The GIBTELECOM MASTERS ran from the 26th of January to the 4th of February 2010 and had sufficiently big prizes to entice several big names to play. Adams won the play-offs beating Vallejo Pons in the final. Michael seems to have form and luck on his side at the moment as in his win last month over Bacrot in the British League (photo courtesy of Meri Grigoryan).
Gibraltar is a small British enclave on the southern coast of Spain. It's famous for the rock, the only european wild baboons and of course one of the most prestigious chess tournaments of the annual calendar.
The prize fund was truly exceptional for an open with a total of 112,500 pounds sterling.
This could be broken down as follows (all figures refer to pounds sterling).
1st Prize
15,000
2nd Prize
10,000
3rd Prize
7,000
4th Prize
5,000
5th Prize
4,000
6th Prize
3,000
7th Prize
2,500
8th Prize
2,000
9th Prize
1,500
10th Prize
1,250
11th Prize
1,000
12th Prize
1,000
There were 33 grandmasters including 6 women. The highest-ranking being Etienne Bacrot (France) with a 2713 rating.
However prizes for lower-ranking players were also not bad.
Prizes for best relative rating achievement.
Rating Band
1st Prize
2nd Prize
2500-2599
3,000
2,000
2400-2499
2,000
1,000
2300-2399
2,000
1,000
2200-2299
2,000
1,000
Under 2200
2,000
1,000
Many leading women took part as they have a special prize fund, for example the current world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and former world champion Antoaneta Stefanova. The number two female on the FIDE list, the Indian Humpy Koneru, was also present
Open to all Women
1st Prize
8,000
2nd Prize
4,000
3rd Prize
3,000
4th Prize
2,500
5th Prize
2,000
6th Prize
1,500
7th Prize
1,000
8th Prize
500
In case of a tie the highest rating performance takes the 8000 pounds!
Last round pairings and results:
1
GM Gustafsson,Jan
7.0
GER
2627
0.5-0.5
GM Movsesian,Sergei
7.0
SVK
2708
2
GM Vallejo Pons,Francisco
7.0
ESP
2705
0.5-0.5
GM Adams,Michael
7.0
ENG
2694
3
GM Bacrot,Etienne
6.5
FRA
2713
1-0
GM Cramling,Pia
6.5
SWE
2528
4
GM Bindrich,Falko
6.5
GER
2512
0-1
GM Kamsky,Gata
6.5
USA
2693
5
WGM Zhukova,Natalia
6.5
UKR
2462
0.5-0.5
GM Fressinet,Laurent
6.5
FRA
2670
6
GM Fridman,Daniel
6.5
GER
2654
0-1
IM Lenderman,Alex
6.5
USA
2560
7
IM Javakhishvili,Lela
6.5
GEO
2493
0-1
GM Sandipan,Chanda
6.5
IND
2622
8
IM Boskovic,Drasko
6.5
SRB
2454
0.5-0.5
GM Koneru,Humpy
6.5
IND
2614
9
GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal
6.5
IND
2584
1-0
GM Stefanova,Antoaneta
6.5
BUL
2545
10
IM Kapnisis,Spyridon
6.0
GRE
2510
0-1
GM Cheparinov,Ivan
6.0
BUL
2660
The four leading players (on 7.5/10 and having the best tie-breaks) played for the big prize of 15000 pounds!
The two-game semi-finals were played with 10 minutes plus 10 second increments and then (if necessary) an Armageddon game to decide.
Here are the results:
GM Gustafsson, Jan
GER
2627
1-0
0-1
0-1
GM Adams, Michael
ENG
2694
GM Vallejo Pons,Francisco
ESP
2705
1-0
0.5-0.5
GM Sandipan, Chanda
IND
2622
After winning the Armageddon game Adams played Spanish GM Vallejo Pons.
GM Adams,Michael
ENG
2694
1-0
0.5-0.5
GM Vallejo Pons,Francisco
ESP
2705
Humpy Koneru won the women's challenge by drawing in the last round. Koneru and Stefanova both played very long games finishing after 6 hours or so.
