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The traditional Gibraltar Chess Congress has begun! The 12th edition of this event is under way, but the main attraction - the Masters Section, will begin tomorrow. The Masters section entries are closed and the pairings are ready for the tournament to begin.
The first match of the playoffs was between Vassily Ivanchuk and Nikita Vitiugov. The first game was a relatively uneventful draw and so was the second, so the players went into a blitz tiebreak. Things were going smoothly for Ivanchuk in the following game but the position was too murky to evaluate clearly in the short time frame:
Ivanchuk having to win with the White pieces in the second blitz tiebreak played powerful chess and had Vitiugov pinned against the ropes. However in time pressure he let go of his advantage gradually until Black's position became very strong. Eventually the Ukrainian player even overstepped the time limit allowing Vitiugov to fight for Gibraltar's first place.
Cheparinov was the opponent waiting for the Russian player. Somewhat more rested and in good spirits after beaitng Kamsky in a long game in the morning, the Bulgarian was certainly not afraid to enter complications. He won in a positional game when Vitiugov blundered away his position in what should probably have been a draw. With Cheparinov only needing a draw in the last game he resorted to... the King's Indian!
The prize ceremony was a well orchestrated and beautiful event. With many prizes to give out the players were looking forward to a night of relaxation, joy and even some dancing.
Eric Hansen (Canada, left) shared second in the U2650 prize, but had the best tiebreaks. He was actually not the player with the second best score to be reated under 2650, but the player that did - Al-Sayed, was only eligible for the U2550 prize!
A nice dinner to cool off after a tournament.
Lela Javakhishvili's performance was good enough for a GM norm and +22.5 rating points. Not bad!
Three women, three GM norms: Tan Zhongyi (China), Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine)
and Lela Javakhishvili (Georgia), with English GM Raymond Keene
Muzychuk (Mariya, not Anna) took best women's prize worth £15,000!
Guo Qi scored an IM norm. Here she is pictured with Spanish chess celebrity Leontxo Garcia
Malcolm Pein, director of the London Classic, said a few words at the closing ceremony
Some of the top finishers: left to right Sergei Movsesian, David Navara, Romain Edouard, Pentala Harikrishna and a still visibly upset Gata Kamsky who lost to Cheparinov that morning
In better spirits Ivan Salgado, Richard Rapport and Michael Adams
England's number one Michael Adams and Brazil's number two Alexandr Fier played a ferocious battle and split the £1,000 best game prize
Untouchable in the rapids: Cheparinov wins Gibraltar!
The biggest winners: £20,000 and £15,000, respectively
Simon Williams did a magnificent and entertaining live commentary throughout the event
What's there to do when there is no more tournament? Well play more chess, obviously
Note: ordered by tiebreak which was performance - variable with parameter
Rk. | Name | Rtg | FED | Pts. | TB1 | Rp |
1 | Ivanchuk Vassily | 2739 | UKR | 8.0 | 2846 | 2837 |
2 | Vitiugov Nikita | 2737 | RUS | 8.0 | 2832 | 2825 |
3 | Cheparinov Ivan | 2672 | BUL | 8.0 | 2742 | 2737 |
4 | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | 2745 | FRA | 7.5 | 2807 | 2798 |
5 | Rodshtein Maxim | 2682 | ISR | 7.5 | 2780 | 2776 |
6 | Li Chao B | 2680 | CHN | 7.5 | 2735 | 2731 |
7 | Adhiban B. | 2590 | IND | 7.5 | 2720 | 2720 |
8 | Dreev Aleksey | 2673 | RUS | 7.5 | 2712 | 2709 |
9 | Al-Sayed Mohammed | 2476 | QAT | 7.5 | 2672 | 2669 |
10 | Adams Michael | 2754 | ENG | 7.0 | 2717 | 2710 |
11 | Rapport Richard | 2691 | HUN | 7.0 | 2709 | 2705 |
12 | Harikrishna P. | 2706 | IND | 7.0 | 2705 | 2702 |
13 | Kamsky Gata | 2709 | USA | 7.0 | 2693 | 2691 |
14 | Hansen Eric | 2559 | CAN | 7.0 | 2679 | 2679 |
15 | Edouard Romain | 2658 | FRA | 7.0 | 2676 | 2672 |
16 | Navara David | 2702 | CZE | 7.0 | 2672 | 2667 |
17 | Tomashevsky Evgeny | 2715 | RUS | 7.0 | 2668 | 2666 |
18 | Movsesian Sergei | 2677 | ARM | 7.0 | 2668 | 2665 |
19 | Muzychuk Mariya | 2503 | UKR | 7.0 | 2654 | 2654 |
20 | Wei Yi | 2607 | CHN | 7.0 | 2650 | 2650 |
21 | Salgado Lopez Ivan | 2597 | ESP | 7.0 | 2642 | 2642 |
22 | Agdestein Simen | 2627 | NOR | 7.0 | 2616 | 2615 |
23 | Salem A.R. Saleh | 2564 | UAE | 7.0 | 2596 | 2596 |
24 | Henrichs Thomas | 2477 | GER | 7.0 | 2569 | 2566 |
25 | Zhao Xue | 2567 | CHN | 7.0 | 2566 | 2561 |
26 | Zhukova Natalia | 2449 | UKR | 7.0 | 2558 | 2553 |
27 | Mareco Sandro | 2582 | ARG | 6.5 | 2633 | 2633 |
28 | Spraggett Kevin | 2544 | CAN | 6.5 | 2629 | 2629 |
29 | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2619 | IND | 6.5 | 2613 | 2608 |
All Photos by John Saunders
LinksThe games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |