Friday 1 February 2013

Vitiugov takes it all

    The Gibraltar Tradewise Chess Festival ended yesterday. It was an exciting last round, followed by an even more exciting play-off.
19GMVitiugov Nikita2694½ - ½GMVachier-Lagrave Maxime27115
26GMNavara David27107½ - ½GMShort Nigel D269010
330GMZhao Xue25547½ - ½7GMIvanchuk Vassily27581
416GMGeorgiev Kiril26437½ - ½7GMAdams Michael27253
58GMLe Quang Liem270570 - 17GMSandipan Chanda259024

Here's the Vitiugov-Vachier-Lagrave draw:

The Regulations of the tournament said that if there was to be a tie for the 1st place, the players must play a blitz play-off (10m +5s each). So, Nigel Short, Sandipan Chanda, Vitiugov Nikita and Vachier-Lagrave Maxime ( all scoring 8p out of 10) played a mini-ko. Short won against Sandipan and Vitiugov against Vachier-Lagrave. Once more, Short had to play a play-off for the 1st place- like the lat year- when he beated Hou Yifan and took the 1st prize. The luck wasn't on his side this time and he lost against Vitiugov with a 1,5-0,5 score.
Nikita Vitiugov-The winner of Gibraltar
    Zhao Xue took the 1st women's prize, scoring an impressive 7,5p out of 10, making a draw against Ivanchuk in the last round.

    Congratulations to the winners and I hope I'll manage to play in Gibraltar next year too! ;)

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