Ivan Saric wins the 17th Corsica Masters!
Corsica ! The event started in Bastia, with a 182-player Open (« open Oscaro.com ») followed by a knockout phase.
This « open Oscaro.com », won by the french grand master Andrei Istratescu (2664 elo), is so strong that even great grand masters as Romain Edouard (2657 elo) or Artur Jussupow (2587 elo) fail to qualify.
Here are the classification and the games of the open phase : http://www.echecs.asso.fr/FicheTournoi.aspx?Ref=28583
In the knockout phase, the croatian number one, the young grand master Ivan Saric (2628 elo) crushes the french number one, Etienne Bacrot (2730 elo) while the solid Fridman (2602 elo) outplays the german number one, Arkadij Naiditsch (2724 elo) before beeing defeated by the hungarian number two, Zoltan Almasi (2707 elo).
For the final, the players then moved to Aiacciu, on the opposite coast of the Mediterranean island, where the talented Ivan Saric, with a terrifying fighting spirit, beats Zoltan Almasi.
On the margins of this 17th open Oscaro.com with no less than 50 000 € reward, there are a “Coca-Cola blitz” tournament rewarded with 5000 € (won by the Andrei Istratescu) and two tournaments BNP-Paribas, for young players under 16, and generously rewarded with terrific gifts for a total amount of 30 000 €!
More photos and videos on http://www.corse-echecs.com
That is a huge upset.