Friday, January 11, 2013

Gawain Jones wins 88th Hastings Masters


After eight round three players were tied for first. In round nine English GM Gawain Jones, by pure dint of determination, ground out an endgame win against his main rival Daniel Alsina Leal, and then drew his final game to take sole victory with 7.5/10 points and a 2678 performance. Behind him eight players with half a point less.

The 88th Hastings Masters took place from December 28, 2012 to January 6th, 2013. The participants of the Masters Tournament included 13 grandmasters and players from 22 countries, as far afield as New Zealand and Indonesia, Iceland and the USA. Local and regional players were also well represented. This Congress provided an entertaining feast of chess, but in addition Hastings also provides a wide variety of galleries, museums and quirky shops to interest non-chess playing accompanying family or friends. The Chess Congress is sponsored by Hastings Borough Council.

Hastings, in East Sussex on the south coast of England [View Larger Map]
Top seed Gawain Jones (above) finished the tournament in first place with 7.5/10 points and a 2678 performance. After eight rounds he was in the joint lead with Sarunas Sulskis, Rui Gao and Daniel Alsina Leal, each with 6.0/8. In the ninth round Jones faced Alsina Leal and ground him down in the endgame (see Karsten Müller's analysis below), while Sulskis and Gao drew their games. With 7.0/9 in the sole lead Gawain clinched sole victory in Hastings with a final round 17-move draw. Behind him eight players with half a point less.

Top final rankings (after ten rounds)

Rank
Name
Score
Fed.
Rating
TPR
W-We
1
GM Jones, Gawain C B
7.5
ENG
2644
2678
+0.46
2
GM Sumets, Andrey
7.0
UKR
2638
2562
-0.65
3
GM Kulaots, Kaido
7.0
EST
2581
2498
-0.79
4
GM Vovk, Andrey
7.0
UKR
2567
2511
-0.31
5
GM Sulskis, Sarunas
7.0
LTU
2550
2589
+0.68
6
GM Vocaturo, Daniele
7.0
ITA
2521
2492
+0.00
7
IM Gretarsson, Hjorvar Steinn
7.0
ISL
2516
2497
-0.02
8
IM Hawkins, Jonathan
7.0
ENG
2507
2518
+0.38
9
IM Gao, Rui
7.0
CHN
2450
2611
+2.25
10
GM Alsina Leal, Daniel
6.5
ESP
2511
2530
+0.36
11
IM Hamitevici, Vladimir
6.5
MDA
2440
2349
-0.92
12
IM Zhou, Yang-Fan
6.5
ENG
2419
2373
-0.24
13
FM Ashton, Adam G
6.5
ENG
2366
2361
+0.04
14
IM Burns-Mannion, Stephen R
6.5
SCO
2351
2562
+2.46
15
IM Knott, Simon J B
6.5
ENG
2325
2288
-0.29
16
GM Flear, Glenn C
6.0
ENG
2481
2414
-0.70
17
GM Arkell, Keith C
6.0
ENG
2470
2452
+0.01
18
IM Kjartansson, Gudmundur
6.0
ISL
2404
2500
+1.39
19
IM Farid, Firman Syah
6.0
INA
2338
2379
+0.57
20
IM Prosviriakov, Vladimir
6.0
USA
2293
2322
+0.36
21
WIM Sihite, Chelsie Monica
6.0
INA
2277
2377
+1.17
22
WGM Gu, Xiaobing
6.0
CHN
2209
2454
+3.00
23
Rayner, Francis
6.0
WLS
2166
2396
+2.86

GM Kaido Kulaots of Estonia, 2581, 7.0/10, performance 2498

GM Andrey Vovk, Ukraine, 2567, 7.0/10, performance 2511

GM Sarunas Sulskis of Lithunia, 2550, 7.0/10, performance 2589

GM Daniele Vocaturo of Italy, 2521, 7.0/10, performance 2492


IM Gao Rui of China, 2450, 7.0/10, performance 2611


WGM Gu Xiaobing, China, 2209, 6.0/10, performance 2454 
(Source: chessbase)