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
|
(Source: chessbase)
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
