Mar del Plata 2012: A day of records

7th Continental Chess Tournament / Mar del Plata 2012 Tourney type: Eleven-round swiss open Time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game and a 30 second increment as of move one. Location: Mar del Plata, Argentina Dates: October 12-21, 2012 Prizes: 1st - US$5000, 2nd - US$3400, 3rd - US$2400, 20 prizes in all, not including prizes per category. Special: Event is considered a world championship qualifier thus all norms earned are worth double.

Mar del Plata 2012 : A day of records

Report and pictures by Albert Silver

Venezuelan GM Eduardo Iturrizaga has been in great form

The top American is not one of the GMs, it is IM Robert Andrew Hungaski (2451 FIDE)

For anyone hoping to see the lineup of leaders by the end of four rounds, they have been served. Despite a tough playing schedule with no easy games, and a double-rounder on Sunday, none of the players were able to muster the strength for a perfect 4.0/4 and 100% score. Though the games were played to the end, with major efforts by most players to try and edge past the pack, none were able to and seventeen players remain tied with 3.5/4.

Argentine DIego Flores suffered a lapse of his own, losing to Uruguayan IM Roselli

Top Brazilian GM Rafael Leitao was held to a draw by American IM Hungaski. As a
matter of fact he was quite fortunate to save the game.

Argentine IM Carolina Lujan (2379 FIDE)

Of note in the fourth round was Brazilian GM Krikor Mekhitarian’s valiant attempts to beat the brilliant Peruvian Julio Granda Zuniga, constantly finding ways to keep the game alive. Worth checking out.

In spite of the strongest players all playing still, this game on board 25 was the one
with the greatest number of spectators. Why? It is because IM Jorge Rosito, playing
white, is from Mar del Plata, and the locals came to support him.

Annotated game by GM Sergio Slipak

Records are broken

That said, it was nevertheless a day for records, and several. Unless you slept throughout the entire day, there is no way you cannot know of it, and here in Argentina it took place between rounds three and four. You guessed it, I am referring to Felix Baumgartner’s amazing fall from the edge of space, breaking the previous 50-year-old record. Part of what made it such a wonder was that no one was dependent on their local TV channel to carry it, and it was viewed live on YouTube by over eight million viewers. That is not eight million views, that is eight million viewers at the same time. The beginning of a trend.

Over eight million viewers ended up connecting to watch the amazing leap

Baumgartner’s giant leap, sponsored by Red Bull, was more than simply a daredevil stunt to enter the record books, though he certainly did that. He not only trounced the old record of 32 thousand meters by falling from a capsule taken to 39 thousand meters by balloon, but also reached a staggering speed of Mach 1.24, pulverizing the sound of speed, the first man to do so in freefall.

All that is nice and well, but how does this serve mankind? For one thing, this might create the means for astronauts to eject from failing spacecraft without obligatorily being forced to just sacrifice themselves in the name of science. As space development begins to go beyond space stations and enters the commercial era, this resource could easily be the difference between life and death. No doubt further developments will come from this.

The official video, available in full HD. Well worth seeing.

Live Broadcast

The top boards can be followed on Playchess live.

Event partners

Links Official tournament site All the games in PGN 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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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