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Starting in 2018 (since the third edition), the organizers of the Salamanca Chess Festival decided that the main event of the festival would be a Masters Tournament featuring four men and four women players, with Veselin Topalov, Alexei Shirov, Jaime Santos and Kirill Alekseenko prevailing in each of the rapid-chess competitions.
Five out of eight participants this year have already played in one or more of the previous editions, as Michael Adams, Ruslan Ponomariov and Mariya Muzychuk are making their debuts at the event organized by one of the oldest universities in the world (in continuous operation) — the University of Salamanca was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX.
After two rounds of play, Elisabeth Paehtz and Kirill Alekseenko are sharing the lead with perfect scores. Paehtz defeated Mariya Muzychuk and Eduardo Iturrizaga, while Alekseenko, the defending champion, got the better of Nurgyul Salimova and Mónica Calzetta.
The two biggest surprises seen in the first two rounds, as per the players’ ratings, were Paehtz’s victory over Iturrizaga and Salimova’s victory over Adams.
Rounds 3 and 4 of the rapid tournament (time control: 40+5) will take place on Thursday, starting at 17.00 CEST.
Nurgyul Salimova upset Michael Adams in the first round after the 8-time British Champion erred tactically in a double-edged middlegame
Replay the game analysis on a different tab
Round 2 taking place at the Centro Internacional del Español of the University of Salamanca
