The Corsica Masters Bastia
October 25-31
40,000 € in prizes – 9 rounds of 1h30 + 30s (FIDE rated)
Big class prizes and many special prizes.
Thus 55 players will be rewarded. Never seen at the international level !
Top seed Ivan Sokolov (BHR, 2657) won the tournament along with Vladimir Malaniuk (2586, UKR) and Hicham Hamdouchi (2590, FRA). In the last game, he had a big chance to win the tournament alone. He gave Hamoudchi big pressure with black and was very close to win the endgame.
One important point in this tournament is that draw with mutual agreement was forbidden. In the last game on the 3rd board between Mladen Palac (2576) and Konstantin Maslak (2551), the arbiter asked the players to resume the game after they had made a (forbidden) draw and that they have already replace the pieces in the start position.
Just before the Open, there was a youth tournament. The Youth Tournaments Bastia and Ajaccio at Bastia (October 25th) and Ajaccio (November 2nd) were reserved for players 16 years-old and under.
Unique prizes
There were 30,000 € in prizes such as laptop computers, iPods, TV, video game consoles, etc. All participants received a nice gift as a souvenir.
For the young tournament in Bastia, there were 325 young players :
http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Resultat2.aspx?URL=Tournois/2009/Ajaccio/AjaccioJeunes2009&Action=Cl
Vianney Domenech (Montpellier, 2018) scored 8.5/9.
There were 236 young players in 2nd young tournament in Ajaccio:
http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Resultat2.aspx?URL=Tournois/&Action=Cl
The same player scored 9/9 this time!
The Match of World Champions at Bastia and Ajaccio
Vishy Anand / Anatoly Karpov
The World Champion Vishy Anand (India) faced chess legend Anatoly Karpov (Russia).
In Bastia on October 31, and then in Ajaccio November 2nd, the players played two 2-game matches with the time control of 15’+3″.
Anand won the first game and drew the second game in Bastia on the last day of the Corsica Masters. The spectacle was great with 3 cameras to follow the players and a big screen for the game.
On the day before, the two great champions played a simultaneous exhibition against 32 players (The first of the youth tournament + 10 other from the youth tournament (drawn by lot), 10 players from the Corsica Masters).
The organizer, Léo Battesti, 56 years old, is a great chess personality. He is the founder of Corsica Chess Federation (“Lega Corsa di Scacchi“, http://www.corse-echecs.com/) and co-president of French chess federation (FFE). He was one of the founders of the FLNC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Front_for_the_Liberation_of_Corsica) then political prisoners from 1978 till 1981.
He received an amnesty from President François Miterrand. He was elected to the Corsican Assembly from 1986-1992 and Vice-President of Commission of Culture and Sports from 1990 till 1992.
In 2008, Kasparov was the very big guest of the 9th Corsican circuit won by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the finale against Tiviakov.
With his work, the number of players in Corse was multiplied by 20 and this is in fact a mandatory option in primary school. In the island, there is the bigger percent of players than in all of France.
Here are my videos from the Open, the simultaneous exhibition and the match Anand-Karpov :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbHSnUfFbGY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFUXit8FEDo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt70_bOCU_U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfwx02X0V_Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWZ6_FujKig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jH8D4is9Ys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe2joRswJXs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUQdqS7kKjk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAcm6nybPA4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhS9vW_FeJw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LMut-PqVXc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyro71zEI58
Here some videos of the organization :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SdZzFJn-6E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkCLoyblJiQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn02x84TBW4
http://ma-tvideo.france3.fr/video/iLyROoafIgD6.html
The games are available here: http://www.corse-echecs.com/Parties/Bastia2009.htm
From the simultaneous exhibition: http://www.corse-echecs.com/Parties/simultanee2009.htm
Nice tournament.