Rapid Chess Championship

On the 28-31 of October a Rapid Chess tournament was held in Corsica. The prize fund was quite impressive - 600 000 French franks. Many prominent grandmasters participated in this tournament: V. Anand (India), P. Leko (Hungary), L. van Vely (Netherlands), E. Bakro (France) and others. The high level of the tournament can be illustrated by the fact that a well-known grandmaster Aleksej Shirov did not reach the final stage. First of all the participants played 9 rounds in the Swiss system (10 minutes+5 seconds for a move) and then the 16 finalists palyed a knockout system (20 minutes+5 seconds for a move). The results of the 1/8: S.Rublevsky RUS-A.Harlov RUS 2:1 S.Tiviakov NED-M.Gurevich BEL 2:1 P.Nikolic BIH-P.Leko HUN 0,5:1,5 L.van Vely NED-A.Chernin HUN 1:2 V.Tkachiev FRA-A.Shneider UKR 2:1 E.Bacro FRA-V.Anand IND 0:2 A.Rustemov RUS-I.Glek GER 0,5:1,5 A.Barsov UZB-J.Lotje FRA 1:2 The results of the 1/4: S.Rublevsky-J.Lotje 0,5:1,5 P.Leko-V.Anand 1:2 S.Tiviakov-I.Glek 2:1 V.Tkachiev-A.Chernin 0,5:1,5 The results of the 1/2: A.Chernin-J.Lotje 1,5:0,5 V.Anand-S.Tiviakov 1,5:0,5 V. Anand met A. Chernin in the grand final and the result was – 1,5:1,5.V. Anand was announced a winner as in the final blitz round he was playing black pieces and all he needed to become a winner was a draw. There is nothing to be done – such are the rules…