Though the previous tournament was of the same category, the 16th, as the present one, it was much more denser in composition. There were no obvious leaders, as well as the outsiders. For me, it was sufficient to score +2 to share the first place. This time I managed to score +3, but obtained only the second prize(again Berger was calculated)…
By the middle of the tournament, it became all clear about the sporting form of the participants. Sergei Tiviakov’s obvious failure is explainable by the huge number of the sporting events in which he participated. Though Sergei was in good health and in good physical condition, the play came hardly for him. He also had some purely chess problems… I am sure that he will recover after some time an I hope he would be well prepared for the European championship.
Shirov also seemed rather tired after his difficult ‘walk’ to Monaco. He did not try to hide his tiredness and offered Epishin the draw in round 1 when playing with white pieces, immediately after the opening was over. Nevertheless, Alexei would have retained rather good chances, if he had not lost in the last but one round to one of the outsiders, the Argentinean grandmaster Daniel Campora. The latter was admitted to the tournament after winning the Swiss tournament last year. Shirov was exhausted by the end of the game and admitted several mistakes.]
When peaking about the outsiders there, one should mention the strong Spanish grandmaster Miguel Illescas Cordoba. He played in may elite competitions and was leading until the very last round in the previous Dos Hermanas event. His present result does not reflect his true strength. However, unlike his misfortunate companions, it is the result of Miguel’s insufficient practice. He runs a chess school in Barcelona, perhaps, it takes too much of his energy.
Rustemov’s result was a definite surprise. Alexander scored only 50 per cent points after the round 5, then he won quite a good game against the young Kariakin by using his insufficient (and quite forgivable!) opening erudition. Sergei admitted a mistake already in his move 8.
It was all decided for him in the last but one round. When playing with white pieces, Rustemov offered Vallejo a draw being unsatisfied by results of the opening,. Vallejo rejected the offer but later he played poorly and lost. After this rather nervous game, full of the mutual inaccuracies, Vallejo was driven away from the leading position – he scored +3 by then. Later he failed to find quite a simple win against Epishin.
Sergei Kariakin could have demonstrated much better result.

Sergei Kariakin

However, his performance was deeply affected by his game in round 1. He outplayed Campora completely but missed a simple tactical strike before the time control, then he got confused and lost the drawing position. Certainly, it could not pass without the consequences. Nevertheless, in the last round Sergei displayed himself quite a competent player by beating Tiviakov in a technical position. This is rather symptomatic – if one masters the technique, then later the one will definitely acquire the necessary opening knowledge! I have an impression, that the young Ukrainian will develop into a very strong chess player.