Alexander Donchenko prevails in Barcelona

Magistral Ciutat de Barcelona 2019

The "Espai Bota, Recinte Fabra i Coats", a historic building of the Sant Andreu district in Barcelona, was the venue of the stellar event of the season in the Mediterranean city. Two tournaments took place in parallel, with 76 players participating in Group A and 55 battling it out in Group B. A total of fifteen grandmasters registered to play in the main event, with five-time US champion Gata Kamsky as top seed. 

The participants of Group A were fighting for a first prize of €4,000 in a nine-round Swiss tournament with a time control of 90 minutes for the whole game and 30-second increments from move one. The event took place from September 27^th to October 5^th. In the end, Alexander Donchenko claimed sole first place, as he scored an impressive 7½ out of 9. Gata Kamsky and Tigran Gharamian finished a half point back, after both scored wins with White in the last round.

The winners: Gharamian, Donchenko and Kamsky | Photo: Official site

Donchenko, who was born in Moscow, but came to Germany as a young child and is the fifth highest rated player in the national ranking. At 21, he had a remarkable result in this year's Biel Masters, where he shared second place, coincidentally with Kamsky, after collecting 6½ out of 9 points and getting the exact same scores as the American in the two tiebreaker criteria.

In Barcelona, the German rising star kicked off the tournament with four consecutive wins, including a victory in round four over 2018 Spanish champion Salvador del Rio. In round five, the 21-year-old drew with Kamsky and went on to score crucial back-to-back wins over Ivan Ivanisevic and current French Champion Maxime Lagarde.

By then, he was in sole first place, with only Milos Perunovic a half point back. Donchenko split the point with Perunovic in the penultimate round and finished the tournament with a quick draw in his game against another German youngster, Rasmus Svane — it must be noted that the last round was played at 9:30 in the morning, after all previous days the action began at 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

Highlights from Donchenko's games in Barcelona

Last round wins for Kamsky and Gharamian

After eight rounds, Donchenko was in sole first place on 7 points, followed by Perunovic on 6½. Four players were sharing third place a half point behind Perunovic — Kamsky (6) was paired up against the Serbian grandmaster, Svane (6) had Black against Donchenko on board one and Tigran Gharamian (6) faced Tomas Sosa (6) on board three.

The most experienced players in the chasing pack showed what they are made of by scoring crucial wins in the last hurdle. Kamsky inflicted Perunovic's first loss of the event after the Serbian chose a timid approach with the black pieces. The American gained a pawn in the middlegame and had little trouble converting his overwhelming positional advantage:

The Bishop's Opening and The Italian Game

Studying the content of this DVD and adding these openings to your repertoire will provide players with a very strong tool to fight 1...e5 - as the practice of the author clearly demonstrates.

White forked queen and rook with 23.♘d7. Black tried to muddy the waters with 23...♞xh3 24.gxh3 ♛xf3, but Kamsky kept everything under control with 25.♖e3. Resignation came rather quickly, only five moves after this sequence.

Gata Kamsky during his round four game against Jules Moussard | Photo: Official site

Meanwhile, Gharamian had a much longer day at the office, as he needed 71 moves to take down Argentine Tomas Sosa. The players simplified into an endgame with rooks and bishops of opposite colours as early as move 19. All White had in his favour was a slightly superior pawn structure:

Chess Endgames 9 - Rook and Minor Piece

Endings with rook and minor piece against rook and minor piece occur very frequently, even more often than rook endings, yet there's not much literature on them. This endgame DVD fills this gap. The four different material constellations rook and knight vs rook and knight, rooks and opposite coloured (and same coloured ) bishops and rook and bishop vs rook and knight are dealt with. In view of the different material constellations Karsten Mueller explains many guidelines like e.g. "With knights even a small initiative weighs heavily".

The Armenian-French grandmaster never stopped putting pressure on his younger opponent. By move 50, he had gained a pawn, and when Sosa resigned Gharamian was a bishop and a pawn to the good, with mate-in-seven on the board.

2018 French champion Tigran Gharamian | Photo: Official site

Sosa finished in eleventh place, but he also managed to win the blitz tournament played on the night of September 28^th. He collected 7 points in the eight-round Swiss event, only losing against Israeli IM Nimrod Veinberg in round three. Chilean GM Cristobal Henriquez and Spanish FM Jose Herrera finished in second and third places respectively, after scoring 6½ out of 8. You can find the full standings table of the Blitz in Chess-Results.

Master Class Vol. 12: Viswanathan Anand

This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.

Tomas Sosa facing Daniel Gomez from Andorra | Photo: Official site

Ciutat de Barcelona - Final standings (top 15)

...76 players

All available games

Updated to clarify that Donchenko has always represented Germany.

Links 

• Official site
• The strong "Ciutat de Barcelona" now open to all