Fressinet Wins Short Sigeman Event

Laurent Fressinet of France won the 22nd edition of the Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament in Malmö, Sweden. In an event that only lasted five rounds, three and a half point was enough for the 32-year-old French grandmaster to finish clear first and half a point ahead of IM Axel Smith.

All photos © Calle Erlandsson

From 15 till 19 May, 2014 the Limhamn Chess Club once again organized the annual Sigeman Chess Tournament, which still has lawyer and chess enthusiast Johan Sigeman as its main sponsor. It was the 22nd edition, and for the 17th time it was held at the classical Hipp Theater in central Malmö where GM Stellan Brynell provided commentary.

This year it was a single round robin with the following six participants: GM Laurent Fressinet (2709, France), GM Jon Ludvig Hammer (2647, Norway), GM Jan Timman (2626, Netherlands), GM Nils Grandelius (2600, Sweden), GM Erik Blomqvist (2497, Sweden) and IM Axel Smith (2473, Sweden).

The five rounds were played 15-19 May, so without a rest day. The time control was 100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds increment for each move starting from the first.

Dutch chess legend Jan Timman played eleven times in Malmö, but not in recent years. He returned, and might have hoped for a fourth victory, but he woke up from that dream as early as round 1. In a double financhetto IM Axel Smith found a healthy piece setup and then dominated play on the queenside.

Smith continued well with a draw against top seed Laurent Fressinet, who easily beat Erik Blomqvist in the first round. That didn't look good, and Blomqvist's opening wasn't great either against Jon Ludvig Hammer, but the Norwegian number two lost the thread after avoiding a move repetition.

Fressinet then defeated Grandelius in a nice positional Sicilian that ended with a pretty breakthrough combination on the queenside.

Smith, the lowest rated player in the field, scored yet another win as Blomqvist self-trapped his queen:

With one round to go, Smith was in fact shared first with Fressinet; both were on 3.0/4. But while the Frenchman drew his last-round game with Hammer, Smith lost his first game of the tournament. The move that decided the tournament was neat:

Sigeman & Co 2014 | Final Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	Pts	SB
1	Fressinet,Laurent	2711	2710		½	½	1	½	1	3.5/5
2	Smith,Axel	2478	2679	½		1	0	½	1	3.0/5
3	Timman,Jan H	2615	2582	½	0		1	½	½	2.5/5	6.00
4	Grandelius,Nils	2587	2587	0	1	0		½	1	2.5/5	5.50
5	Hammer,Jon Ludvig	2638	2507	½	½	½	½		0	2.0/5
6	Blomqvist,Erik	2492	2459	0	0	½	0	1		1.5/5

Chess journalist Antti Parkkinen of Finland provided a few statistics about the Sigeman history. In these 22 round-robin tournaments (including one double round-robin tournament) 93 players have taken part over the years.

Thanks to Antti Parkkinen