Nijboer still a winner

The international chess summer is sort of over now and the Circuit Catalan, the big annual Catalan circuit of open tournaments is in its last phase. The last week of the Dutch summer holiday coincided with the open tournament in Barcelona, or better: that of the Sants area. This strong “holiday tourney” was won by Dutch GM Friso Nijboer.

Nijboer is still a winner. After a new successful chess summer last year he entered the top 100 in October 2006 with a rating above 2600, but unfortunately he then dropped back again. This year he chose for Spain as his summer chess country and in Sants once again he proved he’s an open tournament specialist. Sants lasted not 9 but 10 rounds and this means having stamina is important. Because people were playing in one big group, only after five rounds, in which Nijboer had collected 4.5 points, the tough opponents came. But he went on with an excellent 3 out of 3, when two draws were enough to secure clear first place.

Here all of Nijboer´s games:

Top final standings (after 10 rounds):

1. Nijboer 8,5
2. Gonzalez Garcia 8
3-11. Narciso, Marin, Karlsson, Salgado, Luther, Feller, Lapshun, Alsina, Shengelia, Corrales, Cuartas 7,5
12. … (272 players)

Full final standings here.

Download hier all available games (PGN).

Videos are becoming more and more normal on tournament sites (wonder how this development started); here an impression of Sants 2007. Not very special, and without sound, but it´s better than nothing!