The 2nd Cambridge International Open took place from 19th to 24th February 2024 at the historic University Arms Hotel next to Parker’s Piece in Cambridge. The event was supported by the University Arms Hotel, Cambridge and The Chess Trust. The ECF would again like to thank the hotel for their continued support in hosting this prestigious event and the Chess Trust for their donation to support the event.
The tournament attracted an array of GMs and IMs from England and internationally. The event was expertly managed by a top level arbiting team led by IAs Shohreh Bayat with IA Matthew Carr and FA Satish Gaekwad.
A view across the playing area in the ballroom at the University Arms, with Parkers Piece in the background
The event was played as a nine-round accelerated Swiss tournament with the opportunity for participants to achieve international title norms. The field included a total of 8 GMs and 12 Ims with the top four seeds including last year’s winner GM Michael Adams, together with Italian GM Francesco Sonis, Dutch GM Sergey Tiviakov and GM Daniel Fernandez. Also competing have been IM Shreyas Royal who has been looking for his final GM norm and WCM Bodhana Sivanandan.
Pictures from this Year’s Cambridge International are courtesy of Shohreh Bayat and Satish Gaekwad.
More galleries can be found here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/2nd-cambridge-international-open-photo-galleries/
The majority of games, including those on the top boards have been broadcast from the live boards at the venue with a commentary stream covering the event with WIM Natasha Regan and guests. You can catch up on the full set of commentaries on Natasha’s Twitch channel at the link here: https://www.twitch.tv/wim_natasharegan
The commentary videos will also be copied to the ECF’s Youtube Channel together with some video footage from the event.
Full details of the tournament including pairings and results can be found at the link here: https://chess-results.com/tnr811519.aspx
The top six final standings are shown in the table below.
| Place | Seed | Title | Name | FED | FIDE rating | Pts |
| 1 | 1 | GM | Michael Adams | ENG | 2673 | 7 |
| 2 | 3 | GM | Sergey Tiviakov | ENG | 2534 | 7 |
| 3 | 14 | IM | Martin Haubro | DEN | 2421 | 7 |
| 4 | 4 | GM | Daniel Fernandez | ENG | 2526 | 6.5 |
| 5 | 10 | IM | Matthew Wadsworth | ENG | 2444 | 6.5 |
| 6 | 13 | IM | Peter Roberson | ITA | 2426 | 6.5 |
Chief Arbiter IA Shohreh Bayat with (left to right) IM Martin Haubro, GM Sergey Tiviakov and GM Michael Adams with the Cambridge Trophy
GM Michael Adams won on tiebreak from Sergey Tiviakov and Martin Haubro with the top three players finishing on 7 points. GM Daniel Fernandez and IM’s Matthew Wadsworth and Peter Roberson finished 4th equal on 6.5 points in a closely fought tournament.
Congratulations go to Michael Adams on retaining his Cambridge International title and winning the 2024 Cambridge Cup.
Shohreh Bayat with Truan Asgarova, CM Bodhana Sivanandan and Ruqayyah Rida
Ruqqayah Rida of Essex Juniors finished as top female player on 5.5 followed by WCM Bodhana Sivanandan on 4.5 and Turan Asgarova who also finished on 4.5.
Prize giving photographs are courtesy of Reza Islam.
Commentary and Live Boards
Details of the commentary schedule and live board broadcasts can be found at https://www.englishchess.org.uk/2nd-cambridge-open-commentary-and-live-boards/