Michael Adams Wins the 8th Gibtelecom Masters

John Saunders reports: The photo below shows the winner of the 8th Gibtelecom Masters, Michael Adams of England, being congratulated by master of ceremonies and tournament commentator GM Stuart Conquest. Also in the photo are the women's prize-winner Natalia Zhukova (who also achieved a GM norm, surpassing the required TPR by a huge margin) and CEO of Gibtelecom, Tim Bristow.




Adams Wins The Final

John Saunders reports: English grandmaster Mickey Adams has won the 8th Gibtelecom Masters after a four-player play-off. He did it the hard way, losing the first game of his semi-final against German GM Jan Gustafsson and having much the worst of the second game before Gustafsson blundered a piece. There followed an Armageddon game, with Adams obliged to win, which he did in some style. In the other semi-final Paco Vallejo Pons of Spain won his first game quite comfortably against Chand Sandipan of India. He was comfortable in the second game but Sandipan fought back to the point where he should have won, only the make a terrible blunder which cost him the win. The final saw Adams in his best form, soon securing a strong advantage which he carried through to victory. In the return, Vallejo Pons got a bad position but his attempt to mix the game up cost him a piece and he could only draw. The two-game mini-matches were played at a time control of 10 minutes with 10 second increments and the Armageddon game at 5 minutes to 4.