Third Porticcio Open 2016 in Corsica (2)

Third Porticcio Open 2016 in Corsica

By Sagar Shah

Final Standings (after nine rounds)

Sergei Zhigalko, in spite of losing to Deep Sengupta, managed to chalk up
a win over Lalith Babu in the last round and finish fourth with 7.0/9

The talented French grandmaster Romain Edouard finished fifth. It was sheer pleasure to
watch the different types of openings that he employed in every game that he played.

Gawain Jones came to Corsica with a cold and not such a great health. As he said,
“I could hardly calculate in the first seven rounds of the tournament.” By the eighth round
he started feeling better and by scoring 3.0/3 in the end he managed to tie for first place.

After six rounds he was leading the tournament with 5.5/6.
But 1.0/3 at the end gave him a seventh place finish

Nils Grandelius was perhaps the most exciting player of the event. He was the only grandmaster who beat two fellow 2600+ GMs: Gawain Jones and Edouard Romain. His tactical feel is quite impressive and it was shown amply in his third round encounter against Yours Truly.

Sagar Shah vs Nils Grandelius, round three

It is White to play. Should he take the pawn on b6?
Try to calculate the consequences of that capture.

Gawain Jones – Nils Grandelius, round five

This one is pretty easy! Gawain has just plonked his rook to e5. How should Black continue?

The top seeded Etienne Bacrot was solid enough not to lose any games,
but made one draw too many. He finished eighth with 6.5/9.

Ninth place went to Matthieu Cornette

After grinding on for nearly six hours in the last round
Sebastien Maze was rewarded with the tenth place

This position arose in the last round between Erik Zude and Sebastien Maze. It is extremely important to know how White can draw this endgame. The main idea is to get the white king in the drawing zone which is a7, b7, a8, b8, any one of the four squares. As you will see in the analysis below, the white player didn’t follow this advice and kept his king on a5 and b5 which led to his downfall. It goes without saying that such endgames are extremely difficult to defend in practice. But having knowledge some rule like this can make your task considerably easier.

If you would like to learn more about queen endgames, as well as other major piece endgames like queen vs two rooks, rook vs bishop or knight etc. you must check out third part of Karsten Müller’s DVDs on endgame. This rule of drawing zone in queen vs queen + rook pawn was something that I learnt from that DVD.

The tournament standings also decided who the champion of Corsica would be. The winner was IM Perluigi Piscopo (with the mic). He is from Italy, but he is one of the well-established trainers of Corsica and has now settled down there. After winning the trophy he said: “The talented players of Corsica are fast catching up. This year I was lucky to win the trophy, but I sure soon others will overtake me.”

So many people play chess in Corsica. Out of a total population 320,000, nearly 50,000 people
know the game, most of them being kids who learnt it from the Chess in Schools program.

Chess grandmasters are stars in Corsica with young fans trying to get their autographs!

This young kid proudly shows his collection of the autographs
of some of the finest chess players in the world

The backbone of Corsican chess and the reason why so many people play chess on the island: (from left to right) arbiter Jean-Phillipe Orsoni, President of Corsican Chess Federation Leo Battesti, President of the Ajaccio chess club Marie Paul Tomasi and chief arbiter of the event Akkhavanh Vilaisarn

As a vegetarian my choices were limited, but I enjoyed the healthy food.
If you are a non-vegetarian then you are in for a treat!

The variety of fruits available is humungous and the way they are presented is delightful

In the open bar there were chess boards kept where you could enjoy a nice beer
and analyze some games, with music playing in the background

In the evening there were some nice events like dance…

…or learning Tai Chi from an expert!

It’s scenes like these that are going to drag me to the fourth edition of the Porticcio Open 2017. Strong players, beautiful scenery, good food, and most importantly: Corsica is a place where chess players are respected. What more can one ask! The organizers have already confirmed the dates: 2nd to 9th July 2017. It might be a good idea to write an email to the Marie Paul Tomasi if you are interested to play.

World number four with a rating of 2798, Maxime Vachier Lagrave, was also present in Porticcio. But what was he doing there? Had he come to just relax and play ping pong? We assure you that he sat down on the chess board and crushed many grandmasters. But more about that in a separate report!

Pictures by Amruta Mokal

Links Official tournament site Games in PGN (partially edited) You can use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.