Karpov and Ivanchuk in the semi-finals of Cap d'Agde

10/29/2008 – The French Mediterranean seaside resort is hosting its eighth annual rapid chess tournament, with 16 well-known international players who played in two preliminary groups. After that eight qualifiers proceeded to the quarter-final knockout section, where 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov, 57, was given a hard time by a 16-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl. You can watch it on Playchess.

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Eighth Cap d'Agde Rapid Chess Tournament

This event is taking place from October 26 to November 1, 2008 in Cap d'Agde (pronounced kap-dug-de), which is a seaside resort belonging to the town of Agde. It is one of the largest leisure ports on the French Mediterranean. The event is a closed rapid chess tournament in two groups. The winners play in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and then the finals. The results of the preliminaries were as follows:

Group A			Group B
Fabiano Caruana	2640	5.5	Magnus Carlsen	2786	5.5
Vassily Ivanchuk	2786	5.0	Hikaru Nakamura	2704	5.5
Max. Vachier Lagrave	2716	4.5	Teimour Radjabov	2751	5.0
Bu Xiangzhi	2704	4.5	Anatoly Karpov	2651	3.5
Ivan Cheparinov	2696	4.0	Hou Yifan	2578	3.5
Alexandra Kosteniuk	2525	2.0	Humpy Koneru	2618	2.0
Katerina Lahno	2488	2.0	Sebastien Feller	2526	2.0
Marie Sebag	2533	0.5	Almira Skripchenko	2455	1.0
Average Elo 2636			Average Elo 2634

Note that Anatoly Karpov, the 12th World Champion, now 57, scored the same number of points as Hou Yifan, Chinese chess prodigy, female, who is 14 years old. The two had to play a blitz tiebreaker for a place in the knockout section of the tournament. The first game (3' + 2") was won by Krapov with white, the second by Hou Yifan with white. The third game went to Karpov who then won the fourth as well.

Youth vs experience: Hou Yifan, 14, vs Anatoly Karpov, 57

In the quarter-final Karpov faced more young blood: 16-year-old chess prodigy Fabiano Caruana from Italy. Karpov won the first rapid chess game with black, Fabiano the second also with black. The first two blitz games were drawn, as was the third. In the fourth Karpov won with black to enter the semi-finals.

In the second quarter-final Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk drew both their games. Both of the 3+2 blitz games were won by Ivanchuk, who joins Karpov in the semis.

Teimour Radjabov vs Vassily Ivanchuk int he quarter-finals

Video reports from Europe Echecs

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.