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The Spanish city of Pamplona is famous for its annual running of the bulls. The "Encierro" is part of the San Fermin Festival, which has been held in the city of Pamplona every year from 6 to 14 July since 1324. Due to the Corona crisis, the mayor of Pamplona, Enrique Maya, officially announced in April that the event could not take place this year. The infection rate in Spain is too high and the vaccination rate too low.
As a replacement, an online chess tournament was held last weekend. The idea came from artist-entrepreneur Mikel Urmenenta. Chess 24 and SEBA Bank AG supported the tournament.
The traditional bull race in Pamplona has been replaced this year with a chess event. Bringing chess to the streets has been a priority for the team led by @chess24es, @Pamplona_ayto and @MikelUrmeneta, with guests like @rey_enigma, @pepeich_cuenca, @davidllada & @Alexandra13nps pic.twitter.com/tUxkL77x89
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 10, 2021
The organisers managed to attract none other than Magnus Carlsen to the capital of Navarre. The World Champion spent the weekend in Pamplona and played the eight-player online blitz event from his luxurious hotel suite in which no other than American writer Ernest Hemingway stayed when he visited Pamplona.
From this room Heming used to drink and produce literary masterpieces. I intend to tarnish his legacy with water and blunders @chess24com #sanfermin2021 pic.twitter.com/3FoYrY7Ov1
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) July 10, 2021
The line-up of the tournament was strong: Wesley So, Ding Liren and Levon Aronian were invited and competed against four grandmasters who had earned the right to take part by winning qualifying matches. The four qualifiers were Eduarda Iturrizaga, Liem Quang Le, Jaime Santos and Nodirbek Abdussatorov. The quarter-finals were held on Saturday, while the semi-finals and final were played on Sunday.
Master Class Vol.8: Magnus Carlsen
Scarcely any world champion has managed to captivate chess lovers to the extent Carlsen has. The enormously talented Norwegian hasn't been systematically trained within the structures of a major chess-playing nation such as Russia, the Ukraine or China.
Each match consisted of eight blitz games with a time-control of 3+2. In the event of a tie, another pair of 3+2 games was played. In the event of a further tie, an Armageddon game was to decide the match.
Carlsen was in good shape won all of his matches convincingly.
Quarterfinals
Ding vs Santos 4.5:1.5
Aronian vs Abdusattorov 6:5 (after an Armageddon game)
Carlsen-Iturrizaga 4.5:2.5
So vs Le 4.5:0.5
Semifinals
Carlsen vs So 4.5:1.5
Ding vs Aronian 3:5
Finale
Carlsen vs Aronian 5:3
Carlsen was named "Visitor of the Year" after his tournament win, "guiri" in Spanish, but pronounced like "Giri".
The world champion @MagnusCarlsen was named the "Guiri of the Year" ('Foreigner of the Year'). pic.twitter.com/sovlnNiFuZ
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 10, 2021
