The third edition of elllobregat Open Chess was held in Sant Boi de Llobregat from November 30 to December 8, 2022, with four events and a prize pool of more than 43,000 euros. GM Amin Tabatabaei won the tournament after a three-way tie in the regular rounds and winning the Blitz playoffs.
From November 30 to December 8, 2022, the third edition of the Llobregat Open was held in Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona). This festival included four events: GROUP A, GROUP B, Blitz Masters and Blitz Women’s Masters, with a prize purse amounting to 43,450 euros. In the GROUP A tournament, 175 players from 43 countries competed for a total prize of 29,500 euros. Nine rounds were played under the Swiss system, with a time control of 90 minutes to make 40 moves, and then an additional 30 minutes were added until the end of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds for each move.
GM Hans Niemann, who joined the tournament at the last minute before the start of the first round, was the focus of all eyes. With a good start of 4/4 points, Niemann suffered a loss to Jingyao Tin in the seventh round. After two ties in the last two games, Niemann finished 16th on the final ranking list with 6/9 points.
After nine rounds played, there was a three-way tie between GM Amin Tabatabaei, GM Tin Jingyao and IM Mittal Aditya, who scored 7/9 points each. The players advanced to the Blitz playoffs, where Tabatabaei managed to win both games to secure the Winner’s title and take home a cash prize of €10,000. In second place was GM Jingyao Tin of Singapore, while Indian IM Mittal Aditya took third place.
After winning the playoffs, GM Amin Tabatabaei was crowned champion of the third edition of El Llobregat Open Chess. The game in which he secured the tournament victory is as follows:
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c3 c6 4.Dc2 g6 5.Bf4 Bf5 6.Db3 Db6 7.h3 Bg7 8.e3 0-0 9.Nbd2 h6 10.Ae2 g5 11.Bg3 Nbd7 12.h4 Ch5 13.hxg5 Nxg3 14.fxg3 hxg5 15.Nxg5 Dc7 16.Rf2 e5 17.Ndf3 f6 18.Ch3 Tae8 19.Tae1 Ah6 20.Bd1 Nb6 21.Bk2 Dh7 22.e4 Bg6 23.Ch4 exd4 24.Nxg6 Ae3+ 25.Rf1 Dxg6 26.cxd4 Nc4 27.Te2 Nd2+ 28.Txd2 Axd2 29.Nf2 Tf7 30.Th4 Bg5 31.Tg4 Tfe7 32.e5 Dh6 33.Rg1 Rh8 34.Ch3 Tg7 35.Rh2 fxe5 36.dxe5 Ad8 37.Txg7 Dxg7 38.Nf4 Dh6+ 39.Rg1 Tg8 40.Dxb7 Bb6+ 41.Rf1 Txg3 42.Dc8+ Tg8 43.Cg6+ Dxg6 44.Dh3+ 1-0
