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Shirov wins Villa de Cañada de Calatrava

9 April 2007 11:01 AM | Last modified: 1:19

At the Festival Villa de Cañada de Calatrava Alexei Shirov has won the rapid tournament. The first prize was for him because his tiebreak was better than Daniel Fridman’s, Ivan Sokolov’s and Boris Gelfand’s, who also finished on 7,5 out of 9. So it was a very exciting tournament, where people like Polgar, Mamedyarov and Anand ended shared fifth. Shirov deserved the title considering his magnificently artful play, which reaffirmed his claim to the title Fire on Board.

The rapid final standings looked like this:

 1-4. Shirov, Fridman, Sokolov, Gelfand   7,5
5-14. Polgar, Mamedyarov, Grischuk,
      Fressinet, Krasenkov, Ivanchuk,
      Baklan, Anand, Miton, Del Rey         7
15-   ... (289 spelers)

Shirov was in good shape since he also won the ‘Fischer-tournament’. The ‘normal’ blitz tournament was won by Ivanchuk.

A selection of the rapid games:

Written by peter | Filed under Chess960, Rapid chess, Blitz, Tournaments 

Comments

6 Responses to “Shirov wins Villa de Cañada de Calatrava”

  1. Centercounter on 9 April 2007 4:03 PM

    Cool to see Shirov exhibiting good form! It would be nice to see him turn himself back around in classical so he can be more included in the super-category classical events.

  2. peter on 9 April 2007 7:49 PM

    Indeed. Let’s hope that there’s still room for such creative chess on the elite level.

  3. Pal on 9 April 2007 8:59 PM

    Anyone know why this tourney received hardly any press/coverage? Is this a disposable tournment? The No. 1 in the world shows up and there’s hardly any talk or coverage. Not to mention his “average” placing in the final standings. Was this a holiday for him?

    I’m a bit new to following tournements. Can anyone offer insight? I’m not sure what to make of it.

    Thanks,
    Pal

  4. peter on 9 April 2007 9:02 PM

    Well, I think it’s just the fact that there still doesn’t exist a serious calendar where all top events are listed on. Harmen Jonkman is still doing a great job but there you wont’t find where the top players will compete. It’s just part of unprofessionalism in chess.

  5. gmnotyet on 13 April 2007 8:49 PM

    You must play over this incredible tactical victory by Shirov from round 3:

    [Event “II Rapid”]
    [Site “Canada de Calatrava ESP”]
    [Date “2007.04.06″]
    [Round “3″]
    [White “Tahirov, F.”]
    [Black “Shirov, A.”]
    [Result “0-1″]
    [ECO “A21″]
    [WhiteElo “2545″]
    [BlackElo “2715″]
    [PlyCount “42″]
    [EventDate “2007.04.06″]

    1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Bb4 3. Qc2 Nf6 4. a3 Bxc3 5. Qxc3 Nc6 6. b4 O-O 7. e3 d5 8.
    cxd5 Qxd5 9. b5 Nd4 10. exd4 exd4 11. Qc4 Re8+ 12. Kd1 Qh5+ 13. Be2 Qg6 14. Nf3
    Be6 15. Qc2 d3 16. Qxd3 Bf5 17. Qc4 Rxe2 18. Nh4 Qh5 19. Qxe2 Bc2+ 20. Ke1 Re8
    21. Qxe8+ Nxe8 0-1

  6. azzouz on 6 July 2007 11:49 PM

    taza
    maroc
    el harrak azzouz

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