Alexander Donchenko wins Sunway Formentera Open

by André Schulz
4/20/2024 – Alexander Donchenko was the rating favourite at the third edition of the Sunway Formentera Open and lived up to the role at the end of the event. Before the final round, he was tied for first place with Vasyl Ivanchuk. Doncehnko scored a full point in the last round, while Ivanchuk only managed a draw. | Photos: Sunway Formentera Chess Festival
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Donchenko outscores Ivanchuk

In the ninth and penultimate round of the Sunway Formentera Open, Alexander Donchenko and Vasyl Ivanchuk had shaken off the other candidates for the tournament victory. Donchneko had won his game against Vladimir Baklan, while Ivanhuk had defeated Jules Moussard. So it came down to two players in the fight for tournament victory.

The German grandmaster was paired up against Daniel Alsina (Spain) in the final round. Ivanchuk was up against the Xiao Tong (China), who has a strong rating but no title. The two leaders were the clear favourites in their games, but while Donchenko grabbed the full point playing black, Ivanchuk could not manage more than a draw with white.

So Donchenko was the outright victory. Ivanchuk was caught on points by Pranav V, but still took second prize with the better tiebreak score.

The best woman in the tournament was 18-year-old Song Yuxin from China, with 6½ points to her name. The fifth-placed player in the girls’ world rankings (under-20 players) suffered her only defeat in round six, against Donchenko. 

No fewer than 15 women players took part in the tournament — quite a high quota considering the total number of 51 players. In addition to Song, the American Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova and the Kazakh duo of Nazerke Nurgali and Alua Nurman also achieved a good result, finishing in fourteenth to sixteenth place. 

The most famous female participants were Alexandra and Andrea Botez. The two Canadians streamed videos of their games from the tournament hall and had them commentated by strong players, such as David Howell. They scored 3½ points each.

Alexandra and Andrea Botez

Final standings

Rg. Snr Name sex EloI Pkt.  Wtg1   Wtg2   Wtg3 
1 Donchenko, Alexander 8 60
2 Ivanchuk, Vasyl 7,5 58,5
3 Pranav, V 7,5 58,5
4 Xiao, Tong(Qd) 7 56,5
5 Mohamed, Anees M 6,5 57
6 Moussard, Jules 6,5 56
7 Balakrishnan, Praveen 6,5 54,5
8 Alsina Leal, Daniel 6,5 54,5
9 Song, Yuxin 6,5 51
10 Colbow, Collin 6,5 50
11 Baklan, Vladimir 6 59
12 Dragnev, Valentin 6 54,5
13 Manish, Anto Cristiano F 6 54,5
14 Tokhirjonova, Gulrukhbegim 6 48
15 Nurgali, Nazerke 6 45,5
16 Serikbay, Assel 6 41
17 Raja, Rithvik R 5,5 55,5
18 Fernandez Guillen, Ernesto J. 5,5 55
19 Joel, Paul Ganta 5,5 48,5
20 Vantika, Agrawal 5,5 47
21 Doluhanova, Evgeniya 5,5 44
22 Cervantes Landeiro, Thalia 5 51
23 Mekhane, Adam 5 49,5
24 Zhu, Hengyi 5 49,5
25 Jacobson, Aaron 5 49,5
26 Adarsh, Tripathi 5 48
27 Kazarian, Anna-Maja 5 46,5
28 Valuet, Bertrand 5 46
29 Zubizarreta Landera, Amets 5 43
30 Sosa, Tomas 4,5 48
31 Tsatsalashvili, Keti 4,5 48
32 Akshit, Kumar J 4,5 42,5
33 Maisuradze, Nino 4,5 42
34 Prado, Alexandra 4,5 41,5
35 Mazet, Julien 4,5 39
36 Weidenhoefer, Max 4 49,5
37 Lesniewski, Lucas 4 41
38 Stark, John 4 37,5
39 Neiman, Emmanuel 3,5 45,5
40 Bauer, Thomas 3,5 43,5
41 Shimelkov, Vasiliy 3,5 43,5
42 Botez, Andrea 3,5 40,5
43 Anishka, Vikram 3,5 38,5
44 Botez, Alexandra 3,5 38
45 Krzywda, Andrzej 3 47
46 Nardelli, Marco 3 33
47 Prraneeth, Vuppala 2,5 45
48 Sereinig, Eduard 2,5 38,5
49 Svensen, Tarjei Joten 2,5 35,5
50 Muellneritsch, Anton 2 42
51 Schulman, Julia 2 38

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.
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