The Spanish town of Torrevieja, located on the Costa Blanca in the province of Alicante, hosted the sixth edition of the Open “Semana Santa” this Easter weekend. French grandmaster Jules Moussard won the event, as the only player among the 400+ participants who scored 8/9 points. Karen Grigoryan from Armenia and Eduardo Iturrizaga, who recently transferred to the Spanish federation, finished second and third respectively. | Photos: Patricia Claros Aguilar
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A large chasing group
After 5 rounds, Karen Movsziszian was leading the standings table as the only player with a perfect 5/5 score. The Armenian veteran suffered his first loss in round 6, when Marc Narciso defeated him with the white pieces. José Cuenca also won in round 6, and went on to face Narciso that same day (two rounds were played daily from Thursday to Sunday) the eventual winner of the event scored a second consecutive victory to take the sole lead.
Going into the penultimate round, there was a 3-player chasing pack a half point behind the leader, with Cuenca facing Bernat Serarols on board 1 and Movsziszian playing top seed Miguel Santos on board 2. Both games finished drawn, which allowed three more players to join the chasing pack going into Sunday afternoon’s final round.