Playing chess by the 'Corsica Rules'

Calvi: a match between China and Ukraine in Corsica

By Christophe Leveque and Dejan Bojkov

The fourth International Chess Tournament of Balagna took place from the 26th of February to the 2nd of March in the hotel "La balagne" in Calvi, a Corsican little town with a very beautifull marina.

There were two tournaments: a special open for players under 15 years old and 1500 Elo, with nine games; and an International Open with 10,000 euro of guaranteed prices, with seven games (1h 30min for 40 moves + 10 min Fischer + 30s). Like the other tournaments organized in Corsica since 2004, the players cannot offer a draw unless it is a dead drawn ending (the "Corsica Rule"!).

Calvi had allready seen some great players, like Hicham Hamdouchi, former Champion of Africa, or Simen Agdestein, former champion of Norway and coach of Magnus Carlsen. Some strong young players from Ukraine had played there two years ago and Yury Kryvorushko (2592) won the open that year (without playing the first round!).

They were back in Calvi this year: GM V. Malakhatko, GM Y. Kryvorushko, GM M. Oleksienko, W GM M. Grabinska, W. IM V. Chulivska, and their coach IM V. Grabinski.

But this year was the year of China: three young and strong Chinese GMs came to Calvi after having played the Aeroflot Open in Moscow. They are members of the Olympic team: Wang Yue (2644), Ni Hua (2632) and Wang Hao (2619), seen in the picture above with Leo Battesti, vice president of the French Chess Federation and myself, organizer of the tournament.

A lot of Corsican children learn chess at school (about 4000 each year), and some of them are becoming rather strong chess players in our clubs. Above are some in the youngsters tournament.

Some young Corsican players have showed that they can win against very strong players, like Gabriel Migheli (1740, and 13 years old) who beat MI Vladimir Grabinski in the first round!

Nine GM were engaged in this open: Wang Yue (2644), Ni Hua (2632), Wang Hao (2619), Vadim Malakhatko (2604), Yury Kryvorushko (2592), Mykhalo Oleksienko (2541), Nenad Sulava (2537), Eric Prie (2516), and Glenn Flear (2480).

The French player, Eric Prie, ended with 4.5 points at the tenth place behind the Champion of Corsica, Cyril Humeau. In the picture above they are watching a game on the computer!

Niklesh Jain Singhai, 23, who came in 11-14 in this event

A big surprise of this tournament came from India. No, it wasn't Vishy Anand nor Sasikirian, but the 23-year-old "ordinary" chess player Niklesh Jain Singhai with a rating of 1955. He came from India to Calvi by his own means to play this tournament and discover Corsica!

Final top standings

• Games in PGN
• A number of enjoyable videos are to be found on this web page