Tiger went hunting

The 16th Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament took place 22-30 April in Malm?ɬ?, Sweden. Participants were GM Daniel Stellwagen, Netherlands (2621), GM Vassilios Kotronias, Greece (2611), GM Evgeny Agrest, Sweden (2567), GM Jan Timman, Netherlands (2565), GM Lars Bo Hansen, Denmark (2563), GM Kjetil Lie, Norway (2558), GM Lajos Portisch, Hungary (2523), GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson, Sweden (2491), GM Ralf ?ɂĶkesson, Sweden (2466) and Axel Smith, Sweden (2428).

As was written in the previous, lengthy report, first seeded Daniel Stellwagen and eighth seeded Tiger Hillarp Persson were sharing the lead after five rounds, and just 7 out of 25 games had ended in a draw! Of course you know what happens when you write something like this: in round six there were four draws (and one decisive game).

Round seven turned out to be the decisive round of the tournament: Hillarp Persson won with remarkable ease with Black in an Exchange Slav against Lie, while Stellwagen was defeated by ?ɂĶkesson in a sharp Advance Variation of the Caro-Kann.

In round eight Lie again lost with White, against Stellwagen, while Hillarp Persson had no problems with Portisch. This meant Stellwagen, a point behind Hillarp Persson, had to beat Tiger to become joint winner, but with a nice combination the Swedish grandmaster forced a draw in the early middlegame.

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A truly great victory by fighting Tiger, who noted a 2817 rating performance and won more than thirty rating points in one tournament! Jan Timman, who won several times in Malm?ɬ?, started terribly but then had superb comeback winning his last three rounds, and finishing on a decent 5th place. Second seeded Kotronias won't be happy as he dropped below 2600 in this tournament and Portisch, well, not everybody can be a Korchnoi...

A selection of games from rounds 6-9:



Links:

• Tournament website
• Games in PGN