Hastings

A four-way tie for first place in Hastings.
These included the two rapidly improving nineteen-year-olds David Howell and Romain Edouard and the more experienced Andrei Istratescu along with Mark 'forever young' Hebden.

The main prize-winners were as follows:

RankingTitle and NameCountryRatingPointsPerformance
1GM Romain EdouardFRA262072666
2GM Mark HebdenENG252272612
3GM David HowellENG259772645
4GM Andrei IstratescuROU262472698
5IM Dennis BrederGER24276.52481
6GM Yuri DrozdovskijUKR26256.52594
7GM Daniel GormallyENG24796.52501
8WGM Natalia ZdebskajaUKR24086.52339

For further information: official site

In the last round Hracek lost with White to David Howell thus dropping off the leader board.

Number 2 seed in the tournament, Czech GM Hracek
© Jack Rudd

All the players who got close to making GM norms didn't quite make it: Hawkins and Ansell from England and Philippe from France.

French IM Christophe Philippe
© C.Flear

The bulletin gives one a taste of the history. In fact Hastings has been running (with one or two gaps) since 1895, not many tournaments can claim that!

Hastings has been running a long, long time! (official program)

Published on , Updated on