Iturrizaga Wins Strong Benasque Open on Tiebreak
On Saturday Eduardo Iturrizaga won the strong annual open tournament in Benasque, Spain. The 23-year-old grandmaster from Venezuela edged out Maxim Rodshtein of Israel and Aleksander Delchev of Bulgaria on tiebreak after the three players had finished on 8.5/10. According to the official website the prizes were not shared, and so Iturrizaga took home the 4,000 Euro first prize!
The 33rd edition of the Open Internacional de Ajedrez de Benasque was held July 4th-13th, 2013 in the Sport Pavillion of Benasque, the main town in Spain's Huesca province, located in the heart of the Pyrenees. Unlike most open tournaments, this Swiss event didn't last 9, but 10 rounds. As "compensation", the games followed a pretty fast rate of play: 90 minutes for the whole game, plus 30 seconds increment per move.
Maxim Rodshtein had the best start; the Israeli grandmaster was the only player who won his first five games. In round 5 he defeated the well known chess author and parttime second of Vassily Ivanchuk.
Rodshtein continued with two draws, against Renier Vazquez Igarza (2571) of Spain, and Ni Hua (2661) of China. By then, after seven rounds, Eduardo Iturrizagahad taken over the lead. He reached 6.5 points with the following win against his famous colleague from Peru, 46-year-old Julio Granda Zuniga, who missed a basic double attack:
Iturrizaga then also beat the strong Chinese GM Ni Hua to reach an amazing 7.5/8 score. This game showed an amazing array of tactics, including the discovered attack, the fork, the intermediate move, the trapped piece, the pin and more. Go check it out:
Aleksander Delchev played a very interesting game in round 6, when he beat Italy's Daniele Vocaturo:
As is often seen in such big open Swiss events, the last round(s) are not always too exciting for spectators. Iturrizaga finished with an 8-move draw with Aleksander Delchev and a 6-move draw with Maxim Rodshtein, to reach 8.5 points. Because of his great start, the GM from Venezuela had the best tiebreak.
Caracas-born Iturrizaga is four-times Champion of Venezuela and bronze medal winner at the 2006 Olympiad. He will be one of the 128 players to participate in the World Cup in Tromsø after he qualified last month at the Costa Rica Zonal.
Benasque Open 2013 | Final standings (top 30)
| Rk. | Title | Name | Fed | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | rtg+/- |
| 1 | GM | ITURRIZAGA Eduardo | VEN | 2642 | 8,5 | 2456 | 2536 | 2781 | 16,8 |
| 2 | GM | RODSHTEIN Maxim | ISR | 2641 | 8,5 | 2444 | 2487 | 2770 | 15,3 |
| 3 | GM | DELCHEV Aleksander | BUL | 2614 | 8,5 | 2434 | 2446 | 2756 | 16,8 |
| 4 | GM | CORI Jorge | PER | 2543 | 8 | 2362 | 2322 | 2620 | 10,2 |
| 5 | GM | ZOLER Dan | ISR | 2538 | 8 | 2339 | 2419 | 2596 | 8 |
| 6 | GM | NI Hua | CHN | 2661 | 7,5 | 2443 | 2498 | 2668 | 2,7 |
| 7 | GM | GRANDA ZUNIGA Julio E | PER | 2679 | 7,5 | 2432 | 2496 | 2661 | -0,3 |
| 8 | GM | VOCATURO Daniele | ITA | 2536 | 7,5 | 2410 | 2450 | 2621 | 12,9 |
| 9 | GM | VAZQUEZ IGARZA Renier | ESP | 2571 | 7,5 | 2410 | 2439 | 2622 | 8,5 |
| 10 | GM | GEORGIEV Kiril | BUL | 2636 | 7,5 | 2384 | 2428 | 2605 | -2,1 |
| 11 | GM | KHARITONOV Alexandr | RUS | 2538 | 7,5 | 2383 | 2412 | 2593 | 8,6 |
| 12 | GM | ARIZMENDI MARTINEZ Julen Luis | ESP | 2580 | 7,5 | 2361 | 2380 | 2530 | -3,3 |
| 13 | IM | GUERRA MENDEZ Jose Angel | CUB | 2505 | 7,5 | 2360 | 2363 | 2568 | 10,5 |
| 14 | GM | ILLESCAS CORDOBA Miguel | ESP | 2613 | 7,5 | 2324 | 2318 | 2549 | -4,6 |
| 15 | GM | UBILAVA Elizbar | ESP | 2490 | 7,5 | 2322 | 2326 | 2529 | 8 |
| 16 | IM | CASTELLANOS RODRIGUEZ Renier | ESP | 2504 | 7,5 | 2321 | 2367 | 2529 | 5,8 |
| 17 | GM | NISIPEANU Liviu-Dieter | ROU | 2670 | 7,5 | 2300 | 2320 | 2560 | -9,5 |
| 18 | IM | TAN Matthew | NED | 2435 | 7,5 | 2299 | 2245 | 2478 | 8,9 |
| 19 | IM | ARRIBAS LOPEZ Angel | ESP | 2494 | 7,5 | 2285 | 2210 | 2466 | -0,5 |
| 20 | IM | NARODITSKY Daniel | USA | 2486 | 7 | 2492 | 2448 | 2617 | 17,1 |
| 21 | FM | FENOLLAR JORDA Manuel | ESP | 2397 | 7 | 2413 | 2435 | 2572 | 37,3 |
| 22 | GM | MOVSZISZIAN Karen | ARM | 2499 | 7 | 2364 | 2310 | 2505 | 3,3 |
| 23 | GM | BURMAKIN Vladimir | RUS | 2559 | 7 | 2348 | 2355 | 2515 | -2,9 |
| 24 | GM | NEELOTPAL Das | IND | 2445 | 7 | 2329 | 2325 | 2490 | 9 |
| 25 | GM | DE LA VILLA GARCIA Jesus Mari | ESP | 2472 | 7 | 2326 | 2336 | 2489 | 5,1 |
| 26 | GM | GOMEZ ESTEBAN Juan Mario | ESP | 2462 | 7 | 2305 | 2285 | 2445 | 1,2 |
| 27 | GM | GORDON Stephen J | ENG | 2521 | 7 | 2303 | 2328 | 2468 | -3,6 |
| 28 | GM | STEINGRIMSSON Hedinn | ISL | 2557 | 7 | 2303 | 2289 | 2471 | -7,8 |
| 29 | GM | DEEPAN Chakkravarthy J. | IND | 2468 | 7 | 2299 | 2312 | 2462 | 2 |
| 30 | GM | LALIC Bogdan | CRO | 2489 | 7 | 2298 | 2306 | 2461 | 0,3 |
Official website, Chess-results, games via TWIC.
