The first week of February 2014, brought the news about two important chess tournaments, played in different parts of the world. In the Zurich Chess Challenge, which concluded on Tuesday February 4, the newly-crowned World Champion, Magnus Carlsen put the stamp of his authority on the game. It was Carlsen’s first truly serious tournament, after capturing the world title in Chennai last November. The other tournament was the 2014 Tradewise Gibralter Chess Festival, which was organized during 27th January to 6th February at the Caleta Hotel in Gibralter, where the Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov was a surprise winner.
In the Zurich event, five rounds of classical chess were played. Some chess experts opined that it was an uncharacteristically low number. Anyway, the classical games were followed by five rounds of rapid chess, to be finished within 15 minutes. A grace period of 10 seconds increment for every move was allowed. Then the players were required to play another five rounds, with reversed colors.
The Gibraltar event showcased five different categories, which were; Masters, two Challengers Wk1 (U2250) & Challengers Wk2 (U2250) and two Amateurs Wk1 (U1900) & Amateurs Wk2 (U1900). But the Masters was a focal event in which 256 players from 48 nations participated. There were 76 Grandmasters with 10 players rated above 2700 FIDE. Three Grandmasters had identical score of 8.0 after 10 rounds of play and it was difficult to predict the winner until that time, though the performance of the Ukrainian, Vassily Ivanchuk was the most impressive. The other two; Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria and defending champion Nikita Vitiugov of Russia also had 8 points. As per the tournament format and rules, it came necessary to go for a tie-break, so that the winner could be decided. Lots were drawn and as luck would have it, Cheparinov went into the final without playing another match and waited for the game between Ivanchuk and Vitiugov.
The first two rapid-play games were drawn, but in the two blitz games, Vitiugov beat Ivanchuk and met Cheparinov in the final. In the final, Cheparinov defeated Vitiugov to win the tournament. Cheparinov’s victory was surprising since Ivanchuk held the leader position after many rounds and he looked the most impressive player. But in the end, the 27-year old world no. 75, Ivan Cheparinov from Bulgaria rode his luck, scored a string of victories in the last three stages and emerged a winner from an unfancied position.