Pentala Harikrishna wins in Cappelle la Grande
Pentala Harikrishna won the traditionally strong Cappelle la Grande open in northwest France. The Indian grandmaster edged out Parimarjan Negi (India), Tornike Sanikidze, (Georgia), Tigran Gharamian (France) and Marty Kravtsiv (Ukraine) on tie-break after the five grandmasters had finished on 7/9.
Pentala Harikrishna receives the first prize | Photo courtesy of the official website
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While the Reykjavik Open has reached its 7th round on Sunday, another strong open finished on Saturday. In Cappelle la Grande, in the northwest of France, Pentala Harikrishna had the best tiebreak in a group of five GMs that reached 7 points out of 9 games. The others were Parimarjan Negi (India), Tornike Sanikidze, (Georgia), Tigran Gharamian (France) and Marty Kravtsiv (Ukraine).
The 28th edition might not have been as big (this year 498 participants) or as strong as in previous years, but still, to win it is not an easy job! This is even more true when your realize that accelarated pairings were used in the first seven rounds, so for example the winner Harikrishna faced a 2416-player already in the first round.
The tournament was organized by the "L’Echiquier Cappellois" chess club and took place at the Palais des Arts in Cappelle-la-Grande. Like in Reykjavik, on one day the players had to play two rounds, but in Cappelle this was earlier in the tournament (rounds 3 and 4 instead of 6 and 7).
Interestingly, the organizers were using an anti (quick) draw rule:
To draw by mutual agreement it must play at least 20 moves or have the consent of an arbiter.
But... for example in round 4, 3 of the 4 top boards ended in draws soon after move 20, in the 7th round board 2 ended in a draw after 23 moves, in round 8 the top board was another 23-move draw and on the top 4 boards in the last round, there was one draw in 21 moves, two in 22 moves and one draw in 27 moves. We wonder whether the organizers will enforce a stronger anti-draw rule next year...
However, the above might be a bit misleading because lots of great games were played in Cappelle, as you can see in the selection below!
Selection of games
Cappelle la Grande 2012 | Final standings (top 30)
| Place | Title | Name | Elo | Cat. | Fed | Pts | Tr. | Perf. | Bu. |
| 1 | g | HARIKRISHNA Pentala | 2678 | Sen | IND | 7 | 44,5 | 2783 | 55 |
| 2 | g | NEGI Parimarjan | 2639 | Jun | IND | 7 | 44 | 2699 | 54 |
| 3 | g | SANIKIDZE Tornike | 2549 | Sen | GEO | 7 | 43 | 2670 | 52,5 |
| 4 | g | GHARAMIAN Tigran | 2671 | Sen | FRA | 7 | 42 | 2715 | 51 |
| 5 | g | KRAVTSIV Martyn | 2588 | Sen | UKR | 7 | 40,5 | 2669 | 50 |
| 6 | g | PETROSIAN Tigran | 2643 | Sen | ARM | 6,5 | 44 | 2709 | 56 |
| 7 | g | LYSYJ Igor | 2656 | Sen | RUS | 6,5 | 43 | 2652 | 53,5 |
| 8 | g | ROMANOV Evgeny | 2625 | Sen | RUS | 6,5 | 42,5 | 2672 | 51,5 |
| 9 | g | BANUSZ Tamas | 2583 | Sen | HUN | 6,5 | 42,5 | 2642 | 53 |
| 10 | g | RAMIREZ Alejandro | 2591 | Sen | USA | 6,5 | 42 | 2644 | 52 |
| 11 | g | CORNETTE Matthieu | 2545 | Sen | FRA | 6,5 | 42 | 2624 | 52 |
| 12 | g | NYZHNYK Illya | 2585 | Min | UKR | 6,5 | 42 | 2610 | 52 |
| 13 | g | NAUMKIN Igor | 2452 | Sen | RUS | 6,5 | 42 | 2606 | 51,5 |
| 14 | g | BRODSKY Michail | 2558 | Sen | UKR | 6,5 | 42 | 2603 | 51,5 |
| 15 | g | ARUTINIAN David | 2553 | Sen | GEO | 6,5 | 41,5 | 2599 | 51,5 |
| 16 | g | MAIOROV Nikita | 2552 | Sen | BLR | 6,5 | 41,5 | 2592 | 51 |
| 17 | g | KURNOSOV Igor | 2657 | Sen | RUS | 6,5 | 41 | 2633 | 52 |
| 18 | g | TOMCZAK Jacek | 2555 | Sen | POL | 6,5 | 41 | 2599 | 51 |
| 19 | m | LAGARDE Maxime | 2488 | Cad | FRA | 6,5 | 41 | 2594 | 49,5 |
| 20 | g | FIER Alexandr | 2599 | Sen | BRA | 6,5 | 40 | 2617 | 50 |
| 21 | g | KANEP Meelis | 2516 | Sen | EST | 6,5 | 39,5 | 2557 | 48,5 |
| 22 | g | AMIN Bassem | 2608 | Sen | EGY | 6 | 45 | 2691 | 56,5 |
| 23 | g | SANDIPAN Chanda | 2595 | Sen | IND | 6 | 43 | 2639 | 53,5 |
| 24 | g | KHARITONOV Alexandr | 2542 | Sen | RUS | 6 | 43 | 2571 | 52,5 |
| 25 | g | SOKOLOV Andrei | 2577 | Sen | FRA | 6 | 42,5 | 2615 | 53,5 |
| 26 | g | APICELLA Manuel | 2541 | Sen | FRA | 6 | 42,5 | 2586 | 51,5 |
| 27 | g | DURARBAYLI Vasif | 2543 | Jun | AZE | 6 | 42,5 | 2574 | 52,5 |
| 28 | g | POGORELOV Ruslan | 2426 | Sen | UKR | 6 | 42,5 | 2559 | 52 |
| 29 | g | WIRIG Anthony | 2481 | Sen | FRA | 6 | 42,5 | 2525 | 52 |
| 30 | g | ANDRIASIAN Zaven | 2616 | Sen | ARM | 6 | 42 | 2595 | 52,5 |
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.”
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