19-25th February 2011, GM Arutinian and GM Solodovnichenko are top seeded

Over 100 players, of which more than 15 titled players, have signed in advance for the 10th Rochefort Open tournament, which is set to take place on 19th-25th February 2011. Next year, the huge Cappelle-la-Grande Open is played one week after Rochefort, so this event could serve a perfect training opportunity.

The organizers have invested big effort to propose an interesting tournament for all-level players. The playing venue is as usual in the Salle Colbert at Congress Palais, in downtown of Rochefort.

The tournament will be played over 9 rounds of Swiss system, with rate of play 90 mins for 40 moves + 30 mins to the end and increment 30 sec from move one. The total prize fund is 7000 EUR.

The beautiful playing venue of Congress Palais

Players will be separated in two tournaments: Open A for players with rating above 1900 and Open B for players under 2000, the objective being to reduce the rating differences.

List of the top rated players: GM David Arutinian GEO 2578, GM Yuri Solodovnichenko UKR 2563, GM Alexei Barsov UZB 2507, GM Ventzislav Inkiov BUL 2477, GM Evgeny Sharapov UKR 2468, IM Gabriel Battaglini FRA 2446, GM Vasile Sanduleac MDA 2445, IM Vincent Colin FRA 2444, IM Spas Kozhuharov BUL 2440, IM Vincent David FRA 2424, IM Xavier Bedouin FRA 2404, IM Chi-Minh Nguyen FRA 2391 etc

Information about the tournament is available at www.echiquier-rochefortais.com. Thanks to IA Dominique Dervieux.

View of the playing hall

GM Burmakin, GM Gelashvili and GM Sandipan are top seeded

Over 100 players, of which more than 20 titled, will be present at the beginning of the Rochefort Open tournament on 21th February. The organizers have made a big effort to enrich the 8th edition and make it a good training for the upcoming Capelle-la-Grande Open. The tournament will take place from 21th to 27th February in Salle Colbert at the Congress Palais, in downtown of Rochefort.

The beautiful playing venue of Congress Palais

Rochefort on the map

The tournament will be played over 9 rounds of Swiss system, with rate of play 90 mins for 40 moves + 30 mins to the end and increment 30 sec from move one. The total prize fund is 7 000 eur.

List of the 20 top rated participants:

GM BURMAKIN Vladimir 2623 RUS

GM GELASHVILI Tamaz 2622 GEO

GM SANDIPAN Chanda 2568 IND

GM DGEBUADZE Alexandre 2538 BEL

GM DZHUMAEV Marat 2529 UZB

IM FOMICHENKO Eduard 2511 RUS

GM PETKOV Vladimir 2504 BUL

IM DUMITRACHE Dragos-Nicolae 2498 ROM

GM IVANOV Mikhail M 2497 RUS

GM PRIE Eric 2489 FRA

IM SIMUTOWE Amon 2485 ZAM

GM INKIOV Ventzislav 2484 BUL

GM GENOV Petar 2465 BUL

IM SANCHEZ Joseph 2461 PHI

IM MIRON Lucian-Costin 2443 ROM

IM DONCEA Vladimir 2437 ROM

IM NGUYEN Chi-Minh 2429 FRA

IM DELORME Axel 2415 FRA

IM SARAVANAN V. 2394 IND

IM PYTEL Krzysztof 2388 FRA

View of the last year’s tournament

This year, there will be also an IM-Tournament where young french FIDE Masters will try to win IM norm. Titled players are IM Dimitar Marholev, IM Ovidiu Foisor and IM Cristina Foisor and they will have to be careful with local players as FM Vincent David, FM Xavier Bedouin and FM Adrien Demuth are all very talented.

Participants IM-Tournament

IM Marholev Dimitar – Bulgarie 2449

IM Foisor Ovidiu Doru – Romania 2428

IM Foisor Cristina Adela – Romania 2412

FM Monroy Charles - France 2394

FM David Vincent – France 2387

FM Bédouin Xavier – France 2385

FM Geirnaert Steven – Belgique 2361

FM Neimann Emmanuel – France 2358

FM Demuth Adrien – France 2331

FM Leriche Eric – France 2303

Information about the tournament available at www.echiquier-rochefortais.com

Info: IA Dominique Dervieux

Port of Rochefort