Pentala Harikrishna wins in Cappelle la Grande

Pentala Harikrishna won the traditionally strong Cappelle la Grande open in northwest France. The Indian grandmaster edged out Parimarjan Negi (India), Tornike Sanikidze, (Georgia), Tigran Gharamian (France) and Marty Kravtsiv (Ukraine) on tie-break after the five grandmasters had finished on 7/9.

Pentala Harikrishna receives the first prize | Photo courtesy of the official website

While the Reykjavik Open has reached its 7th round on Sunday, another strong open finished on Saturday. In Cappelle la Grande, in the northwest of France, Pentala Harikrishna had the best tiebreak in a group of five GMs that reached 7 points out of 9 games. The others were Parimarjan Negi (India), Tornike Sanikidze, (Georgia), Tigran Gharamian (France) and Marty Kravtsiv (Ukraine).

The 28th edition might not have been as big (this year 498 participants) or as strong as in previous years, but still, to win it is not an easy job! This is even more true when your realize that accelarated pairings were used in the first seven rounds, so for example the winner Harikrishna faced a 2416-player already in the first round.

The tournament was organized by the "L’Echiquier Cappellois" chess club and took place at the Palais des Arts in Cappelle-la-Grande. Like in Reykjavik, on one day the players had to play two rounds, but in Cappelle this was earlier in the tournament (rounds 3 and 4 instead of 6 and 7). 

Interestingly, the organizers were using an anti (quick) draw rule:

To draw by mutual agreement it must play at least 20 moves or have the consent of an arbiter.

But... for example in round 4, 3 of the 4 top boards ended in draws soon after move 20, in the 7th round board 2 ended in a draw after 23 moves, in round 8 the top board was another 23-move draw and on the top 4 boards in the last round, there was one draw in 21 moves, two in 22 moves and one draw in 27 moves. We wonder whether the organizers will enforce a stronger anti-draw rule next year...

However, the above might be a bit misleading because lots of great games were played in Cappelle, as you can see in the selection below!

Selection of games

PGN file

Cappelle la Grande 2012 | Final standings (top 30)