More than 100 female and male players, four tournaments, and eleven days of competition at the chessboards. The Grandmaster Włodzimierz Schmidt Chess Festival has come to an end. Jonasz Baum and Marcin Sieciechowicz, representing Klub Szachowy Lech Poznań, triumphed in the memorial tournaments. Primesoft Polska was the main sponsor of the event. The festival, held at the World Trade Center in Poznań, combined competition among experienced players with tournaments intended for young people and the youngest chess enthusiasts.
Jonasz Baum’s Victory and Second Grandmaster Norm
The 3rd Grandmaster Włodzimierz Schmidt Memorial was played in a round-robin format. Ten participants faced each of their opponents in turn, playing a total of nine rounds. The best result was achieved by Jonasz Baum from KSz Silesia Racibórz, who scored 6.5 points. The final game of the tournament determined his ultimate success. Before the final round began, the player had 5.5 points. A draw would have secured him first place, but to achieve the grandmaster norm, he needed a victory over Filip Boe Olsen from Denmark.
The decisive encounter turned out to be the longest game of the final day of the competition. After more than five hours of play, Baum, playing with the white pieces, defeated his Danish opponent. As a result, he not only won the memorial tournament but also achieved the norm required to obtain the grandmaster title for the second time in his career.
To obtain this title, the 22-year-old chess player still needs to achieve a third norm and exceed the threshold of 2,500 points in the FIDE rating. His performance in Poznań also brought him closer to achieving this goal. During the competition, he increased his rating by 29 points.
Marcin Sieciechowicz Takes First Place in the Zbigniew Doda Memorial
Twenty-nine male and female chess players participated in the 4th International Master Zbigniew Doda Memorial. The competition consisted of nine rounds played using the Swiss system, in which players face opponents with similar scores.
The tournament was won by Marcin Sieciechowicz from Klub Szachowy Lech Poznań. He scored 6.5 points, the same as Andrij Smeryk, representing Ukraine. The order of the top two places was determined by the result of their head-to-head game played in the sixth round. Sieciechowicz, playing with the white pieces, defeated his strongest rival in that game.
The player from Poznań entered the tournament as the top seed. Although the beginning of the competition did not go as he had hoped, a very good series of results in the middle of the tournament allowed him to recover his losses and finish the memorial in first place.
Top Players in the Open Tournaments
The festival also included two open tournaments. Jan Skrzypiński won the PBS Open. The next places were taken by Bartosz Przybylski from Klub Szachowy Lech Poznań and Piotr Kondys, representing KSz Silesia Racibórz.
In the Enea Operator zasila szachy tournament, organized for the youngest participants of the event, Franciszek Kordus from UMKS Na Pięterku Poznań emerged as the winner. Weronika Kwiatkowska from Klub Szachowy Lech Poznań and Zofia Wasielewska from JKSz-W Jarocin also finished on the podium.
The prizes at the closing ceremony were presented by representatives of the organizer: Karol Michalski, President of Klub Szachowy Lech Poznań, and Filip Kolendo, Vice President of the club, who is also a co-founder, Vice President of the Management Board, and CTO of Primesoft Polska. The ceremony was also attended by Genowefa Schmidt, wife of the first Polish grandmaster, and their daughter Anna Kram-Schmidt.
Primesoft Polska as the Festival’s Main Sponsor
The Grandmaster Włodzimierz Schmidt Chess Festival was organized by Klub Szachowy Lech Poznań, with Primesoft Polska serving as the event’s main sponsor. The festival created opportunities both for players competing for norms and rating points and for children and young people gaining their first tournament experience. It was also an opportunity to commemorate the achievements of Włodzimierz Schmidt and Zbigniew Doda, chess players who helped shape the history of this discipline in Poznań over the years.
