Sant Marti Open 2018: Mitrabha Guha earns his maiden GM norm!

by Niklesh Jain - 31/08/2018

In the third leg of the Catalan circuit, the 20th Sant Marti International Chess Open, the top seed of the tournament, Gadir Guseinov from Azerbaijan clinched the title with a score of 7.5/9. This was his second straight title in the Catalan circuit after the Barbera Open and nobody seems to be in a place to challenge his dominance in the circuit as of now. 19-year-old Peruvian GM Alcantara Martinez took second place with a score of 7.0/9. IM Luiz Lazaro from Cuba had scored the same as Martinez but was placed third due to an inferior tiebreak. In the fourth place was India's Mitrabha Guha who scored 6.5 points and also made his maiden Grandmaster norm. Among other Indians in the fray, Nilesh Saha scored an International Master norm and, with a score of 6.0/9, was placed 11th in the final standings. With another strong performance, the Indian contingent kept up their stronghold in Spain.

Like Saha, Saurabh Anand, P Iniyan and Soham Das also finished with a score of 6.0/9 but as per tiebreaks they were placed 17th, 18th and 20th in the final standings. The event had attracted 118 players from 24 countries among whom 49 were titled.

The Sant Marti International is been organised at the same venue -- the "civic centre" -- since the last two decades! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Title winner, GM Gadir Guseinov (middle) with second place winner Alcantara Martinez (right) and Luiz Lazaro, who finished third

An "MVP' of Azerbaijan's national chess team, Gadir Guseinov scored his second straight title in the Catalan circuit in Sant Marti after his success at Barbera. And this time around, he seemed to be in an even better form.

Gadir spoke to ChessBase India after his lifting the champion's trophy in Sant Marti

The young and promising Mitrabha Guha made his country proud with his fantastic performance. Scoring 6.5/9, Mitrabha finished fourth and also earned his first Grandmaster norm!

Mitrabha finished with an impressive rating performance of 2573. His sixth round game against GM Krysa Leandro was especially worth noting

Mitrabha Guha receiving his maiden GM norm

Nilesh Saha was another norm scorer from India. He scored his second International Master norm.

P Iniyan had a tough time in Sant Marti. But despite a very bad start, the teenager from Erode managed to score a respectable 6.0/9 and finished 18th

Saurabh Anand finished 17th with a score of 6.0/9

This was the 20th successful edition of the Sant Marti Open

That's what happens when a true aficionado organises a chess tournament! Tournament organiser, Perez Evarist was also a participant in Sant Marti!

The technical head of the Catalan circuit, Jordi Magem spoke to ChessBase India at the conclusion of the event. Having been the coach of the creative genius Alexei Shirov at one point, Jordi is currently the captain of the Spanish Olympic team. In the interview, he talks about the Catalan circuit, the participation of Indians and his own visit to India during the FIDE world cup.

Final Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	RtgN	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	1	GM	Guseinov Gadir			0	AZE	2654	0	AZERBAIJAN	7,5	48,5	41,5	6	2757	9	7,5	7,06	0,44	10	4,4
2	2	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo			0	PER	2545	2467	PERU	7,0	51,5	44,0	5	2681	9	7	6,01	0,99	10	9,9
3	11	IM	Aguero Jimenez Luis Lazaro			2474	CUB	2473	2473	Tora	7,0	48,0	40,5	6	2658	9	7	5,43	1,57	10	15,7
4	29	FM	Mitrabha Guha	A-18		0	IND	2299	0	INDIA	6,5	50,0	42,5	5	2611	9	6,5	3,26	3,24	20	64,8
5	4	GM	Quesada Perez Yasser			0	CUB	2531	0	CUBA	6,5	49,5	42,0	5	2615	9	6,5	6,09	0,41	10	4,1
6	5	GM	Alonso Rosell Alvar			2549	ESP	2523	2512	Gerunda	6,5	47,0	40,5	5	2584	9	6,5	6,24	0,26	10	2,6
7	7	GM	Munoz Miguel			2540	ESP	2500	2486	Sant Andreu	6,5	47,0	40,5	4	2573	9	6,5	6,30	0,20	10	2,0
8	3	GM	Krysa Leandro			2510	ARG	2533	2547	Mollet	6,5	43,5	37,0	6	2489	9	6,5	7,51	-1,01	10	-10,1
9	10	IM	Pena Gomez Manuel			0	ESP	2475	2474	Escola Xadrez Pontevedra	6,0	47,5	40,5	4	2588	8	6	5,25	0,75	10	7,5
10	6	GM	Cuartas Jaime Alexander			2557	COL	2508	2500	Peona I Peó	6,0	47,5	40,0	4	2564	9	6	6,07	-0,07	10	-0,7
11	26		Neelash Saha	A-18		0	IND	2319	0	INDIA	6,0	46,5	40,0	3	2451	8	5	3,40	1,60	20	32,0
12	16	IM	Ruiz Castillo Joshua Daniel			0	COL	2410	0	COLOMBIA	6,0	45,5	38,5	4	2529	8	6	5,52	0,48	10	4,8
13	9	IM	Cori Quispe Kevin Joel			0	PER	2487	0	PERU	6,0	44,5	37,5	5	2451	9	6	6,74	-0,74	10	-7,4
14	33	FM	Serarols Mabras Bernat	A		0	ESP	2269	2264	Xeraco	6,0	44,0	37,5	4	2431	9	6	3,67	2,33	20	46,6
15	23	GM	Gonzales Jayson	A		0	PHI	2367	0	PHILIPPINES	6,0	44,0	37,0	5	2416	9	6	5,91	0,09	10	0,9
16	8	GM	Oliva Castaneda Kevel			0	CUB	2491	0	CUBA	6,0	42,5	36,5	3	2461	9	6	6,60	-0,60	10	-6,0
17	34		Saurabh Anand	A-18		0	IND	2258	0	INDIA	6,0	41,0	34,0	5	2304	9	6	5,62	0,38	20	7,6
18	12	IM	Iniyan P	U18		0	IND	2451	0	INDIA	6,0	40,0	34,0	5	2342	9	6	7,34	-1,34	10	-13,4
19	21	FM	Valenzuela Gomez Fernando	A		2425	CHI	2389	2393	Sant Martí	6,0	40,0	33,0	5	2338	9	6	6,26	-0,26	10	-2,6
20	25		Abhishek Das	A		0	IND	2325	0	INDIA	6,0	36,0	30,5	5	2246	9	6	6,56	-0,56	20	-11,2
21	17	IM	Smirnov Artem			0	RUS	2405	0	RUSSIA	5,5	47,0	39,5	5	2455	9	5,5	5,46	0,04	10	0,4
22	15	IM	Miciano John Marvin	U18		0	PHI	2411	0	PHILIPPINES	5,5	45,0	38,5	4	2406	9	5,5	6,14	-0,64	10	-6,4
23	20	IM	Alarcon Casellas Rolando	A		0	CUB	2389	2399	CUBA	5,5	43,5	37,0	4	2346	9	5,5	5,92	-0,42	10	-4,2
24	35	FM	Gorti Akshita	A-18	w	0	USA	2255	0	USA	5,5	42,0	35,0	5	2305	9	5,5	4,46	1,04	20	20,8
25	14	IM	Fernandez Cardoso Alexey			0	CUB	2439	0	CUBA	5,5	41,5	34,0	4	2337	9	5,5	6,52	-1,02	10	-10,2
26	31	FM	Ryan Joseph	A		2337	IRL	2273	2254	Montcada	5,5	41,0	34,5	2	2301	7	3,5	3,91	-0,41	20	-8,2
27	39		Glimbrant Torbjorn	B			SWE	2213	2288	SWEDEN	5,5	39,5	33,0	4	2275	9	5,5	4,90	0,60	20	12,0
28	51	MK	Garcia Gil Javier	B		2240	ESP	2110	2151	Ideal Clavé	5,5	38,0	32,0	4	2234	9	5,5	3,94	1,56	20	31,2
29	27	WGM	Frayna Janelle Mae	A	w	0	PHI	2315	0	PHILIPPINES	5,5	36,5	30,0	4	2240	9	5,5	6,24	-0,74	20	-14,8
30	22	IM	Vidarte Morales Arturo	A		2453	ESP	2381	2345	Montcada	5,0	44,0	37,5	4	2402	8	5	5,09	-0,09	10	-0,9

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Translation from Hindi by Aditya Pai

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