The tournament was organised by the “Echiquier Cappellois” chess club and took place at the Complexe sportif Roger Gouvart at Cappelle-la-Grande. The President of the Organising Committee was Michel Gouvart. It was a nine-round open that went from Saturday, February 12th to Saturday, February 19, with 590 players from 52 different countries making the trip to this town, located near Dunkerque at the northernmost tip of France.
Once again Cappelle belongs to the strongest open tournaments in the world, with 78 GMs and 62 IMs participating. The top seeds were Mikhail Gurevitch (2634), M. Kazgagaleyev (2613) and A. Delchev (2597). After seven rounds the surprise leader is GM Amir Bagheri of Iran (but registered in France). Amir started as 41st seed in this very strong field.
The top results after eight rounds are:
1 GM Bagheri Amir IRI
500 7
2 IM Shengelia David GEO 482 6.5
3 IM Oleksienko Mikhailo UKR 469 6.5
4 GM Brodsky Michail UKR 515 6.5
5 GM Kovchan Alexander UKR 485 6.5
6 IM Bobras Piotr POL 481 6
7 GM Stefansson Hannes ISL 561 6
8 IM Gormally Daniel ENG 472 6
9 GM Spraggett Kevin CAN 589 6
10 GM Vysochin Spartak UKR 579 6
11 GM Jaracz Pawel POL 532 6
12 GM Shneider Aleksandr UKR 528 6
13 GM Hebden Mark ENG 521 6
14 GM Kruppa Yuri UKR 553 6
15 GM Socko Bartosz POL 591 6
16 IM Milanovic Danilo SCG 447 6
17 GM Svetushkin Dmitry MDA 530 6
18 IM Palo Davor DEN 541 6
19 IM Williams Simon Kim ENG 487 6
20 IM Gouliev Namig AZE 514 6
21 IM Vovk Yuri UKR 420 6
GM Amir Bagheri, 41st seed, surprise leader in this event
WFM Joanna Majdan. Poland
GM Aleksander Delchev, Bulgaria (third seed)
WGM Oksana Vozovic, Ukraine
WIM Beata Kadziolka, Poland
GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev, Kazakhstan
IM Wang Rui, China
WIM Myroslava Yakivchik, Ukraine
WGM Anastazia Karlovich, Ukraine
WGM Alyona Goreskul, Ukraine
Wang Yu, China
GM Pengxiang Zhang, China
IM Davor Palo, Denmark
