Men Victorious In Gibraltar's Battle of the Sexes
The Battle of the Sexes Chess Tournament concluded on Thursday in Gibraltar with a 53-47 score for the men's team. This team event, with evenly paired men and women on opposing sides, took place at Gibraltar's Garrison Library and replaced the traditional Gibraltar Masters.
You can find the games of the Battle of the Sexes Chess Tournament on our live games page.
After 18 editions of the Gibraltar Masters between 2003 and 2020, the pandemic made it impossible to organize the 19th tournament in early 2021. The organizers took care of a FIDE Women's Grand Prix instead, although it had to be moved to May 2021.
This year, a new event was held in a new venue because in late 2021 the Caleta Hotel, which always served as the playing venue, was taken down. At the same location, a new hotel will be built.
The doors of the Caleta Hotel have now closed after 57 years. The hotel will undergo a major redevelopment which is expected to last 3.5 years. We would like to thank all our customers, friends, suppliers and everyone who have supported us over the last 57 years.
— The Caleta Hotel (@CaletaHotelGBZ) January 2, 2022
Watch this space pic.twitter.com/yp0qhOGjb4
This year, Gibraltar's Garrison Library hosted the chess tournament, which saw a new format as well. It was named the Battle of the Sexes, after the evening event that was part of the festival each year with a giant chess board inside a boxing ring, also between men and women. In the new format, two teams played a Scheveningen match (on regular chess boards!), meaning that each member of one team played each member of the other once. The total prize fund was £100,000 ($135,800), of which £75,000 ($101,850) went to the winning side and £25,000 ($33,950) to the runners-up.
The team of women's players, dubbed "Team Pia" after their captain, GM Pia Cramling, started with two consecutive wins over "Team Sabino," (captained by GM Sabino Brunello), scoring 6.5-3.5 twice against their male adversaries.
Only in round three, the men hit back with a 7-3 victory and continued with another 5.5-4.5 the next day, but after a 5-5 tie in round five, the women were still leading by a single point halfway through the tournament.
After that, the men took a commanding lead of five points as they won rounds six, seven, and eight. The women's team kept hopes alive with a 6-4 win in the penultimate round, but with another 6.5-3.5 victory in the final round, the men emerged victoriously with a six-point margin: 53-47. Below are the teams and individual scores.
Battle of the Sexes 2022 | Men's Team
| Bo. | Fed | Title | Name | Rtg | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pts. | Games | RtgAvg |
| 1 | GM | Brunello, Sabino | 2503 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 6,5 | 10 | 2452 | |
| 2 | IM | Bwalya, Gillan | 2410 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1,5 | 9 | 2447 | ||
| 3 | IM | Aziz, Husain | 2379 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 4,0 | 10 | 2452 | |
| 4 | GM | Bellahcene, Bilel | 2508 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 7,0 | 10 | 2452 | |
| 5 | GM | Krysa, Leandro | 2531 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 5,5 | 10 | 2450 | |
| 6 | GM | Haria, Ravi | 2490 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6,5 | 10 | 2450 | |
| 7 | GM | Gallagher, Joseph G. | 2447 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 4,5 | 10 | 2450 | |
| 8 | GM | Cheng, Bobby | 2550 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 6,0 | 10 | 2450 | |
| 9 | IM | Csonka, Balazs | 2474 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 7,0 | 10 | 2452 | |
| 10 | IM | Rosen, Eric | 2356 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 4,0 | 10 | 2452 | |
| 11 | IM | Merario Alarcon, Andres | 2408 | ½ | 0,5 | 1 | 2491 |
Battle of the Sexes 2022 | Women's Team
| Bo. | Fed | Title | Name | Rtg | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pts. | Games | RtgAvg |
| 1 | IM | Sukandar, Irine Kharisma | 2407 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 4,5 | 10 | 2465 | |
| 2 | GM | Abdumalik, Zhansaya | 2491 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5,5 | 10 | 2465 | |
| 3 | IM | Mammadzada, Gunay | 2470 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3,5 | 10 | 2465 | |
| 4 | GM | Cramling, Pia | 2452 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 4,5 | 10 | 2465 | |
| 5 | GM | Sebag, Marie | 2460 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 5,0 | 10 | 2465 | |
| 6 | GM | Muzychuk, Mariya | 2539 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 6,5 | 10 | 2465 | |
| 7 | GM | Girya, Olga | 2405 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4,5 | 10 | 2465 | |
| 8 | GM | Stefanova, Antoaneta | 2469 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 3,0 | 4 | 2505 | |||||||
| 9 | IM | Houska, Jovanka | 2365 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3,5 | 10 | 2465 | |
| 10 | IM | Efroimski, Marsel | 2437 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 5,0 | 10 | 2465 | |
| 11 | GM | Batsiashvili, Nino | 2491 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1,5 | 6 | 2438 |
IM Irine Sukandar helped her team to get that good start in the event as the only player to start with 2/2. In the very first round, she took down the team captain of the men in a Closed Ruy Lopez as the Italian player did not respond well to her bishop maneuver:
The two top scorers were, unsurprisingly, part of the men's team as both GM Bilel Bellahcene (Algeria) and IM Balazs Csonka (Hungary) scored 7/10. The latter scored a 2601 performance rating and won 16.8 Elo points. He won a nice game against IM Gunay Mammadzada, who missed a chance in the opening:
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
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