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Fressinet & Wojtaszek tie for first in Pamplona

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
Fressinet, Wojtaszek tie for first in PamplonaRadoslav Wojtaszek edged out Laurent Fressinet on tiebreak at the 4th Magistral Internacional de San Juan in Pamplona. The tournament saw a disappointing performance for top seed Alexander Morozevich, who finished on 4/9.

The Magistral Internacional de San Juan took place July 26 - August 1 in Hotel Iruña Park in Pamplona, Spain. It was a 10-player single round-robin with Alexander Morozevich (RUS, 2715), Laurent Fressinet (FRA, 2697), Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL, 2663), Sergey Fedorchuk (UKR, 2665), Igor Kurnosov (RUS, 2662), Vadim Zvjaginsev (RUS, 2656), Julio Granda Zuniga (PER, 2639), Eduardo Iturrizaga (VEN, 2614), Manuel Lopez Martinez Josep (ESP, 2543) and Roi Reinaldo Castineira (ESP, 2511).

Radoslav Wojtaszek won the tournament with a score of 6.5/9 (4.5/5 with the white pieces and four draws with the black pieces). He finished shared first with Frenchman Laurent Fressinet, but had the better tiebreak on both the first rule (the Koya System; the number of points achieved against all opponents who have achieved 50% or more) and the second rule (Buchholz).

Wojtaszek is known for being one of the seconds of World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Recently he gave an interview to the Polish magazine Mat in which he tells about the last World Championship match in Sofia - topics included the help provided by Kramnik & co., Topalov’s play and the effect of the volcano on Anand’s plans. You can read it in full at Chess in Translation.

Of course many chess fans followed the tournament with special interest because of the participation of former World's number 2 Alexander Morozevich. The Russian was still the top seed in Pamplona though his rating dropped to 2715. But despite starting well with 2.5/3, the tournament became another disappointment for the Moscovite, who finished on minus one and might even have dropped below 2700 now - we'll soon find out when Hans Arild Runde updates his live rating list.

Magistral Internacional de San Juan 2010 | Final Standings
Magistral Internacional de San Juan 2010 | Final Standings


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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!

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