29th Cappelle-La-Grande Open: Sjugirov edges out pack

The 29th edition of the Cappelle-La-Grande Open is underway from February 23 to March 2, 2013 at the Palais des Arts et Loisirs (Palace of Arts and Leisure). It is a nine-round swiss open played at the rate of 40 moves in 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move, followed by 30 minutes plus 30 seconds per move for the rest of the game. The tournament has a 30 thousand Euro prize fund, with 1st - 3000 Euros, 2nd - 2000 Euros, 3rd - 1500 Euros, etc. and many prizes by category and age.

29th Cappelle-La-Grande Open: Sjugirov edges out pack

It was a great event, confirmed by the stats, and affirming once more the vibrant support by the chess community for this traditional open. The 29th edition of the Cappelle-La-Grande Open in France brought in 563 players, aged 7 to 83, with an Orwellian average rating of 1984. The incredibly high average rating for such a large field is in large part due to the huge turnout of titled players, including 85 grandmasters, 71 international masters and 38 FIDE masters.

The giant open is well underway

Naturally, this also made it an absolute delight for those seeking to score a norm since it was almost impossible not to fill out the conditions provided they brought their A-game. As a result no fewer than twelve norms were registered, and one look at the names is enough to say "it is good to be young". It was a great success for many youngsters with grandmaster norms registered by 18-year-old Frenchman Maxime Lagarde, 17-year-old Serb Alexander Indjic, and 17-year-old Armenian Karen Grigoryan. While these three players are titled masters, there were a few surprises among the norms scored. Perhaps the most remarkable was by 14-year-old Lukasz Jarmula from Poland. The reason being that he came as an untitled player rated a very modest 2164 and scored a very efficient IM norm. Particularly remarkable when you consider that exactly one year ago, he was barely rated 2013.

Here is one of his wins:

Still, his 14-year-old compatriot, Radoslaw Gajek, also untitled, though higher rated at 2273, one-upped him by not only scoring an IM norm, but coming halfway to a GM norm with a 2552 performance.

Nevertheless, it would be remiss to lose sight of the winners of the tournament who fought an incredibly tough field and were able to distinguish themselves. Here too, it was an event for the young. In the top spot was Russian junior, Sanan Sjugirov who tied with no fewer than seven others at 7.0/9, though with the highest tiebreak. In second was Indian junior Parimarjan Negi, the second youngest grandmaster in history, followed by 23-year-old Israeli Maxim Rodshtein. In fourth was Sergey Fedorchuk from Ukraine, and in fifth was the only Canadian of the tournament, Eric Hansen, whose decision to take some time off for chess has been crowned by numerous successes since adopting this path last September.

Here is one of his wins:  

One of the fun things about such a large tournament is the sheer number of interesting positions it runs out. As a result, here are a few we selected.

Final standings

Rk	Tit	Name	Rtg	Age	Fed	Pts	Perf	TB
1	g	SJUGIROV Sanan	2646		RUS	7	2747	56,5
2	g	NEGI Parimarjan	2638		IND	7	2724	55
3	g	RODSHTEIN Maxim	2616		ISR	7	2749	55
4	g	FEDORCHUK Sergey	2643		UKR	7	2697	53
5	g	HANSEN Eric	2557		CAN	7	2679	54,5
6	g	JIANU Vlad-Cristian	2500		ROU	7	2698	52,5
7	g	FEDOROV Alexei	2576		BLR	7	2702	53,5
8	g	VOVK Yuri	2594		UKR	7	2696	51,5
9	g	GHARAMIAN Tigran	2661		FRA	6,5	2708	56,5
10	g	GUREVICH Mikhail	2581		TUR	6,5	2646	55
11	g	DJUKIC Nikola	2538		MNE	6,5	2632	53
12	g	PETKOV Vladimir	2559		BUL	6,5	2648	54
13	g	TER-SAHAKYAN Samvel	2563		ARM	6,5	2638	53
14	g	VAZQUEZ IGARZA Renier	2565		ESP	6,5	2614	53,5
15	g	ROZENTALIS Eduardas	2613		LTU	6,5	2596	52,5
16	m	GRIGORYAN Karen	2531	U18	ARM	6,5	2639	50,5
17	g	ITURRIZAGA Eduardo	2646		VEN	6,5	2610	51
18	g	KHARITONOV Alexandr	2536		RUS	6,5	2608	49,5
19	g	BOROVIKOV Vladislav	2557		UKR	6,5	2612	49,5
20	m	BARYSHPOLETS Andrey	2526		UKR	6,5	2551	49
21	g	VOVK Andrey	2564		UKR	6,5	2544	49
22	g	NABATY Tamir	2573		ISR	6,5	2542	50
23		GAJEK Radoslaw	2273	U16	POL	6,5	2552	48
24	g	NINOV Nikolai	2520		BUL	6,5	2464	47,5
25	m	INDJIC Aleksandar	2502	U18	SRB	6	2629	55
81		KAMBRATH Yannick	2232	U16	FRA	5,5	2498	51
82		JARMULA Lukasz	2164	U16	POL	5,5	2512	50,5

Click here for full standings

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