ROUND two of the 33rd Fortis Guernsey Interna-tional Chess Festival produced a fascinating contest as 15-year-old Uzbekistan sensation Ravshan Khamroev took on the former British champion Robert Bellin. In Sunday’s opening round, Khamroev took care of David Grant, who is part of the English junior squad and international master Bellin in turn defeated Holland’s Ton van Ingen.
Bellin and Khamroev met on the top board yesterday and it was Bellin who won a tight game.
But the match of the festival will possibly happen between the two grand masters and with all things being equal, Russian Vladimer Epishin should meet Tiger Hillarp-Persson at some point.
However, it was not all plain sailing in the opening round for the festival’s two top players as Epishin drew with J. van Onzen of Holland while Hillarp-Persson missed the round entirely. This week will be Swede Hillarp-Persson’s sixth visit to the event.
‘I’ve come one day late because I was playing in a tournament in Holland which was the worst one of my life as I wasn’t playing very well,’ said Hillarp-Persson yesterday.
‘Missing the first round means a half-point less for me but I’m here to play chess and that doesn’t change that.’
Article posted on 23rd October, 2007 - 12.00am
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