Ivanchuk Beats Nakamura To Take Cap d'Agde

To quote Yogi Berra, it was deja vu all over again in the final of the Cap d'Agde rapidplay tournament.

Just like last year's event, the finalists were the crowd-pleasing combination of Vassily Ivanchuk and Hikaru Nakamura.

However, this time it was the Ukrainian who took the spoils in a final where both games were King's Gambits!  Ivanchuk was white in the first, which he won, and black in the second where he forced a draw in a better position to claim overall victory.

Chucky and the H-Bomb in the final (picture from the official site)

After breezing through his qualifying group with a fantastic 6.5/7 score, Nakamura beat Jon Ludvig Hammer in the quarter-final and Le Quang Liem in the semi.  Ivanchuk also qualified top of his group with 5.5/7 and beat Judit Polgar in the quarter-final and Bu Xiangzhi in the semi.