Accidental prizes at Ciudad de Ferrol

Reports | July 29, 2008 2:22

Accidental prizes at Ciudad de Ferrol

At the Atlantic coast of north-west Spain, from 15-20 July the 23rd edition of open tournament ?¢‚Ç¨?ìCiudad de Ferrol?¢‚Ç¨? took place. Besides the regular ones, "accidental prizes" were given during the closing ceremony.

By IM Dejan Bojkov

The tournament in Ferrol formed the second part of the Galego circuit, a traditional event that is not as popular as the Catalan circuit, but nevertheless survived for more than twenty years. In this circuit, Ferrol is usually is the strongest event (with almost fifty title-holders this year) with approximately 15 000 euro in prizes.

One special feature that might inspire chess organizers is the presence of accidental prizes for all of those who did not collect a normal prize in the event. A special lottery is made at the closing ceremony, and ten lucky players receive a hundred-euro note. It is an excellent way to attract players, who are not chess professionals, and play for the pleasure. And to keep them interested at the closing ceremony, since those who do not attend, cannot make use of their luck.

The competition became a triumph for GM Julian Radulski from Bulgaria. He shared the first place together with five other players but claimed the title and the silver plaque due to his best progressive. This is his hat-trick in the Ferrol tournaments so far where he never lost a game. The other players who shared the win were: Isam Ortiz Suarez from Cuba-young player about whom you will hear again (he won the first tournament from the circuit in Burgas less than a week ago scoring a GM norm), Nanko Dobrev from Bulgaria (the most uncompromised-no draws at all), two Indian players with difficult names- Kidambi Sundararajan and Ponnuswamy Konguvel, and the young Dutch player Robin Swinkels who started poorly losing in round two, but managed to recover at the end.

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