Andrei Volokitin Wins San Sebastian 2011/12

The Donostia/San Sebastian chess festival from 28 December 2011 - 6 January 2012 was won by Andrei Volokitin of the Ukraine (pictured).

This year's Festival marked the centenary of the historic super-tournaments held in San Sebastian in 1911 and 1912.

The KO event had an unusual format, whereby the paired players faced each other in two simultaneous games! (see previous report here)

The time control was 2 hours for all moves plus a 30 second increment.  Due to the unusual format, results didn't count towards ratings.

In the latter stages of the competition Volokitin beat Ruslan Ponomariov in the quarter-finals, Leinier Dominguez in the semi-finals, and Viktor Laznika in the final.

In the final Laznika lost due to time pressure in his game with the black pieces and then blundered the exchange with white in the other game. Andrei Volokitin wins €20,000 and a motorbike for his efforts!

Other notable names in the field included Vugar Vashimov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Etienne Bacrot, Arkadij Naiditsch and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Photo by David Llada.