9th International Open of the Etang-Sale (Reunion Island)
Report by Fabrice Wantiez

You can find on http://www.echecs-photos.bea/ resume of the last Open in the french Island near Indian Ocean “Ile de la Réunion”.

The Open was played from 14th until 21th October 2007 with 78 player (1 IGM, 1 IM and 3 FM).

The winner was the french FM Colomban Vitoux (2394) with 8/9 before indian IM Jha Sriram (2458).

The french IGM Arnaud Hauchard (2480) was only the fourth in the finish but the tournament was certainly a part of holidays for him.

“La Reunion” is a french department in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar and not far from the two others french island “Mayotte” et “Tremelin”.

“La Reunion” is certainly like France because the life there is the same with many many cars (too much !) but beautiful streets and a lot of investment from the “Metropole”.

La Reunion is also knowed with his famous active volcan “Le Piton de la Fournaise” with all years a beautiful eruption. The last was in 2006 and 6 months after this, we can always find lava in the street with more than 400° !

October is very good time for the weather : not too hot (like 30° in this periode) and without rain (austral summer begins in november).

The traffic is a big problem in this island : french government have to build large roads because the time for Etang-Sale to the main city Sint-Denis was about 2u30 in peak hours and for only 60 km !

The surface of the island is like the land of Luxembourg with more than 750 000 peoples.

The language is the french but many people speak the “creole”.

And because La reunion is in France, the curency is also Euro.

The french IGM had lost one game in the 4th round again french FM Olivier LETREGUILLY but his position was cleary won and he missed many winning moves, easy for tis kind of strong player…

The winner had of lot of success in this tournament but he was strong. He had won the last tournamentof accession in the French Championship !

The official site is http://cees.reunion-echecs.com/open_international/9e_open_intern/annonce_tounoi.htm

Posted by Picasa
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Tags: