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The Magistral Huila 100 Años was staged in Neiva, Colombia, from May 10th-15th 2005. It was won in fine style by GM Sergei Tiviakov of the Netherlands, who took clear first with 8/9. Here's the final table.
All games in zipped PGN
(courtesy of TWIC)
The winner of the event, Sergey Tiviakov, who has an avid interest in exotic countries and mysterious phenomenon, sent us the following pictorial report from his stay in Colombia. You may not want to read the very last section if you have delicate nerves.
Neiva is a town of about 450,000 inhabitants, about 230 km from Bogota, the capital of Colombia. It lies only 450 metres above sea level, in the fertile valley of the Magdalena River (the biggest river in Colombia) between the mountain chains of the Central and the Eastern Cordilleras. It has a typical equatorial climate, humid, with lot of rain average temperature of +30 degrees. Bogota, 2640 meters above the sea level, has a temperate climate.
I spent three days in Bogota, one day before and two days after the end of the tournament. All photos in Bogota were taken on May 9, 2005. I spent a day, May 15th, in San Agustin. The site of the ancient civilization flourishing between two and three thousand years ago, well before Christ. The San Agustin civilization has dissapeared, but left a lot of monuments and enigmas, still to be solved. San Agustin takes a very important place in the books by Erich von Däniken. Almost each of his books has references to the San Agustin civilization and lot of photos.
Having read his books I always dreamt of visiting San Agustin, to see everything with my own eyes. Finally my dream has been realised. Long before the tournament in Neiva I agreed with the organisers that I would visit San Agustin.
That is me with the cousin of the organiser Martha Munoz at the monument to
Simon Bolivar. Martha accompanied Harmen Jonkman and me and showed us a lot
in the city of Bogota.
Inside the church of San Francisco. The high altar, elaborately decorated ceiling,
and choir stalls are standouts in this church dedicated to Saint Francis, which
dates from the mid-16th century.
Exquisite golden objects crafted by pre-Colombian peoples such as the Chibcha, the Tairona, and the Quimbaya are showcased in Bogotá’s famed Museo del Oro, or Gold Museum, with a collection of more than 30,000 pieces. I visited the Gold Museum and saw its enormous collection of the pre-Hispanic ceramics, gold, bronze artifacts. Included are some famous gold and bronze collection of the airplanes (they are not insects!), created long before the appearance of the airplanes in the modern world.
Chess is popular in Colombia, one sees people playing everywhere
We even found an interesting chess club in Bogota
The Catedral Nacional The Catedral Nacional is a formidable presence in the
Plaza Bolívar, the heart of Colombia’s capital city. The plaza
is named for Simón Bolívar, who liberated Bogotá from
Spanish rule in 1819—nearly three centuries after its founding by Jiménez
de Quesada, a Spanish conquistador. Quesada's tomb is now housed in the 16th-century
cathedral.
An imposing statue of South American liberator Simón Bolívar
is the focal point of this lively central square, flanked by the Catedral Nacional,
the ornate government palace, and the supreme court building, recently rebuilt
after a devastating guerrilla bombing in 1985.
The Presidential Palace – actually it is forbidden to take pictures of
it!
The colonial district with old colonial style buildings
A panorama of Bogota, with Dutch GM Harmen Jonkman
San Agustin is 230 km from Neiva. It took three and a half hours for us to
reach the place.
On the Road from Neiva to San Agustin. In the above picture you see the fertile
valley of the Magdalena River, with the Cordillera Central on the background.
A very high waterfall not far from San Agustin
On the road from San Agustin we stopped in Timana where there is an incredibly
beautiful and large cathedral
On this central square in front of the cathedral I gave a simul
The next destination was the Archeological Park of San Agustin, which has lot
of sculptures, dolmens, burial places – all on a very large area in the
mountains, in the jungle.
Ancient burial chambers
The most important monument in San Agustin, a ritual fountain to wash the feet.
There are more than 30 different figures of men and animals cut in the solid
rock, and the water passes through all of them.
According to von Däniken this was an installation to separate the
smolten metals from each other and foreign substances. Well, I can't agree
with von Däniken, after seeing it by my own eyes.
Does this creature look like ET?
On the top of the mountain there is group of the sculptures, consisting amongst
others of the most famous sculpture "My second me" (on the left).
It is a hybrid of 3 different creatures into one sculpture. According to von
Däniken its presence indicated the possible contact of the San Agustin
civilization with the extraterrestrial creatures in the past (paleo contact).
A dolmen or megalithic tombs consisting of large stones set in formation.
A sarcophagus inside a dolmen. It was not just the Ancient Egyptians who used
sarcophagus to bury their dead.
Inside a dolmen, so you can see the size
The stone plate on these figures weighs no less than seven tons
San Agustin is situated in the jungle and has a very rich flora and fauna.
Naturally you see many succulent plants belonging to the family Agavaceae,
which are used by the Mexicans to make tequila.
Here's a millipede we came across.
Butterflies are everywhere in San Agustin
The coffee tree with the beans. Colombia is one of the world largest producers
of coffee.
After visiting the San Agustin Archeological Park I was joined by Oleg Korneev
and we went to a famous restaurant. On the way we stopped at a canyon where
the river Magdalena (the longest river in Colombia) passes trough. At places
it is just one meter wide. An incredible spectacle!
The restaurant was one of the best in Colombia for serving cavy. We discovered
that they are a native form of guinea pigs, which live wild in the Andes and
are eaten by the people living there. In the restaurant they show you the cavies
you are going to get. We waited for two hours while they were being prepared,
and were served "chicha", an alcoholic beverage made from the sugar
cane, during that time.
The cavies are prepared in separate dishes: first you get the liver and kidneys,
served on popcorn. Delicious! And then the cavies themselves, hot from the
oven. Cavies are a a delicacy in Colombia and are only eaten on special occasion.
They are considered aphrodisiacs.
