Lopez & Alsina lead in Barcelona
Jose Manuel Lopez and Daniel Alsina are leading the Torneig Cuitat de Barcelona after five rounds. In the category 14 round-robin the two scored 3.5 points and are half a point ahead of two more famous names: Ulf Andersson and Alexey Dreev.The tournament is called Magistral Ciutat de Barcelona - Casino de Barcelona. It's a 10-player round-robin that takes place November 2-10 in Barcelona, Spain. It's organized for the 6th year in a row by the Catalonia Chess Federation and sponsored by the Casino de Barcelona and SB Hotels (Hotel Icaria Barcelona), the Barcelona City Hall and the Government of Catalonia. Previous winners: Ruben Felgaer (2004), Vassily Ivanchuk (2005), Leinier Dominguez (2006), Hikaru Nakamura (2007) and Alexey Dreev (2008).This year Alexey Dreev (2655), Alexander Fier (2653), Pavel Tregubov (2642), José Manuel López (2589), Ulf Andersson (2582), Jordi Magem (2564), Fernando Peralta (2557), Omar Almeida (2542), Daniel Alsina (2523) and Marc Narciso (2510) play for a € 4,500 prize fund. The time control is 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move from move one for 40 moves, then 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move to finish. Draw offers are not allowed until the first time control has been reached.The players field had to be changed at the last minute due to a remarkable situation. The players of the European gold winning Azerbaijan team were expected to attend a meeting with government officials, to celebrate their success, and apparently GM Gadir Guseinov had no other choice but cancel the tournament in Barcelona one day before the start. He was quickly replaced by GM Fernando Peralta from Argentina.Top seeds are Alexey Dreev and Alexander Fier, but after five rounds two local heros are topping the standings: GM José Manuel López and IM Daniel Alsina.Barcelona 2009 | Round 5 Standings
Selection of games rounds 1-5
Game viewer by ChessTempo
GM Omar Almeida (Cuba)
IM Daniel Alsina ('Catalunya', the tournament website says, of course not Spain!)
GM Ulf Andersson (Sweden)
GM Alexey Dreev (Russia)
GM Alexander Fier (Brazil)
GM José Manuel López (Catalunya)
GM Jordi Magem (Catalunya)
GM Marc Narciso (Catalunya)
GM Fernando Peralta (Argentina)
GM Pavel Tregubov (Russia)
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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