Stević wins Zadar Open

The Zadar Open was also a qualifier for the Croatian championship, and might itself be considered an open Croatian championship: 27 of 45 players in the A group were from the host country, including 8 from the Croatian top 10 – with strange consequences for two participants.

GM Hrvoje Stević finished in first place thanks to a last-round win against Janković, but the real surprise of the event was 20th seed Slovenian IM Matej Šebenik who was leading for most of the tournament and eventually obtained clear second place. His result (TPR 2714) and the one of Croatian IM Milan Franić (TPR 2663) may not count as a GM norm according to the FIDE regulations - to make a long story short, both had too many Croatian opponents. If the main objective was to score a valid norm, Bosnian IM Denis Kadric was more "clever": he was 'hiding in the field' with a 50% score for most of the event and thus faced players from five federations – then 1.5/2 in the final rounds sufficed for a 2617 TPR.

The game viewer contains some wins by these four players, including Franić beating GM Bosiočić from a lost position (43.Qb1! wins for white who had missed some earlier opportunities, 43.Qg3?? loses on the spot). The four featured draws have a common theme: loose horses forcing or at least provoking a move repetition.

PGN file

Final standings