Karjakin and Ivanchuk did well at Corus and Linares respectively, but another Ukrainian was successful in one of the biggest Swisses of the year. Yuri Vovk won the 25th Cappelle la Grande International Chess Open finishing clear first with 7.5/9.

The 25th Open of the French town of Cappelle la Grande took place February 28th - March 7th. The tournament always has all participants in one huge Swiss group and this year the number was 611 players!

Below you'll find all games of the winner. In the third round Vovk escaped against Graf, who blundered with 32.Rxa5?? missing a check later on, but for winning such a big tournament you always need a bit of luck too. The round 4 game against Zinchenko is recommended for replay as well - a nice attacking game.

In Linares, Vovk's compatriot Ivanchuk apparently worked without his second Manuel Leon Hoyos; the young Mexican grandmaster played in Cappelle and was Vovk's opponent in round 7. A crucial game for Vovk's tournament, in which he won a nice rook ending using the theme of activity to the max. With 6.5 out of 7, two draws in the last two rounds were enough to finish on clear first.

Cappelle is known for the big number of norms being scored at the tournament every year. This edition the happy ones were:

IGM : Davit Jojua (GEO), Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR), Michal Olszewski (POL)
IM : Ulvi Bajarani (AZE), Bela Khotenashvili (GEO), Tal Baron (ISR), Francois Marchand (FRA), Adrian-Marian Petrisor (ROU), Marcin Sieciechowicz (POL), Robin van Kampen (NED), Natalia Zdebskaja (UKR)
wIM : Klaudia Kulon (POL), Maria Schoene (GER), Lisa Schut (NED)

Links:

• Official website
• Games in PGN