Short and Alina l'Ami win CUCA International

From May 15 to May 28 the CUCA International Chess tournament took place in Luanda, Angola. It was comprised of two events, an Open and a Women's event, both of which were nine-round swiss tournaments played at 40 moves for 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game and a 30-second increment as of move one.

The event was sponsored by CUCA brewery, the largest in Angola, and had generous conditions including room and board for IM/GMs as well as WGM/WIM/WFMs. The first prizes for the men's event were 1st - US$ 5000, 2nd - US$ 4000, 3rd - US$3000, 4th US$ 2000, 5th - US$ 500. The top prizes in the Women's event are 1st - US$ 3000, 2nd - US$ 2000, 3rd - US$1500, 4th US$ 1000, 5th - US$ 500.

Torneio Internacional Taça Cuca 2011

The winner, a full point ahead of the field, was British GM Nigel Short, who appears to be going after a record: win tournaments in more countries than any other GM. Equal second and 1.5 points ahead of the rest of the players were GM Antonio Fernandes from Portugal and our reporter GM Sergei Tiviakov from Holland.

Winner Nigel Short with GM Antonio Fernandes of Portugal, who came second

Final standings after nine rounds

• All available games in PGN (will be upgraded as the carrier pigeons come in)

Alina sent us the above picture of a local newspaper headline reporting Nigel Short's 8.0/9 victory. Pity, we thought, why is there a picture of "some other dude" next to the report? On his return Nigel explained it to us. The newspaper reporter had apparently done a Google search for "Nigel Short" images and picked up the one from this page (take a look, really!). Unfortunately, it is not the chess player but the musician Nigel Short, best known as the conductor and founder of the a cappella chamber choir Tenebrae. Oops!

In the women's section our second reporter, WGM Alina l'Ami of Romania, went through the field like a hot knife through butter: Alina won all her nine games – every single one of them. The next best player was 1.5 points behind her, with another 1.5-point gap to the candidate master in third place.

Winner WGM Alina l'Ami of Romania and second placed Anzel Solomons of South Africa

Women's section – Final standings after nine rounds

Chess and general impressions from Luanda

Photo report by WGM Alina l'Ami and GM Sergey Tiviakov

Winner Nigel Short being interviews for Luandan TV

Alina, Anzel, Tshepiso, Nigel, Sergei (l'Ami, Solomons, Lopang, Short, Tiviakov)

Ladies' table, with participants of the women's section

Once the chessboard hostilities have ended we are all great friends (Alina l'Ami,
Anzel Solomons, Tshepiso Lopang, Boikhutso Mudongo)

Sponsors with Dr. Jaime Aguinaldo, President of the Angolan Chess Federation
(middle) and Portugese Chess Federation President on the right

Signing a cooperation agreement between the Angolan and Portuguese Federations

Dinner at the closing ceremony

Red crab and Angolan Cuca beer: treats at the closing ceremony

A final day view of the Angolan city of Luanda, which hosted the chess tournament

Alina was born in Romania, but now lives with her husband GM Erwin l'Ami in Holland. She graduated cum laude from the Al. I. Cuza University Lasi, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences. As a chess player she won the world champion under 10 in Sao Laurenco, Brazil, the European Championship under 18 in Peniscola, Spain, the Women's Balkan Chess Championship in Istanbul, Turkey, and many other similar events. The Woman International Grandmaster title came in 2005. Alina speaks Romanian, English (fluently – it is the language she uses to communicate with her husband, "and we understand each other quite well!"), French, Dutch ("my husband's language – very beautiful, but so difficult at the moment"), Spanish and Italian.

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