There were three big opens in history of chess. Annual New York Open and after the Aeroflot Open. New York Open is already history, because the organizers could not find any venue for the tournament and even the other big US event World Open is having the same problem and its moving to Washington. Aerolfot Open had different schedule this year and it might be that it was the last event. In difficult economic times the chess tournaments are not very attractive for big hotels, they are not giving the venue for free any more. In Gibraltar however the relatively small hotel was happy to host the festival again. Still the playing halls were too small to accommodate so many players. The quality of playing conditions was very important to late Robert James Fischer and are important today. My opinion is that the Gibraltar festival which is the world biggest in Europe, the World Open attracts more players, must change the venue if they like to grow. I visited the festival in 2007 and promised never come back, at that time the weather was horrible, windy and cold. This time the weather was excellent and I had a good mood. In round five I met Vassily Ivanchuk. This was the turning point for me, I lost the game and usually I can control my emotions after and during the game, but after this encounter I was really angry. Of course I could only be angry with myself, I had good position and in mutual time trouble Ivanchuk just tricked me. Still he is the man who is going to play in March in London where the Candidates tournament takes place. There was total of 10 rounds, so in few rounds I leveled up with Ivanchuk, but in round 9 I lost to Michael Adams. We all three are considered veterans, so I lost to this players before and they are really my worst opponents. I was happy that my student Sandipan Chanda shared first place. In tiebreak he lost to overall winner Nikita Vitiugov. Full results on http://chess-results.com/tnr89507.aspx?lan=1 . One difference the festival made was really good media coverage. US women champion Irina Krush was doing the live coverage and I agreed to comment after round 8 my game which I won. http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/video_commentary_r8.htm
After that I lost my last two games. Still I am not superstitious, but during more important tournament I should avoid interviews during the tournament. The festival in general was great success and if you like to visit Gibraltar you can do it next year.
Jaan Ehlvest
