Mainz may be suffering from the economic crisis, like so many other tournaments, but was still able to attract 701 players to the world rapid.
In terms of titled players there were 44 GMs, with an equal number of IMs and 10 WGMs.
Gata Kamsky followed up his triumph in the US championship with an uncatchable 10/11!
Three other players remained unbeaten, Gashimov, Movsesian and Andrej Volokitin (2764 of the Ukraine).
Ranking | Title & Name | Rating | Country | +=- points | tie-breaks |
1. | GM Gata Kamsky | 2713 | M USA | 9 2 0 10,0 | 64,5 73,5 |
2. | GM Vugar Gashimov | 2719 | M AZE | 8 3 0 9,5 | 62,0 70,5 |
3. | GM Levon Aronian | 2783 | M ARM | 9 1 1 9,5 | 58,0 69,5 |
4. | GM Evgeny Bareev | 2663 | M RUS | 9 1 1 9,5 | 58,0 68,0 |
5. | GM Sergey Karjakin | 2747 | M RUS | 8 2 1 9,0 | 59,0 75,5 |
6. | GM Robert Kempinski | 2612 | M POL | 9 0 2 9,0 | 58,0 70,0 |
7. | GM Alexander Grischuk | 2760 | M RUS | 8 2 1 9,0 | 57,5 69,5 |
8. | GM Alexei Shirov | 2749 | M ESP | 8 2 1 9,0 | 55,0 69,5 |
9. | GM Arkadij Naiditsch | 2684 | M GER | 9 0 2 9,0 | 50,0 62,0 |
The other 2700+ players (there were nine in total with 13 other 2600+ players) finished in a large group of players on 8.5/11:
10th, Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB, 2704); 12th, Viktor Bologan (MDA, 2713); and 15th, Sergei Movsesian (SVK, 2723).
In the final round Grischuk needed to beat Kamsky in order to catch him but had to settle for a draw. Gashimov also drew and so Kamsky stayed ahead of his rivals with 10/11 (nine straight wins followed by two draws) and took the 6,000 Euros first prize.
The 'leading lady' was also American, Anna Zatonskih (2470) in 26th place and there were as many as 34 nationalities present.
For more information (and statistics!) see the Official site