(Photo: The winner GM Akopian is on the left, defeating GM Yuri Kuzubov in the decisive Round 9 Game)From January 23 to February 1, the very strong GibTelecom Chess Festival was held in Gibraltar, the biggest event being the 9-round GibTelecom Open. This even featured dozens of GMs, IMs and other titled players.
In the end, the event was won clear by GM Vladimir Akopian who, in 1999 was the runner-up for the FIDE World Championship (he lost the final match by one point to Alexander Khalifman). Sporting a 2700 FIDE rating making him the second seed (English superstar Michael Adams was #1 at 2735), he finished with 7.5 points out of 9. His tournament got off to an inauspicious start by losing in Round 1 to American IM Irina Krush, who missed her second GM norm by half a point with a loss in the final round.
Tying for second place were the former Ukrainian Champion Alexander Areschenko, Israeli star Emil Sutovsky, and former U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura, all with 7 points out of 9. Nakamura's return to chess after a brief break has been very successful, with crushing victories at American tournaments and now showing his stuff (again!) against many of the world's best.
The next major tournament is the Aeroflot Open in Moscow, which brings in over 80 GMs every year to compete for $200,000 in prizes!
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