Ivanchuk wins Benidorm, Shirov second

VII Festival Internacional de Ajedrez

This event was held in the Hotel Bali in Benidorm, Spain, from the 28th November to the 8th of December 2008. The Grand Torneo de las Estrellas (grand tournament of the stars) was a six-player double round robin, with more than five hundred points separating the strongest from the weakest player. It was part of an annual chess festival which includes side events like blitz, rapid opens, simulultaneous exhibitions, etc.

Here are the individual results from all rounds of the Torneo de las Estrellas:

In the first eight games Vassily Ivanchuk conceded just one draw – he was leading by two full points, with 7.5/8 to Shirov's 5.5/8, and needing only half a point from the last tow games to clinch tournament victory. But as will sometimes happen, the meteoric flight ended abruptly. In round nine Ivanchuk got a draw against Sergey Tiviakov, to take overall victory, but the tenth round white pieces loss to Shirov was not in line with the four-fifths of the tournament.

Vassily Ivanchuk playing in and winning Benidorm

Alexei Shirov, on the other hand, had faltered in the middle of the event with suprise losses to Kateryna Lahno, 238 Elo points below him, and then to Xavier Vila Gazquez, who is over 300 points below the Latvian/Spanish GM. But three straight victories in the last three rounds brought Shirov a second place, half a point behind the leader.

Final standings

The playing venue, with the Estrellas group on the right

Alexei Shirov, half a point behind the winner

GM Sergey Tiviakov of Holland, two points behind Shirov

GM Kateryna Lahno, who scored a surprise win over Alexei Shirov

IM Xavier Vila Gazquez defeated Shirov in round eight, and then lost the remaining three games

WGM Sabrina Vega Gutierrez finished at the bottom of the tabler with 2.0/10 points

Europe-Echecs video: Ivanchuk teaches chess in Benidorm, Katya Lahon gives a simul

• Click here for a fine Flash dia show on the official web site.
• The official web site (does not display correctly in Firefox)
• All available games in PGN