The 11th Rochefort Open tournament is set to take place from 25th February to 2nd March in the Congres Palais, in Rochefort, France.
Just days before the huge Cappelle-la-Grande Open, the Rochefort Open is an excellent occasion for the players to test their preparation and use the perfect training opportunity.
Over 100 players, of which more than 20 titled players, have signed in advance. The organizers have invested big effort to propose an interesting tournament for all-level players.
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.
Rochefort playing hall
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 and to increase norm chances of players.
20 players rated above 2400 were registered as of 15th January:
1 GM VOROBIOV Evgeny E. 2589 RUS
2 GM SUMETS Andrey 2569 UKR
3 GM ARUTINIAN David 2553 GEO
4 GM KASPAROV Sergey 2521 BLR
5 GM MIRZOEV Azer 2510 AZE
6 GM JOJUA Davit 2507 GEO
7 IM KHOTENASHVILI Bela 2497 GEO
8 IM STETS Dmitry 2475 UKR
9 GM NEELOTPAL Das 2471 IND
10 VALEANU Eduard-Andrei 2461 ROU
11 IM DUMITRACHE Dragos 2460 ROU
12 GM GENOV Petar 2458 BUL
13 GM INKIOV Ventzislav 2456 BUL
14 IM DEMUTH Adrien 2442 FRA
15 IM SULASHVILI Malkhaz 2441 GEO
16 WGM BATSIASHVILI Nino 2421 GEO
17 IM DEBRAY Christopher 2406 FRA
18 IM SEQUERA PAOLINI Jose 2405 VEN
19 IM BEDOUIN Xavier 2404 FRA
20 IM KARTHIKEYAN P. 2402 IND
Last year winner was GM Yuri Solodovnichenko.
Information about the tournament is available at www.echiquier-rochefortais.com. Thanks to IA Dominique Dervieux.
