The first Spanish player according to the FIDE list — he appears in 168th place in the world ranking, although he is undoubtedly moving upward — and our collaborator — everything must be said, very much from time to time... — Manolo Rivas, won outright and as the only undefeated player in the 13th edition of the International Costa del Sol Tournament, held during the first half of February in Torremolinos.

Playing the firm and secure chess usual for him, but even more so in recent times, he intelligently rationed his strength in order finally to prevail in the tournament, finishing half a point ahead of his immediate pursuers, GMs Borislav Ivkov and Juan Manuel Bellón. From what we are seeing from Manolo in his recent tournaments, which can almost all be counted as victories, it would not surprise us if during this year he were to obtain the GM title. Of course, he lacks neither class nor talent; if we add to that his promising age — 22 — then so much the better.

Bellón also did well. He seems once again to be on the road to recovery, and the placing of “Chelu” Fernández seems somewhat low to us, especially if we bear in mind the clearly rising line we had observed in his recent performances. But, without doubt, the most disappointing performance was that of the Argentine Daniel Cámpora, who had the highest rating in the tournament and finished with a poor 50 percent of the points available. His performance was somewhat irregular, after his recent victory in the Benavente Open, of which we already reported in a previous issue.

The rest of the standings may be considered normal.

The tournament reached category 7 on the FIDE scale and brought together three GMs and six IMs, in addition to the local player Francisco Javier Muñoz, who obtained a meritorious 2.5 points — he was, however, the only player who did not score a victory.