Ilya Smirin wins Acropolis 2007

The Acropolis International Chess Tournament 2007 took place in the Europa conference hall of the President Hotel, Athens, Greece, from 14 - 22 August, 2007. It was co-organized by the Greek Chess Federation and the Prefecture of Athens, thanks to the eagerness shown by Mr. Giannis Sgouros, a man whose name is bound with great triumphs of Greek sports. Sponsor of the games is PROMOT E.I. Lainopoulos company.

This year was the 22nd year that the tournament was held, giving it the longest history of any international tournament in Greece. The first was held in 1968 and three other tournaments followed in the 70's between 1977 and 1979. In the 80's there wasn't any activity except for the year 1981, while the last 17 years the Greek Chess Federation has organized the tournament of Acropolis in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Here are the previous winners:

"Acropolis 2007" is part of the tournaments of the Association of Chess Professionals, known as "ACP Tour". The tournament had 82 players, amongst them 19 GMs, 15 IMs and a number of WGMs and WIMs (some of which are also regular IMs). Here is a list of all participants.

The winner: Israeli GM Ilia Smirin, with a 2748 performance

The tournament was won by GM Ilia Smirin, who scored 7 points in 9 games. According to tie-break criteria, GM Kiril Georgiev and GM Mircea Parligras took 2nd and 3rd place respectively both scoring 6½ points.

Second: Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria

Romanian GM Mircea Parligras came in third (on tiebreak behind Georgiev)

Final standings after nine rounds (6.0 points and higher)

First female player of the tournament is IM Nana Dzagnidze scoring 5½/9 (17th in overall ranking). The top Greek player GM Dimitrios Mastrovasilis with 6½/9 and fourth in overall ranking. The first young player (under 20) was I. Papadopoulos, who achieved his third IM norm and won the title of International Master scoring 5½/9 (21st in overall ranking). Full results are available on the first page of the (excellent) tournament web site. You can find all the games and bulletins for download on this page. This is the kind of service we wish all international tournaments would provide. Congratulations to the organisers!

Picture Gallery

The Acropolis of Athens, one of the most famous historical sites in the world

The Acropolis is the elevated ground, which many ancient Greek cities (Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth) had, and which became the nuclei around which the houses were built. The Acropolis of Athens has several famous buildings erected upon it, most notably the Parthenon, and is generally simply referred to as "The Acropolis".

The Parthenon, a temple of the Greek goddess Athena, built in the 5th Century BC

The Porch of Maidens, part or the Erechtheum on the north side of the Acropolis

The following selection of pictures of participants comes from the "Photos" section of the official web site. There are almost 150 meticulously captioned shots, mostly of players – possibly of all of them. Did we mention that this kind of tournament coverage on the Internet is exemplary?

The playing hall

Greek participants: Vasilios Kotrotsos, Alexandros Dounis, and Antonios Pavlidis

Links Tournament web site Photos Games and bulletins From ChessBase in zipped PGN Download free PGN reader ChessBase Light