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Tourney structure: seven-round round robin |
The grandiose playing hall
The 21st edition of the Sigeman & Co. tournament held in Malmö, Sweden, was undecided until the end and beyond. After seven rounds of competition, it was not for lack of fighting spirit that three of the eight players ended in a tie for first but rather because of it. Not all of the players were in a position to fight for first but even those out of contention fought to the end.
No player was able to avoid losing a game, an indication of how contended it was
Going into the last round, the leaders were Nigel Short and Ivan Sokolov with 4.0/6, both of whom had led throughout, followed by Richard Rapport, Loek van Wely, and Nils Grandelius, the best local performer all with 3.5/6.
In round seven, the Swedes were delighted to see their compatriot Nils Grandelius defeat Ivan Sokolov after the Dutch player made a mistake which turned out to be decisive. This allowed Nils to leapfrog Sokolov, while Richard Rapport vigorously punished Jonny Hector as black for a thorough mishandling of his position, and had a mating attack by move 30.
It was a hero's performance as Nils Grandelius defeated leader Ivan Sokolov
in the last round.
Nigel Short was a leader throughout
The result was a three-way tie for first between Nigel Short, Richard Rapport, and Nils Grandelius with 4.5/7.
Jonny Hector was defeated by Richard Rapport in the last round. The Hungarian
prodigy
had a superb finish.
[Event "21st Sigeman & Co"] [Site "Malmo SWE"] [Date "2013.05.28"] [Round "7"] [White "Hector, J."] [Black "Rapport, R."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B89"] [WhiteElo "2512"] [BlackElo "2674"] [PlyCount "62"] [EventDate "2013.05.22"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bc4 e6 7. Be3 a6 8. Qe2 Qc7 9. O-O-O Bd7 10. Bb3 b5 11. Nxc6 Bxc6 12. Bd4 Be7 13. Bxf6 Bxf6 14. Nd5 { Although this looks strong, in fact Black is not worse at all.} Bxd5 15. exd5 e5 {The result is there is no attack for White, and he is a bit worse even due to his bad bishop.} 16. Rd3 {Black's plan is pretty easy: castle, push pawns, and mate if possible. White needs to do something similar, but to get his bishop in play he must play c3 at some point to activate it. In the battle of opposite wing attacks, Black is far ahead thanks to the already advanced pawns and open c-file.} Qd7 17. Rc3 a5 18. a3 O-O 19. Rc6 {A really strange idea. White has no way of increasing pressure with the rook, nor does this prevent Black from executing his, so what is the plan?} a4 20. Ba2 b4 $1 {Strong and no-nonsense.} 21. axb4 a3 22. b3 {Now White is probably lost already. The bishop on a2 is utterly useless, and even if White were to somehow manage to free it, the a-pawn needs to be stopped.} e4 {Very strong, and untouchable.} 23. Re1 ({Taking with} 23. Qxe4 {just opens the file for Black's rooks with a free tempo to boot.} Rfe8 24. Qf3 Re7 25. c3 Rae8 {and Black's attack is nearly overwhelming already.}) 23... g6 24. f4 exf3 25. Qxf3 Rae8 26. Rd1 Bg5+ 27. Kb1 Re3 28. Qf1 Qe7 29. Rc4 Re8 30. Rcd4 Qe5 31. Qc4 Re1 {with mate to follow.} 0-1
The excellent production values brought spectators both live and online
Pictures from official site
LinksThe 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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