Vallejo Pons leads Pamplona

It’s already five round olds, the tournament that’s going on right now in the Basque town of Pamplona - Northern-Spain that is. The town makes the news every year because of all those bulls running through the narrow streets, during the San-Fermín Festival. “It’s mainly popular with (often drunk) young men who jump among them to show off their bravado”, Wikipedia writes. This week eight chess players are showing off their bravado on the 64 squares and thus far local hero Francisco “Paco” Vallejo Pons is most successful, with 3.5 out of 5.

In the Bundesliga he’s not doing very well this season, as we’ve seen in Bremen. Apparently Paco is the kind of guy who gets into form with a good paella and a Navarre wine in reach. The Armenian Sargissian, Aronian’s second when not playing himself, is having a dismal tournament: last place with 1.5 points. The tournament has seen a high drawing percentage (65%) and both Wang Yue and Movsesian split the point in all five games.

Pamplona Round 5 Standings

No.	Name	Rtg	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pts
1	Vallejo Pons,F	2660	*	½	1	1		½		½	3.5
2	Movsesian,S	2670	½	*	½			½	½	½	2.5
3	Jobava,B	2644	0	½	*	1	½		½		2.5
4	Khamrakulov,I	2604	0		0	*	½	1	1		2.5
5	Wang Yue	2703			½	½	*	½	½	½	2.5
6	Beliavsky,A	2646	½	½		0	½	*		1	2.5
7	Rodshtein,M	2615		½	½	0	½		*	1	2.5
8	Sargissian,G	2673	½	½			½	0	0	*	1.5

Here are all the games thus far for replay.