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Vallejo First on Tiebreak at Bangkok Open

Vallejo First on Tiebreak at Bangkok Open

PeterDoggers
| 4 | Chess Event Coverage

He's not a professional chess player anymore, but he can still win tournaments: Francisco Vallejo Pons. The Spanish grandmaster edged out Pinoy GM Oliver Barbosa on tiebreak at the Bangkok Open after both had finished on 7.5/9. GMs Jan Gustafsson of Germany & Bartosz Socko of Poland and IM Lui Qingnan of China tied for third place with 7 points.

Photos courtesy of the Bangkok Chess Club

After a painful loss in the final round of the 2012 Masters Final against Sergey Karjakin, Vallejo announced his retirement from competitive chess. Since then he played some games in the German and Catalan team championships, but also the 2013 European Championship, where he qualified for the FIDE World Cup in Tromsø. There he defeated Diego Flores of Argentina, but was eliminated by Le Quang Liem of Vietnam.

The 31-year-old Spanish grandmaster is still a very strong player of course, and he showed it last week in Bangkok, Thailand. “Paco” won the tournament, a Swiss open, with 7.5 points out of 9 games, getting on the verge of a 2700 rating again. Oliver Barbosa of the Philippines ended on the same number of points, but had a worse tiebreak.

After a good start of 3.5/4, he won an important game against Turkish grandmaster Suat Atalik. Normally Black stays a pawn down in the Marshall, but here he didn't and so the position was dead equal after 23 moves. Vallejo decided to play on, set a nice trap and Atalik fell for it.

After a draw with Jan Gustafsson, the next round Vallejo won again:

In the final round Barbosa and Vallejo drew quickly and so both ended on 7.5 points. Vallejo won the tournament on tiebreak, but there was “compensation” for the Filipino, who had won the blitz tournament earlier! Gustafsson, IM Qingnan Liu and GM Bartosz Socko all finished on 7 points, putting them in 3rd to 5th place. For Qingnan this meant a GM norm.

Bangkok Open 2014 | Final Standings (Top 30)

Rk. SNo Title Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 Rp rtg+/-
1 1 GM Vallejo Pons Francisco ESP 2693 7,5 0,5 54 43,5 2720 6,7
2 4 GM Barbosa Oliver PHI 2580 7,5 0,5 52 42,75 2667 11,6
3 3 GM Gustafsson Jan GER 2634 7 0 55 41,25 2641 4,5
4 9 IM Liu Qingnan CHN 2500 7 0 50 36,5 2600 12,9
5 2 GM Socko Bartosz POL 2635 7 0 49,5 38 2547 -3,6
6 6 GM Gomez John Paul PHI 2524 6,5 0 55,5 38 2566 7,8
7 5 GM Atalik Suat TUR 2562 6,5 0 54 35,75 2577 5,2
8 10 GM Dzhumaev Marat UZB 2496 6,5 0 53,5 36,75 2534 7,4
9 23 IM Wohl Aleksandar H. AUS 2355 6,5 0 49,5 33,25 2480 15,7
10 16 IM Saptarshi Roy IND 2434 6,5 0 48,5 33,75 2397 -1,4
11 18 IM Nolte Rolando PHI 2417 6,5 0 45,5 33,25 2326 -7
12 12 GM Socko Monika POL 2450 6,5 0 45,5 31 2415 -0,8
13 8 GM Laylo Darwin PHI 2511 6,5 0 45,5 30 2403 -2,7
14 7 GM Venkatesh M.R. IND 2515 6 0 51,5 31 2441 -5,4
15 35 Andador Rolando PHI 2279 6 0 50 31 2428 27
16 41 FM Teerapabpaisit Wisuwat THA 2250 6 0 49 30,75 2270 23,3
17 29 IM Lahiri Atanu IND 2311 6 0 48,5 31 2356 6,2
18 21 IM Lodhi Mahmood PAK 2358 6 0 48,5 30,25 2393 4,8
19 39 Liu Yan CHN 2264 6 0 48,5 29,25 2383 19,6
20 20 FM Kojima Shinya JPN 2361 6 0 48 30,75 2364 1,5
21 13 IM Kuderinov Kirill KAZ 2448 6 0 48 30,75 2399 -3,5
22 17 GM Torre Eugenio PHI 2427 6 0 47 29,25 2375 -4,4
23 57 Peng Xiongjian CHN 2193 6 0 47 29 2372 69,6
24 33 Vaarala Eric SWE 2281 6 0 44 27,75 2272 0,8
25 11 GM Schebler Gerhard GER 2451 5,5 0 53,5 30,5 2432 -0,4
26 26 CM Nanjo Ryosuke JPN 2321 5,5 0 46 27 2237 -12,6
27 27 Sardana Rishi AUS 2320 5,5 0 46 26,25 2285 -4,1
28 44 Diaz Conrado PHI 2246 5,5 0 46 25,25 2128 -0,9
29 90 Zhu Ying CHN 2027 5,5 0 46 25 2238 46,2
30 63 Rohan Ahuja IND 2154 5,5 0 45 25 2298 30,6

(Full final standings here)

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.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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