Three-Way Tie for First Place

Tatai, Gufeld and Chiburdanidze shared the victory

Ochoa achieved a second IM norm

For the first time, the Barcinona Association of Barcelona took full responsibility for organizing the “Costa Catalana” tournament. It was then decided to hold it simultaneously with the traditional “Barcinona” event, and both competitions were staged in the same premises provided by “La Caixa” at Ronda de Sant Antoni, 3. In this way spectators were able to follow both tournaments at the same time, while the public holiday on the 12th created a long weekend with good attendance, coinciding with the closing stages of the events.

The Barcinona Association continued its policy of promoting its own players. García Conesa, Garriga, Parés, Anguera, Coll, Perdigó, Tosan and I had already been given opportunities; now Vehi and the Argentine national master Hébert Pérez, both recently incorporated into our team, were added. This year, moreover, other players from the Catalan Federation and even from other federations, such as Rivas, had the opportunity to pursue title norms. The result was two international master norms, by Ochoa and Fernández, and one FIDE Master norm, by Rivas.

Unfortunately, it was the organizing body itself that was left empty-handed this time. I must admit that this was my fault, because in the final round I miserably threw away the FIDE Master norm by agreeing to a draw with Martín in a winning position. I missed a simple move: I saw ghosts and convinced myself that I was heading for a theoretical drawn ending within two moves. It was a sad conclusion, because Barcinona did not deserve this disappointment. Vehi and H. Pérez, by contrast, obtained international ratings, giving us two more players on the rating list. As always, something positive can be drawn from everything.

I believe the outstanding feature of the “Costa Catalana” was the performance of Ochoa, aged 25, who achieved his second norm. His preparation had already impressed me and enabled him to obtain good positions from the opening, thereby securing valuable half-points in addition to the two games he won with forceful play.

There was also considerable interest in seeing the women’s world champion Maia Chiburdanidze, aged 18, in action. She made a hesitant start but gradually became more confident and, with four and a half points from the last five rounds, finished in a share of first place.

At the halfway point everything suggested that the other Soviet player, Grandmaster Gufeld, aged 43, would win the tournament outright. On the rest day, after the fifth round, he led with four points, one more than his nearest pursuers. Even before the last round, with a half-point advantage, he had White against the bottom player and everything seemed clear. But he underestimated the Canary Island player Domínguez, who surprised him with a tactical blow, won a pawn, and the game was eventually drawn because Domínguez did not want to press for the win.

Meanwhile Tatai, aged 51, played very solidly and steadily accumulated points and half-points. With three and a half points from the last four rounds, he caught Gufeld and was declared tournament winner by the narrowest margin. The final result was therefore a three-way tie among Tatai, Gufeld and Chiburdanidze, with the Italian taking the “Sonneborn” trophy.

One point behind came Ochoa—the only one of our three players to distinguish himself—followed by Gufeld. Both lost in the final round and were consequently overtaken by Tatai and Chiburdanidze. These five players made up what could be called the leading group.

Artur Pomar, aged 48, was part of it during the first seven rounds, but then fell away, ending the tournament with two defeats, against Chiburdanidze and Tatai, the two “sprinters”, as we have seen. The final table shows an interesting feature: among the top five finishers almost all the games were draws, and a glance at the games shows that most of them were quick ones. Only Chiburdanidze “broke ranks”, winning one game against Ochoa and losing one against Tatai.

Amador Rodríguez, aged 23, began poorly and only reached 50 percent by winning his last two games. I believe he is capable of much more and that this was not one of his best tournaments. Such setbacks happen, but there is no doubt that he is one of the strongest Cuban players and is clearly on the rise.

Once again, bad luck closed the list of Spanish representatives, apart from the honorable exception of Ochoa. Pomar, as already mentioned, was unable to repeat his good performance from the previous Spanish team championship, where he had been the best first-board player. In any case, he seems gradually to be recovering his form, and one hopes this will be the prelude to further success. His game against Martín was very instructive: Artur adopted the Caro-Kann, and Martín, who needed to win, was gradually squeezed into an inferior ending that he eventually lost.

My own result, aged 31, was just enough to avoid losing my rating. In fact, I consider myself much more unlucky than the figures suggest. Above all, the fact that the last Spanish team championship had confirmed to me that the international master norm I obtained in the previous “Barcinona” was not a matter of chance, and that I truly believe I am capable of IM-level results. But I have not played well, nor at the right level, as in Málaga. I made all kinds of errors, missed obvious tactical blows—one rook against Ochoa—and lacked concentration. Of course, two years ago, before my international debut, everyone who knew me would have been satisfied with this result, while now anything similar seems a disappointment, which shows how the level has risen. But it is only meagre consolation, since my objectives are now different.

Martín, aged 25, was hit very hard by losing with White to the Canary Island player Domínguez, because that year he was playing the black pieces. He then recovered with half a point from four games. In the following round he lost to Barczay and had to go all out against Pomar, rejecting a draw in a typical Caro-Kann position with few pieces, while Pomar played half-asleep. Our grandmaster ultimately imposed himself, and Martín was unable to obtain the third norm that would have earned him the IM title. It was a pity, because that year Martín had achieved a whole series of good results and had begun the tournament with a fine victory over Chiburdanidze.

Finally, Juan Pedro Domínguez, aged 44, who had achieved a FIDE Master norm in the previous Las Palmas tournament in Gran Canaria, was unable to repeat a similar result here. He began with three zeros, and that is always difficult. Even so, he did not become discouraged and fought through to the final round, where he surprised Gufeld to the point of wounding the leader’s pride. A good friend of ours, he travelled with his family. We wish them a pleasant stay and hope he has taken home a good memory.

Top: partial view of the playing hall. Bottom, from left to right: Barczay, Gufeld and Tatai.

LLUÍS GONZÁLEZ MESTRES