Venezuelan grandmaster Eduardo Iturrizaga finished first at the 33rd Benasque International Open after edging Israeli GM Maxim Rodshtein and Bulgarian GM Aleksander Delchev on tiebreaks. All of them finished on 8 points out of 10.
The battle between Iturrizaga and Rodshtein in the first board of the last round finished with a quick GM-draw, which eventually favored the Venezuelan on the tiebreak score.
All three winners of this Open have an Elo rating that overpasses the 2600 points, which confirms how strong this event really is. Among the first ten places, no player without a GM title managed to squeeze in.
With eight points, in shared fifth place, finished Peruvian GM Jorge Cori and last year winner GM Dan Zoler from Israel. A large group of 15 players finished right below, tied on 7.5 points.
In the rest of games of the last round, we saw very intense games, all of them lasting more than forty moves and even getting to sixty, such as the game that face Peruvian star Julio Granda with Italian GM Danielle Vocaturo.
Spaniard Daniel Forcen was half a point short of getting his final GM norm, but his great performance was enough to pass the 2500 Elo barrier for the first time in his career.
Source: ultimasnoticias.com.ve
Final Standings (top finishers):
1 GM ITURRIZAGA Eduardo VEN 2642 8.5
2 GM RODSHTEIN Maxim ISR 2641 8.5
3 GM DELCHEV Aleksander BUL 2614 8.5
4 GM CORI Jorge PER 2543 8
5 GM ZOLER Dan ISR 2538 8
6 GM NI Hua CHN 2661 7.5
7 GM GRANDA ZUNIGA Julio E PER 2679 7.5
8 GM VOCATURO Daniele ITA 2536 7.5
9 GM VAZQUEZ IGARZA Renier ESP 2571 7.5
10 GM GEORGIEV Kiril BUL 2636 7.5
11 GM KHARITONOV Alexandr RUS 2538 7.5
12 GM ARIZMENDI MARTINEZ Julen Luis ESP 2580 7.5
13 IM GUERRA MENDEZ Jose Angel CUB 2505 7.5
14 GM ILLESCAS CORDOBA Miguel ESP 2613 7.5
15 GM UBILAVA Elizbar ESP 2490 7.5
16 IM CASTELLANOS RODRIGUEZ Renier ESP 2504 7.5
17 GM NISIPEANU Liviu-Dieter ROU 2670 7.5
18 IM TAN Matthew NED 2435 7.5
19 IM ARRIBAS LOPEZ Angel ESP 2494 7.5
20 IM NARODITSKY Daniel USA 2486 7
21 FM FENOLLAR JORDA Manuel ESP 2397 7
22 GM MOVSZISZIAN Karen ARM 2499 7
23 GM BURMAKIN Vladimir RUS 2559 7
24 GM NEELOTPAL Das IND 2445 7
25 GM DE LA VILLA GARCIA Jesus Mari ESP 2472 7
26 GM GOMEZ ESTEBAN Juan Mario ESP 2462 7
27 GM GORDON Stephen J ENG 2521 7
28 GM STEINGRIMSSON Hedinn ISL 2557 7
29 GM DEEPAN Chakkravarthy J. IND 2468 7
30 GM LALIC Bogdan CRO 2489 7
31 GM ANTON GUIJARRO David ESP 2564 7
32 GM DEL RIO DE ANGELIS Salvador G ESP 2505 7
33 IM KJARTANSSON Gudmundur ISL 2444 7
34 IM BIOLEK Richard Jr. CZE 2399 7
35 WIM OLSAROVA Karolina CZE 2246 7
36 IM VIDARTE MORALES Arturo ESP 2344 7
37 GARCIA LOPEZ Miguel Angel ESP 2251 7
38 FM MARTIN FUENTES Alberto ESP 2302 7
39 IM PARDO SIMON David ESP 2445 7
40 IM ZAWADZKI Stanislaw POL 2425 7
41 IM MARTIN GONZALEZ Angel ESP 2361 7
42 IM ANTOLI ROYO Joaquin Miguel ESP 2413 7
43 WGM DJINGAROVA Emilia BUL 2276 7
44 FM ALCARAZ ORTEGA Javier ESP 2345 7
45 IM FORCEN ESTEBAN Daniel ESP 2493 6.5
46 GM SHYAM Sundar M. IND 2505 6.5
47 GM GOLOD Vitali ISR 2578 6.5
48 IM BARRIA ZUNIGA Daniel CHI 2428 6.5
49 IM BURG Twan NED 2479 6.5
50 GM MOSKALENKO Viktor ESP 2529 6.5
51 IM MILLIET Sophie FRA 2396 6.5
52 GM NAUMKIN Igor RUS 2443 6.5
53 IM ROEDER Matthias GER 2408 6.5
54 IM BACHES GARCIA Guillermo ESP 2394 6.5
55 GM ANDERSSON Ulf SWE 2557 6.5
56 MARTIN DUQUE Jesus ESP 2271 6.5
57 IM MASCARO MARCH Pedro ESP 2418 6.5
58 ARON Teh Eu Wen MAS 2145 6.5
59 GM KOVCHAN Alexander UKR 2577 6.5
60 FM LILLO CASTANY Victor ESP 2328 6.5
He’s very strong.