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Tuesday, 04 October 2011 05:19 |
 Corsica, famous for being the birthplace of Napoléon Bonaparte, is also famous for being the land of chess. L’île de beauté (Isle of beauty) us again a host to a powerful event. The 15th “Corsican Circuit” will be held 22-29 October in Bastia and 31 October in Ajaccio.
In Corsica, since 2002, all tournaments are played under the “Corsican rule”, which the arbiter summed up in “a quick draw is a quick zero”. Draws by mutual agreement are entirely forbidden. So let’s fight!
The tournament organizer Léo Battesti stresses on the fact that Corsica has inspired the Sofia rule.
The 2011 tournament starts with a 9 rounds Swiss event of 1 h 30 + 30 sec / move. The top 14 players qualify for the 1/8th finals. The winners procede to a rapid and if needed blitz finals. The rate of play of the Cup is 15 min with 3s increment per move. One game with white and one game with black. In case of a tie, then 2 blitz games in 3min + 2s. And if it’s still a draw, an Armaggedon blitz game.
In 2010 the Swiss system was dominated by the Moldavian gentleman Viktor Bologan. It was a very strong tournament since the Grandmasters like Fedorchuk (2671) or Kurnosov (2659) didn’t manage to qualify in top 14. Full standings here. The competition continued as Cup, in front of the 800 spectators crowding the Bastia theater, where Azerbaijan Grandmasters Mamedyarov and Radjabov crushed their opponents and earned the tickets for the final match, which later on Mamedyarov won.
The Corsica Masters 2011 is once again one of the top events of the season, and this is proven by the participation of Vishy Anand who will give a simul at 13:30 CET on September 27th. The 15 top players of the youth tournament, another 15 by draw, and another 30 from the main tournament will face the World Champion.
More information on the official website
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