Reports | October 24, 2012 21:47

Granda Zuniga wins 7th Continental

Julio Granda Zuniga

Julio Granda Zuniga won the 7th Continental tournament in Mar del Plata, Argentina on Sunday. Besides winning the tournament, the Peruvian grandmaster qualified for the World Cup in 2013 in Tromsø, Norway together with Alexander Shabalov, Gregory Kaidanov and IM Eric Hansen.

Tournament winner Julio Granda Zuniga (r.) of Peru next to Franco Carlos Matamoros of Ecuador | All photos © Carlos Ilardo, the press officer in Mar del Plata

Event 7th Continental | PGN
Dates October 12th-21sth, 2012
Location Mar del Plata, Argentina
System Swiss, 11 rounds
Players Lazaro Bruzon Batista, Julio Granda Zuniga, Eduardo Iturrizaga, Rafael Leitao, Diego Flores and Gregory Kaidanov were the strongest participants
Rate of play

40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 30 minutes to finish the game with a 30-second increment starting at move 1 (in both Crown and Open)
Prize fund 1st US $5000, 2nd US $3400, 3rd US $2400 etc., more here

 

The Argentine city of Mar del Plata, located 400 km south of Buenos Aires, has a long and rich chess tradition. The first international tournament was held as early as 1928! The city also gave its name to the most important variation of the King's Indian Defence, which is characterized by the moves 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 0–0 6. Be2 e5 7. 0–0 Nc6 8. d5 Ne7. It is named after a game played in 1953 at the 16th international tournament between Miguel Najdorf and Svetozar Gligoric.

Between October 12th and 21st, 2012 the 7th Continental Chess Tournament took place in the Complejo Hotel Provincial in Mar del Plata. Besides individual prizes, this 11-round Swiss had four qualifying spots for the next World Cup to offer, as the zonal qualifier for the Americas (North, Central, and South).

A total of 212 players participated in the tournament, including 70 titled players and 22 grandmasters. The top seeds were Lazaro Bruzon Batista, Julio Granda Zuniga, Eduardo Iturrizaga, Rafael Leitao, Diego Flores and Gregory Kaidanov.

Lazaro Bruzon (Cuba)

Early upsets included Arthur Chiari (2098) of Brazil holding Alexander Shabalov to a draw, Diego Flores drawing with Brazil's Hidemitsu Cesar (2276) and Gregory Kaidanov losing to FM Jorge Sabas (2274) of Argentina. After five rounds Peruvian GM Julio Grand Zuniga, Venezuelan GM Eduardo Iturrizaga, Cuban GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista and Argentine GM Diego Valerga were sharing the lead with 4/5.

Four rounds later, Iturrizaga was the sole leader with 7.5/9, ahead of a group of six players. By then IM Robert Hungaski (USA) had scored his 2nd and 3rd GM norm... at the same time! This is possible in a tournament that's part of the world championship cycle, when norms count double.

Eduardo Iturrizaga (Venezuela)

After the penultimate round it was clear that the tournament would be seeing a very exciting finish, because it was still unclear which four players would be qualifying for the World Cup. Iturrizaga and Mekhitarian were on 8/10 and these two were followed by a group consisting of Ortiz, Felgaer, Granda Zuniga, Shabalov, Flores, Bacallao, Roselli, Kaidanov, and Hansen.

In the final round, Shabalov was the first to reach 8.5 points by beating Bacallao. Iturrizaga, who had played a very strong event so far, got ouplayed by Granda. The other leader, Mekhitarian, also went down, against Flores in a rook ending. Kaidanov then beat Roselli to become the 4th to reach 8.5. Then Eric Hansen also joined the pack, surviving a lost position aginst Felgaer and then even beating him.

This meant that five players had to fight for four qualifying spots in a rapid playoff: Shabalov, Granda, Flores, Kaidanov and Hansen. Eventually it was Flores who didn't make it.

Selection of games

PGN file

7th Continental | Final standings (top 40)

Rk. Title Name Fed Elo Pts. TB1 TB2 Elo+/-
1 GM Granda Zuniga Julio E PER 2647 8,5 73,5 58,75 3,8
2 GM Shabalov Alexander USA 2570 8,5 71 58,75 9,3
3 GM Flores Diego ARG 2598 8,5 71 57 2,4
4 IM Hansen Eric CAN 2527 8,5 68,5 55,5 7,8
5 GM Kaidanov Gregory S USA 2587 8,5 67 52,75 5,9
6 GM Iturrizaga Eduardo VEN 2639 8 76,5 57,5 7,4
7 GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro CUB 2717 8 74 55,25 -4,3
8 GM Mekhitarian Krikor Sevag BRA 2503 8 73 53 21,2
9 GM Mareco Sandro ARG 2581 8 71,5 53,75 0,8
10 GM Valerga Diego ARG 2485 8 70,5 53,25 17,3
11 GM Leitao Rafael BRA 2617 7,5 75,5 53 1,2
12 GM Ortiz Suarez Isan Reynaldo CUB 2579 7,5 74,5 52 7,4
13 IM Hungaski Robert Andrew USA 2451 7,5 73,5 50,5 18,2
14 GM Bacallao Alonso Yusnel CUB 2580 7,5 71,5 49,5 -0,3
15 IM Roselli Mailhe Bernardo URU 2430 7,5 71 51 12,7
16 GM Cori Jorge PER 2522 7,5 69,5 49 -0,5
17 FM Martinez Romero Martin COL 2368 7,5 69,5 49 0
18 GM Felgaer Ruben ARG 2579 7,5 69,5 48,25 -8,2
19 GM Hernandez Guerrero Gilberto MEX 2531 7,5 69,5 47,25 -3,6
20 GM Ricardi Pablo ARG 2505 7,5 68,5 50 -4
21 IM Krysa Leandro ARG 2381 7,5 68 47,5 11
22 IM Soppe Guillermo ARG 2417 7,5 67 45 4,7
23   Umetsubo Cesar Hidemitsu BRA 2276 7,5 65,5 44,25 36,8
24 IM Santiago Yago De Moura BRA 2364 7,5 63,5 44 -1,4
25   Caceres Recalde Fernando ARG 2159 7,5 63 42,25 46,2
26 FM Paveto Kevin ARG 2282 7,5 61,5 41,75 20,4
27 IM Tristan Leonardo ARG 2442 7 69,5 44,5 11,9
28 GM Slipak Sergio ARG 2447 7 68 45,25 -3,4
29 WGM Cori T. Deysi PER 2411 7 67 42 1,7
30 GM Matamoros Franco Carlos S. ECU 2534 7 66 42 -9,4
31 FM Leiva Giuseppe PER 2321 7 65,5 44,25 3,3
32 IM Molina Roberto Junio Brito BRA 2400 7 65 40,25 4,8
33 IM De Dovitiis Alejo ARG 2348 7 64,5 43 1
34 FM Espinoza Palomino Willyam PER 2265 7 63 39,75 21,1
35 FM Fabian Gaston ARG 2344 7 62,5 39 -4,3
36 IM Rosito Jorge ARG 2387 7 62 38,75 -0,9
37 FM Dos Santos Haroldo Cunha BRA 2263 7 61,5 35,5 12,4
38   Pardo Alejandro COL 2181 7 59 34,5 21,9
39   Tokman Ariel ARG 2283 7 58 37 3,3
40   Tobares Leandro ARG 2261 7 56 35,75 9,3

Source: Chess-Results

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Peter Doggers's picture
Author: Peter Doggers

Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.

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Comments

N.1's picture

N.1

7 months 3 days ago

Felicitaciones Julio por la victoria en Mar del Plata.Bienvenido a Tromsø en el 2013.
Congratulations Julio for your victory in the tournament of Mar del Plata.Wellcome to Tromsø in 2013.
Gratulerer Julio for din seier i Mar del Plata.Welkommen til Tromsø neste år 2013.

Daniel's picture

Daniel

7 months 3 days ago

Congrats to Julio!

Aditya's picture

Aditya

7 months 3 days ago

I'm in real awe of Julio Granda Zuniga. One of the few talents who came without an armoury of books, training or computers and showed that he is no lesser. Congratulations Julio!!

sab's picture

sab

7 months 2 days ago

I just check his biography on chessgames.com; that guy Julio Ernesto Granda Zuniga got some impressive results :

- Shared the first place with Mikhail Tal and Jesus Nogueiras at Magistral Najdorf (1991);

- Shared the first place with Jan Timman at Donner Memorial (1995) ahead of Judit Polgar, Alexey Shirov, Alexander Khalifman, Alexander Morozevich, Valery Salov and Jeroen Piket;

- Shared the first place with Vassily Ivanchuk at Donner Memorial (1996), ahead of Gata Kamsky, Salov, Piket, Timman, Morozevich et alli;

- Five-time chess champion of Peru, winning in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 2002.

Wow.

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