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Pentala Harikrishna wins in Cappelle la Grande

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage

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

EventCappelle la Grande Open | PGN
DatesMarch 3rd-10th, 2012
LocationCappelle la Grande, France
System9-round Swiss
Players

Top players included Christian Bauer, Pentala Harikrishna, Tigran Gharamian, Igor Kurnosov, Igor Lysyj, Tigran Petrosian, Yaroslav Zherebukh, Parimarjan Negi, Sergey Fedorchuk and Evgeny Romanov

Rate of play90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment from move 1
Prizes fundUndisclosed

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)

PlaceTitleNameEloCat.FedPtsTr.Perf.Bu.
1gHARIKRISHNA Pentala2678SenIND744,5278355
2gNEGI Parimarjan2639JunIND744269954
3gSANIKIDZE Tornike2549SenGEO743267052,5
4gGHARAMIAN Tigran2671SenFRA742271551
5gKRAVTSIV Martyn2588SenUKR740,5266950
6gPETROSIAN Tigran2643SenARM6,544270956
7gLYSYJ Igor2656SenRUS6,543265253,5
8gROMANOV Evgeny2625SenRUS6,542,5267251,5
9gBANUSZ Tamas2583SenHUN6,542,5264253
10gRAMIREZ Alejandro2591SenUSA6,542264452
11gCORNETTE Matthieu2545SenFRA6,542262452
12gNYZHNYK Illya2585MinUKR6,542261052
13gNAUMKIN Igor2452SenRUS6,542260651,5
14gBRODSKY Michail2558SenUKR6,542260351,5
15gARUTINIAN David2553SenGEO6,541,5259951,5
16gMAIOROV Nikita2552SenBLR6,541,5259251
17gKURNOSOV Igor2657SenRUS6,541263352
18gTOMCZAK Jacek2555SenPOL6,541259951
19mLAGARDE Maxime2488CadFRA6,541259449,5
20gFIER Alexandr2599SenBRA6,540261750
21gKANEP Meelis2516SenEST6,539,5255748,5
22gAMIN Bassem2608SenEGY645269156,5
23gSANDIPAN Chanda2595SenIND643263953,5
24gKHARITONOV Alexandr2542SenRUS643257152,5
25gSOKOLOV Andrei2577SenFRA642,5261553,5
26gAPICELLA Manuel2541SenFRA642,5258651,5
27gDURARBAYLI Vasif2543JunAZE642,5257452,5
28gPOGORELOV Ruslan2426SenUKR642,5255952
29gWIRIG Anthony2481SenFRA642,5252552
30gANDRIASIAN Zaven2616SenARM642259552,5

 

PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

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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