Harikrishna tops 74 GMs in Cappelle-La-Grande

Harikrishna tops 74 GMs in Cappelle-La-Grande

By Alejandro Ramirez

The 28th edition of the International Open of Cappelle-La-Grande, France was as successful as ever.  The event boasted 169 titled players, of which 74 were Grandmasters, and it attracted players from as far away as Japan and Peru.  In the end, the Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna topped the field.

When a chess player talks about a “good” or “successful” open tournament, what exactly are they referring to? Maybe they are talking about the strength of the event – as in how many Grandmasters are participating. Sometimes they might be referring to a different type of strength, such as how high is the rating of the top seeds. Or they look in different directions, such as how well organized the event is, how many players it attracts, how likely it is to achieve a norm. It truly doesn't matter which angle you use to define a “good” open: Cappelle-La-Grande fulfills them all. 

The tournament is hosted in the Palais des Arts et des Loisirs in the village of Cappelle-la-Grande which is about fifteen minutes away from where most foreign players stay: Dunkerque. The organizers do a fantastic job ensuring that players will have transportation between their hotels and the playing site. The city also helps out, as any player playing in the event can use the public bus transportation for free during their stay. Even though Cappelle itself is extremely small, with only about 8000 habitants, Dunkerque provides more than enough entertainment and food choices for the players. 

Speaking of food, this tournament is unique in that all of the invited players can eat for free at the Palais des Arts both before and after their rounds. With wine being included at both lunch at dinner, this is an attractive option for many of the players. 

The event had nearly 500 players. To avoid a nauseating amount of “easy” games that would happen if the event was paired normally under Swiss rules, this event is typically played with double accelerated pairings. This ensures that even from the beginning strong players will be matched against strong players, and allows norm hunters to get their average rating of opponents up there from the get go.

The tournament was lead from start to finish by GM Harikrishna. Although it is only March, he has had a great 2012 having won the B group of Tata Steel and qualifying to the A group of the 75th Wijk Aan Zee super Grandmaster tournament.

Due to the huge number of players, there is constant pressure to score as much as possible, as any draw, even with black, could prove to have decisive consequences on your final standings. This created a wonderful scenario for fighting chess.

Personally I had a lot of fun in this tournament.  The players are always brought together by the common eating place and the proximity of all the hotels in Dunkerque.  Although sometimes they are slightly annoyed at the waiting times between buses and meals, the truth is there is a great deal of bonding at this event. 

I'll be very happy to be returning to France next year for this event!

Final standings

Also it is important to mention the players who achieved norms.  Congratulations to:

Maxime Lagarde – GM Norm
Marcin Tazbir – GM Norm
Etienne Goudriaan – IM Norm
Sarah Hoolt – WGM Norm
Ewa Prezedziecka – WIM Norm (her second in two Cappelles!)
Aleksandra Lach – WIM Norm

The huge amount of players allowed for some great portraits.  Here are some of the players that made this tournament so exciting:

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.

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