Baadur Jobava is the new champion of Georgia. The 40-year-old native of Gali claimed his fourth national title after winning this event in 2003, 2007 and 2012.

The Georgian Chess Championship 2024 took place from January 29 to February 7, 2024, in the country's capital Tbilisi. A 10-player round-robin with classical time control brought together all the best Georgian players, including the defending champion Mikheil Mchedlishvili.

The rating favourite Baadur Jobava (pictured above) and Luka Paichadze got off to a great start, scoring 3 points in the first four rounds. In Round 5, however, their paths diverged. Luka suffered a defeat at the hands of Giga Quparadze, while Baadur drew with the 2022 champion Levan Pantsulaia and took the lead. He then pulled away by notching up two consecutive victories in Rounds 6 and 7 and never looked back.

Going to the final ninth round a full point ahead of Giga Quparadze and Mikheil Mchedlishvili, Baadur convincingly outplayed Luka Paichadze and took the title with an excellent score of 7/9. The champion became the only unbeaten player in the event.

Nikolozi Kacharava (pictured above, left) pulled off a crucial last-round victory over Giga Quparadze and caught up with Mikheil Mchedlishvili (pictured above, right), who drew his game with Luka Kiladze. Both netted 5.5/7 and tied for second place, but silver goes to Nikolozi thanks to a greater number of victories.

Final standings:

Photos: Georgian Chess Federation Facebook page

Official website: gcf.org.ge