![](/portals/all/_for_legal_reasons.jpg)
Marie Sebag
![](/portals/all/_for_legal_reasons.jpg)
![](/portals/all/_for_legal_reasons.jpg)
SportAccord MindGames Tournament on playchess.com
This tournament was played at Saturday, 29th October in two stages. The
preliminary with about 220 participants was a 15 round swiss. A great number of
strong players participated, many of them with intention to make it to the
final, most of them just to enjoy a strong and good tournament.
During the preliminary participants from Asia played a dominating role. Many
players from India struggled for a place in the final. However, India as new
force in international chess is no really surprise and especially a lot of good
young players took their chance and played in the event. A little bit more
surprising was the role of players from Mongolia, although players from the
country made a good impression during the Amateurs World Championship.
To reach a place under the top twelve, and made it to the final, 10.5 from 15
and a good tiebreak were necessary. Five players from India and three from
Mongolia fulfilled the norm. The final was completed by a young talent from
russia, Vlad Artemiev (13 years old), who won the preliminary, Marie Sebag, the
former french wondergirl, Aleksandar Indjic form Serbia and Nguyen van Huy from
Vietnam.
In the final two players broke away from the start with a series of wins. The
already mentioned Serbian talent Aleksandar Indjic and Kartihkeyan Pandian from
India, who made clear that his handel on the server (ChennaiKramnik) is his
program. After six rounds we made a small break (five minutes). Some of the dust
has settled and it was clear, the race for the first place was an issue between
the three Europeans in the field. Aleksandar was clear first with really
impressive 6/6. Still in the fight for the top places were Marie Sebag (4.5) and
Vlad Artemiev (4.5). The asian players had now to struggle with jetlag and were
clearly lagging concentration.
After the break the Serbian player get extremely nervous and failed to convert
his commanding lead into a win. In the remaining five games he scored just one
point. The decision was a story between the young Russian and the only female
player, Marie Sebag from France. And here experience made the difference. Marie
Sebag, although still young, was already a good chess player when her opponent
was born. In the final five games of the tournament she survived several dubious,
sometimes extremely dubious, positions and when in the last game the Vietnamese
opponent, most probably extremely tired, blundered his queen, Marie Sebag was
clear first with 8.5 from eleven and won the trip to Peking.
Martin Fischer
Link:
Tabelle der Vorrunde...