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hosted by Chess Queen™ & 12th Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk

 

Friday, January 6, 2012

Motorbike and cash as prizes for Andrei Voliktin at Donostia Chess Festival!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hello everyone,

We are not sure if this is a first when it comes to chess prizes. But a 'speedy' congratulations to GM Andrei Volokitin for winning the Donostia Chess Festival! 
 
 Volokitin on his electric bike | All photos © David Llada and Anastasiya Karlovich


The latest chess tournament news via Fide is that Andrei Volokitin has won the very unique Donostia Chess Festival. In the final match he defeated Viktor Laznichka by 2:0. The match was very tough and pressure became so high that Czech player just simply forgot about time in one of the games where he played with Black.

The rook ending was equal and few moves earlier Andrei Volokitin proposed a draw which was declined by Viktor Laznichka. After the accident with time Czech Grandmaster was not able to concentrate on the other game anymore and blundered an exchange few moves later. Andrei Voliktin grabs 20,000 euro prize and a big motorbike.

In the B-group two leaders Antoaneta Stefanova and Reynaldo Vera made a quick draw which suited their tournament position. Few more players, who were half a point behind, managed to win in the last round and joined the group of the prize-winners. As a result Sergey Fedorchuk became a winner of the C-group.

Check for more details at Donostia Chess Festival. The interesting event was held from December 28th-January 5th, 2012 in Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain. The playing system included 64-player knock-out, matches of two games played simultaneously!

Players Gashimov, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Moiseenko, Bacrot, Naiditsch, Dominguez and Vachier-Lagrave were some of the top players at the event.


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Friday, December 30, 2011

Unique San Sebastian Chess Formula: GMs play two games at the same time!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hello everyone,

A very interesting chess tournament is taking place in San Sebastian from December 28 to January 6 - The Donostia Chess Festival. The festival includes A, B, C tournaments and a blitz competition. It is being held in memory of famous chess tournaments which were held a century ago in San Sebastian - the first edition won by José Raúl Capablanca. Look at the videos to see how it works:




One hundred years later the tournament has a prize fund of 100,000 Euro (the first prize being 20,000 Euro + an electric motorbike!) and a unique format. It is a knock-out event with some modifications, as the players who get eliminated will keep playing in a parallel group. Some top names at the event include Ruslan Ponomariov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Antoaneta Stefanova, Vugar Gashimov and others. Following David Bronstein's idea, matches consist of two games of classical chess played simultaneously. This way no one has the advantage of playing the first game with the white pieces. You can access the official website here.

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Also see her personal blog at

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