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Can Durak wins 34th "Vasilis Theodoridis" Kavala Open 2025, Aaryan Varshney shares second place

by Shahid Ahmed - 03/09/2025

IM Can Durak (TUR) scored an unbeaten 7.5/9 to win 34th "Vasilis Theodoridis" Kavala Group A (≥2100) 2025. He finished a half point ahead of the rest. GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (GRE) and IM Aaryan Varshney scored 7/9 each. They shared second place. The total prize fund combining all three groups was €12000. The top three prizes in Group A were €2500, €1500 and €1000 along with a trophy each. he eight-day nine round Rating Group A (≥2100) tournament  was organized by Kavala Chess Club - East Macedonia & Thrace Chess Union  at Megali Leschi - Great Club in Kavala, Greece from 28th July to 4th August 2025. Aaryan's fantastic performance earned him his maiden GM-norm. Photo: Laskaris Tsoutsas / Municipality of Kavala

Aaryan Varshney scores his maiden GM-norm

The tournament witnessed a total participation of 592 players - 209 in Group A (≥2100), 212 in Group B (1600-2099), 143 in Group C (<1600) and 28 in Group D (Under-10).

Top 3 (L to R): 3rd IM Aaryan Varshney 7/9, 1st IM Can Durak (TUR) 7.5/9 and 2nd GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (GRE) 7/9 | Photo: Laskaris Tsoutas / Municipality of Kavala

Before this event, we interviewed IM Aaryan Varshney during 2nd Dole Trophy Pasino Grand Aix Masters 2025. There he talked about his maiden Europe trip among other things.

Interview with IM Aaryan Varshney | Video: ChessBase India

The top prize winners | Photo: Laskaris Tsoutas / Municipality of Kavala

Aaryan - Abhijeet, Round 9

Position after 21...Nc2?

IM Aaryan Varshney (2454) found a beautiful sequence starting with a sacrifice of an exchange 22.Rxc2! Qxc2 23.Nxd5 c6 24.Be4 Qa2 25.Nf6+! gxf6 26.Nxg4 Re6 27.Qh6 Ng5 28.Bf5 Qd2 29.Bxh7+ Nxh7 30.Qxd2 and it's over. With this win over the five-time Commonwealth champion, GM Abhijeet Gupta (2535), Aaryan shared second place and also earned his maiden GM-norm.

IM Aaryan Varshney during one of his games | Photo: Petros Tzimas

IM Aaryan Varshney scored an unbeaten 7/9, performed at 2623, earned his maiden GM-norm and gained 21.7 Elo rating points

Team Blitz Night Runner-up - Rookies 11/14 | Photo: Storos Apo

L to R: Yohan Yadav Tarala (second from left), FM Rosh Jain, IM Aaryan Varshney and FM Garv Gaur

WFM Arshiya Das won a Chess Problem Solving Competition in Group A | Photo: Dimitra Valsamidou

Players in action | Photo: Storos Apo

The tournament hall at Megali Leschi - Great Club in Kavala, Greece | Photo: Petros Tzimas

A total of 209 players including 14 GMs, 23 IMs, 2 WGMs and 7 WIMs took part from 33 countries across the world in Group A. The eight-day nine round Rating Group A (≥2100) tournament was organized by Kavala Chess Club - East Macedonia & Thrace Chess Union at Megali Leschi - Great Club in Kavala, Greece from 28th July to 4th August 2025. The time control of the event was 40 moves in 90 minutes + 15 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move.

Replay all available Group A games

Final standings in Group A

Rk.SNo NameTypsexFEDRtg TB1  TB2  TB3 
128
IMDurak, CanU18TUR24207,5049,5
22
GMKourkoulos-Arditis, StamatisGRE25807046,5
322
IMAaryan, VarshneyU20IND24367045
49
IMMaksimovic, BojanBIH25146,5051
513
GMOhanyan, EminU20ARM24916,5046
621
IMDrozdowski, KacperPOL24506,5045
748
IMJacobson, AaronUSA23546,5045
812
GMWan, YunguoCHN25016,5044,5
932
IMDobrovoljc, VidSLO24026,5044
10134
CMYildiz, Serdar MuratU18TUR21556,5044
111
GMKazakouski, ValeryLTU25886,5042,5
1226
IMEren, AtaberkTUR24226,5042,5
1320
IMCulum, SanjinU18BIH24506,5039,5
1411
IMIermito, Sebastian DarioITA25036,5037
1529
IMDi Benedetto, EdoardoITA24196047
16132
Avsar, GedizU16TUR21576045
1730
FMKrallis, ChristosU20GRE24066045
1810
GMHeimann, MarkUSA25136044
195
GMMastrovasilis, DimitriosGRE25406043,5
20100
Magkalakis, StefanosU18GRE22276043,5

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Regulations

Kavala International Open fb page


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