Donostia Chess Festival
Donostia chess, San Sebastian 2009
Report by Chessdom.com
Donostia Chess Festival is scheduled to take place on 7-16th July in Donostia/San Sebastain, Spain. The festival consists of four tournaments (participants listed bellow) and the main event “San Sebastián European Cultural City 2016 Tournament” is feauting a lineup with average rating of 2682 elo. All tournaments are 10-player round robins.
Five-time Russian Champion Peter Svidler is top seeded player and the organizers have also taken care to include former World Champions, Ruslan Ponomariov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Anatoly Karpov, who is coming back in action after 2007 Valjevo Gorenje. Young stars of the tournament are Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura.
KUTXA Tournament is a mix of strong local players and international stars that are members of the chess club Gros Xake Taldea, one of the festival organizers. Chessdom.com commentator and good friend GM Christian Bauer is second-seeded.The third tournament, Euskal Xake Eskola, is named after the reference chess academy for kids and teachers in the Basque Country. Many schools have joined their project for introducing chess at schools at many levels.
Gipuzkoa Regional Government or “Diputacion” is sponsoring the women’s tournament. The event has average rating of 2318 which makes it a women category 11. Top seeded is Tania Sadchev, India.
San Sebastián European Cultural City 2016 Tournament
Peter Svidler 2739
Ruslan Ponomariov 2727
Sergei Movsesian 2716
Hikaru Nakamura 2710
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2703
Francisco Vallejo 2693
Rustam Kasimdzhanov 2672
Julio Granda 2647
Anatoly Karpov 2644
Pablo San Segundo 2570
Rating average: 2682
KUTXA Tournament
Loek Van Wely 2655
Christian Bauer 2602
Hicham Hamdouchi 2589
Elizbar Ubilava 2547
Roberto Cifuentes 2539
Jordi Magem 2534
Arnaud Hauchard 2528
Jose Luis Fernandez 2465
Antonio Fernandes 2415
Iñigo Argandoña 2364
Rating average: 2524
More pictures and info here.
What happened to Movsesian? His rating plunged.