Results of the Fourth Preliminary

The fourth preliminary of the ACP Inaugural started with 17 players, amongst them the top seed Peter Svidler from St. Petersburg. The round developed into a great triumph for the Russians in general. All four qualifiers, Peter Swidler, Sergey Shipov, Evgenij Najer und Pavel Tregubov are from Russia. They displayed a very high level of chess and can be seen again in the finals on Saturday (at 16:00h CEST = 14:00 GMT).

At the strart of the fourth preliminary there was a short delay, since two stars of the event, Almira Skripchenko and Peter Swidler had difficulties getting into the tournament room. Almira was stuck in heavy traffic in Paris, and it would have been a great shame if one of the main initiators of this tournament was left out for such mundane reasons. Peter Svidler had some technical problems to solve with his ISP. In the end the tournament could begin at 15:30 and then ran without a glitch.

The second round brough one of the top clashes between Svidler and another favourite, Viktor Bologan. In mutual time trouble Svidler was able to seize tactical chances to take the point. He continued to play forcefully and win game after game. Almira Skripchenko, on the other hand, started very shakily, not the least due to the harrowing rush through the rush-hour traffic. But in the rounds 4 to 6 she found her pace, much to the delight of her large fan group. At one stage it even looked possible that she might qualify for the final. That looked even more likely when Peter Svidler offered her a draw after six moves in their game. This was an impulsive gesture by the St. Petersburger who has known Almira since early childhood. Almira herself was caught completely by surprise and had to struggle to find the "accept" button.

After the gentleman's draw Svidler seemed to run out of energy, drawing and even losing a game (to Lputian). But his first place and qualification were never really in danger. But there was a sharp battle for the other three qualification places. Daniel Fridman made it clear that he meant business; Vladimir Epishin, playing out of the Hamburg ChessBase office, also remained in contention. Six players kept everything open right to the end.

In the final round Viktor Bologan, who had 10/16, needed a draw against Zaisev. But the Moldovan GM messed up the transition to the middlegame and was unable to hold the position. Meanwhile Pavel Tregubov, who had 9.5 points, won a very fine game against Lev Psakhis, overtaking Bologan and Fridman. Peter Swidler, Evgenij Najer and Sergey Shipov were the other qualifiers.

Right at the bottom of the cross table you will find Leo Battesti, a 1910 player clearly out of his league in this field (he chalked up a single draw). Leo is the respected organiser of chess tournaments in Corsica, which is much appreciated by the chess community. He is a welcome guest in any blitz tournament.

TD Martin Fischer

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