final Standings

1st Papasynnefakis Konstantinos
2nd Varnas Georgios
3rd Papakyriakou Charalampos
4th Koukoumpi Athanasia
5th Haliandros Apostolos
6th Margaritis Ioannis M

Women
1st Draga Georgia
2nd Vardaka Styliani
3rd Trivella Maria

Special Categories:

Boys U12
1st Karakitsios Ioannis

Girls U12
1st Giakoustidou Evgenia

Boys U10
1st Kiourtzidis Anastasios Stanislav

Girls U10
1st Siskou Evangelia

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D΄ Group

Final Standings

1st Paterakis Panagiotis Emm
2nd Giamouzi Alexandra
3rd Sava Natalia
4th Kiourtzidis Leonidas
5th Deves Iason
6th Koutsos Dimitrios

Girls
1st Pola Ourania
2nd Siopi Nektaria

We are delighted to announce the participation of Grandmaster Lu Shanglei in the 6th International Chess Tournament "Vardaris", which will take place in Thessaloniki from February 27th to March 2nd.

The participation of this top Chinese chess player (no. 15 in his country) in an open tournament in our country is another great success for the chess of the city of Thessaloniki, but also for the entire chess events in Greece. It is extremely rare to observe chess players of this level to be at the table next to you. So, we are expecting this great opportunity with great joy and impatience!

Shanglei will come to Vardaris along with WIM Gu Tianlu and GM Zeng Chongsheng.

We thank Shanglei very much for this honor.

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Few biographical data for Shanglei Lu.

Lu Shanglei, born 10 July 1995, is a Chinese chess Grandmaster and 2014 World Junior Chess Champion.

He was awarded by FIDE the title Grandmaster (GM) in October 2011. 

Many are his individual as well as his team achievements. 

We can only mention some of them:

In August 2011, Lu came second, behind GM Li Shilong, at the 8th Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur. The following year, he won the 1st Grand Europe Open in Golden Sands, Bulgaria. 

In 2013, he played for the Chinese men's team in the China-USA Chess Summit in Ningbo, China. The match was won by the Chinese. 

In June 2014, at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Dubai, Lu was the only one who won a game against the eventual winner, Magnus Carlsen, in the blitz event. In October 2014, Lu won the World Junior Chess Championship in Pune, India with a score of 10/13 points. Thanks to this victory he qualified for the 2015 Chess World Cup. 

In April 2015, he finished fourth at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow, and second at the Aeroflot blitz tournament. In June 2015, he won two blitz tournaments in Bulgaria, the Golden Sands Blitz and the Albena Blitz, both with a score of 9/11 points. In the subsequent month, Lu helped the Chinese team to win the 9th China-Russia Match, held with the Scheveningen system. At the Chess World Cup 2015 he knocked out Alexander Moiseenko and Wang Hao in rounds one and two respectively, then he was eliminated by Veselin Topalov in the third round after the first set of rapid tiebreaker games.

In 2016, Lu Shanglei won the Asian Blitz Championship in Tashkent and the Serbian Open.  

Lu plays for the Zhejiang team in the China Chess League.

The organizing committee of the 6th International Chess Tournament "Vardaris 2020" wishes to provide every possible service for its participants. For this reason, we have achieved for yet another year, to offer 20% discount, exclusively for all the participants and their companions, at the legendary grill "Vardaris", located in 2nd Monastiriou Str., very close to the playing venue. We would really like to thank Mr. Isaak Papadopoulos for his kind and generous offer, as well as for the uninterrupted cooperation during all these years.