Jules Moussard wins Semana Santa Open in Torrevieja

by Klaus Besenthal
4/19/2022 – The Spanish town of Torrevieja, located on the Costa Blanca in the province of Alicante, hosted the sixth edition of the Open “Semana Santa” this Easter weekend. French grandmaster Jules Moussard won the event, as the only player among the 400+ participants who scored 8/9 points. Karen Grigoryan from Armenia and Eduardo Iturrizaga, who recently transferred to the Spanish federation, finished second and third respectively. | Photos: Patricia Claros Aguilar
Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.

A deciding rook endgame

Crucial to Jules Moussard’s tournament victory was the full point he obtained against Spain’s Jose Cuenca Jimenez in the final round. The game lasted no fewer than 132 moves and was decided after the Spaniard erred by exchanging the last pair of minor pieces in a holdable position to enter a lost rook ending.

Cuenca’s compatriot Jesus de la Villa, who wrote one of the most acclaimed endgame books in recent times, 100 Endgames You Must Know, states: “Rook endgames are undoubtedly the most important endgames of all”. De la villa adds: “Certainly you have often mourned losing half points [in these endings]”.

 

Jose ‘Pepe’ Cuenca and Jules Moussard played a memorable final-round marathon game

In over 4 hours in front of the camera, Karsten Müller presents to you sensations from the world of endgames - partly reaching far beyond standard techniques and rules of thumb - and rounds off with some cases of with own examples.

Final standings

Pos.   Name Ctry. Points Wins Rating
1 GM Moussard, Jules FRA 8.0 7 2630
2 GM Grigoryan, Karen H. ARM 7.5 7 2630
3 GM Iturrizaga Bonelli, Eduardo ESP 7.5 6 2594
4 IM Suarez Uriel, Adrian ESP 7.0 7 2363
5 IM Cruz, Jonathan PER 7.0 7 2363
6 GM Yuffa, Daniil ESP 7.0 6 2576
7 IM Sabuk, Piotr POL 7.0 6 2416
8 GM Chatalbashev, Boris DEN 7.0 6 2539
9 GM Movsziszian, Karen ARM 7.0 6 2457
10 FM Garrido Outon, Alex ESP 7.0 6 2429
11 IM Camacho Collados, Marcos ESP 7.0 6 2470
12 GM Dardha, Daniel BEL 7.0 5 2552
13 GM Nasuta, Grzegorz POL 7.0 5 2518
14 FM Moral Garcia, Serafin ESP 7.0 5 2214
15 FM Davtyan, David Arm. ARM 7.0 5 2305

...446 players

All available games

 

Links

Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.