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Masters Round 10 Report

Jan 31, 2020

John Saunders reports: 21-year-old Russian GM David Paravyan, virtually unknown outside Russia until his arrival in Gibraltar and ranked only 22nd in a stellar field, stunned the chess world by winning the £30,000 first prize in the Gibraltar Masters after winning a tie-break against one of the favourites, Wang Hao, at the Caleta Hotel on Thursday. The tournament ended in a seven-way tie for first on 7½/10 after most of the top last-round pairings ended in draws.

The six other players who tied with Paravyan – Andrey Esipenko (Russia), Wang Hao (China), Daniil Yuffa (Russia), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), David Navara (Czech Republic) and Mustafa Yilmaz (Turkey) – received cheques for £10,500 each. Winner of the £20,000 prize for the best score by a female player was won by Tan Zhongyi, with Lei Tingjie (China) receiving the second women’s prize of £10,000. The best game prize of £1,000 went to Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) for her last-round win against Ori Kobo (Israel).