Draft:Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival

The Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival is an annual chess event held in December in Sitges (Barcelona), Spain. It consists of a 10-round Open Tournament, a couple of Blitz single-day tournaments, Grandmasters comferences, gastronomical demonstrations and movie projections, among other activities. The Open Tournament has a classical time control (like most major events) of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. Although in its first edition it was a 9-round open, it became a 10-round open tournament in 2018.

High rated Grandmasters compete in the tournament, which is open for International and FIDE masters, and regular club players and amateurs as well. Many well known players have participated in the event so far, as for instance players like Gata Kamsky, Victor Bologan, Ivan Sokolov or Oleg Romanischin. The tournament is also known for hosting some top ranked young players (at the moment of participation) like Awonder Liang, Jorden van Foreest or Nihal Sarin.

Since 2017, the Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival is included in the ACP Tour.

Tournament History

2014

First edition of Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival took place from December 13^th until December 21^st, 2014, and had a total prize fund of 19.745 €. 99 players from 24 countries participated in its main event, the Open Tournament, which was a 9-round chess Swiss-system tournament. They were divided into 2 groups: 55 players in group A (section open to all players), and 44 players in group B (only for players under 2000 ELO points, and who did not want to compete in group A). Tournament's Director was Mr. Francesc González, and the main arbiter was Mr. Jordi Chalmeta.

Although there were some doubts whether a new chess tournament - taking place in what was believed to be a not particularly good time of the year for chess -, would really distribute a decent amound of cash prizes, 11 Grandmasters and 10 International Masters showed up in Sitges to compete for the main section's title and its cash prize of 2.000 €. Top seeded player, GM Vladimir Baklan from Ukraine, met the forecasts and won the Open Tournament with 7.0/9 points and a performance rating of 2634, ahead of GM Sébastien Mazé from France, who scored 6.5/9 points as other 3 players, but was runner-up thanks to the tie-break system. WGM Daria Charochkina from Russia, was the best woman player with 5.5/9 points, while section B of the Open Tournament was won by Andrés Navarro, from Spain, with 7.0/9 points.

4 players achieved International Master chess norms: FM Rail Makhmutov, FM José E. Martínez Alcántara, FM Alban Delorme and WGM Daria Charochkina.

2017

The fourth edition of the chess festival took place from December 13^th until December 23^rd, 2017.

Although he was out of the top ten seeded players, the young GM Aravinth form India played a magnificent tournament and defeated former European Chess Champion GM Zdenko Kožul from Croatia in the last round to unexpectedly take the title with 7.5/9 points, and an impressive performance rating of 2772.