The Chessable Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2022 was received by GM Kirill Alekseenko. Alekseenko scored 8.5/10 within the ninth version of the Spanish event, taking dwelling the primary place trophy and €5,000. Coming in second was GM Hans Niemann, who beat GM Amin Tabatabaei in a tiebreak match after each scored 8/10.

The ninth version of the event happened December 12-22 in Sitges, a seashore city within the Catalonia area of Spain, simply exterior Barcelona. The annual chess competition is a robust open, that includes among the world’s strongest grandmasters in a 10-round Swiss. 

Taking the spot of first seed was GM Yu Yangyi, who’s at the moment 18th in international rankings. Among the 43 grandmasters who performed the occasion was additionally GM Vasyl Ivanchuk, GM Andrey Esipenko, and 2021 Tata Steel Champion GM Jorden van Foreest. With such a excessive variety of robust gamers, together with many who’ve sooner or later crossed into the “super-GM” territory of a 2700+ FIDE ranking, it was exhausting to foretell who would come out on prime on the finish of the ten rounds.

The Russian grandmaster drew towards Niemann within the tenth and ultimate spherical of the event, securing a successful rating of 8.5 and never shedding a single sport. Alekseenko, rated 2682, had a brief string of attracts towards the top of the occasion after successful each sport within the first seven rounds and completed the occasion with a event efficiency ranking of 2837.

Alekseenko beforehand competed within the 2020-21 Candidates Tournament after being chosen as a wildcard. He had come third on tiebreaks within the 2019 FIDE Grand Swiss, making him eligible for wildcard choice by advantage of the second-place participant, GM Fabiano Caruana, having already certified for a spot on the Candidates Tournament.

Below is his round-two win over IM Fernando Valenzuela Gomez, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao. 

Labeling itself as a chess “competition,” the Sitges event supplied many additional occasions together with desk tennis and padel tournaments, train lessons, and cooking workshops. The Sunway Playa Golf & Spa Sitges Hotel additionally hosted a FIDE coaching camp within the week main as much as the event, with a concentrate on younger skills, and was the venue for the 2021 FIDE World Women’s Team Championship.

Throughout the event, there have been two open blitz tournaments, the primary of which was received by GM Anton Korobov who scored 7.5/9, and the second by GM Raja Rithvik R, who scored 8.5/9. There was additionally a seven-round junior blitz occasion, received by IM Yagiz Erdogmus with a rating of 6.5/7.

Running alongside the event had been day by day masterclasses from grandmasters competing within the event, reminiscent of GM Adhiban Baskaran and GM Jan Gustafsson, in addition to lectures from Van Foreest, Ivanchuk, Korobov, and others. 

It was unclear till the ultimate spherical who would win the event, and though there have been a number of attracts among the many prime seeds within the later rounds, there was no scarcity of decisive and thrilling high-level chess video games:

The first place Women’s Prize was received by IM Irina Bulmaga, a widely known Chessable creator. Also displaying nice efficiency was WGM Teodora Injac, who made a 9-round IM norm and scored a complete 6/10 with 5 attracts towards grandmasters.

Over-performing with a efficiency ranking of 2554 was British IM Jonah Willow, who scored 7.5/10 together with two wins towards grandmasters. Willow positioned thirteenth after beginning because the 72nd highest seed.

Tabatabaei, who positioned third, turned a Berlin protection into one of the thrilling video games seen on the occasion:

A pleasant mixture by van Foreest in spherical three triggered fairly a stir on social media. The Dutch super-GM demonstrated a complicated wrinkle within the thematic Greek sacrifice.

GM @jordenvforeest performed an excellent and artistic Greek sacrifice in spherical three of the #SunwaySitges Chess Festival.

After 13…Kxh7, although, why is the pure 14.Nfxd5?? a mistake 😉? (14.Ne6! was performed, accurately.)#speedchess pic.twitter.com/58jwcuXkRQ

— ChesscomDwell (@ChesscomDwell) December 15, 2022

The whole prize fund for the event was €28,700, €21,400 of which was allotted to Group A. Alekseenko was awarded €5,000 for first place, whereas Niemann walked away with €3,000 and Tabatabaei €1,500. Bulmaga was additionally awarded €1,500 because the first-place ladies’s prize.

The lodge proprietor, Oskar Stöber Blázquez, has already introduced the dates for subsequent 12 months’s version of the Chessable Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival to be December 11-22 2023, noting that will probably be “fairly particular subsequent 12 months, as will probably be our tenth version in Sitges.”

Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	8	GM	Alekseenko Kirill		2672	8.5	64	68.5	56.5
2	2	GM	Niemann Hans Moke		2698	8	60.5	65.5	50.5
3	10	GM	Tabatabaei Mohammad Amin		2660	8	58.5	62.5	49
4	13	GM	Petrosyan Manuel		2621	7.5	61.5	66.5	48
5	1	GM	Yu Yangyi		2728	7.5	61.5	65	46.5
6	20	GM	Durarbayli Vasif		2612	7.5	59.5	65	48
7	14	GM	Karthikeyan Murali		2620	7.5	59	63.5	44.5
8	17	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy		2617	7.5	58.5	63.5	46.25
9	24	GM	Dardha Daniel		2606	7.5	58	62.5	43.75
10	6	GM	Esipenko Andrey		2678	7.5	57	61.5	45.25
11	5	GM	Moussard Jules		2684	7.5	56	60.5	44.25
12	29	GM	Tin Jingyao		2562	7.5	55.5	60	44.25
13	72	IM	Willow Jonah B		2409	7.5	54.5	58	41.5
14	58	IM	Boyer Mahel		2434	7.5	51	55.5	42.5
15	18	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu		2616	7	61.5	67	44
16	9	GM	Korobov Anton		2662	7	59.5	64.5	44.75
17	21	GM	Adhiban B.		2611	7	58.5	63	42.25
18	28	GM	Svane Frederik		2568	7	58	63	42.5
19	4	GM	Cheparinov Ivan		2688	7	58	62.5	42.75
20	22	GM	Kollars Dmitrij		2610	7	58	62.5	42.75

The essential occasion of the Chessable Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival, a powerful open, happened December 12-23, 2022 in Sitges, Spain. The format was a 10-round Swiss. The time management was 90 minutes for the primary 40 strikes plus half-hour for the remainder of the sport with a 30-second increment from the primary transfer.