Mangalia Chess Festival With New Scoring System

European Champion Sergei Tiviakov wins with 23 points from 9 rounds

The 2nd Mangalia International Chess Festival, popular "Neptun", took place on June 21-29 at the Romanian Black Sea coast. The tournament was exceptionally strong, with European Champion Sergei Tiviakov as top seeded, but the first thing that catches the wandering journalist's eye is highly unusual scoring system.

Here are the tournament rules: each game bears three points instead of the "normal" one. In case of decisive result, the winner receives three points, the defeated signs zero. But if the game ends in a draw, each player takes one point and then they move in to play Armageddon blitz game (5 minutes for White, 4 for Black + draw odds) for the remaining third point. Thus a game can give 3-0 or 2-1 score.
However, in regard with FIDE rating calculations, the usual 1; 0.5; 0 system applies.

This extravagant scoring plan will surely cause lots of discussion, particularly in combination with the issue of Armageddon games, raised after the US Women's Championship tiebreak.

GM Sergei Tiviakov

Final standings:
1. GM Sergei Tiviakov (NED 2635) - 23 points (5 wins)
2. IM Jean-Pierre Le Roux (FRA 2482) - 20 (6)
3-6. GM Erwin L'Ami (NED 2600), GM Viorel Iordachescu (MDA 2584), GM Dmitry Svetushkin (MDA 2568) and IM Gergely Szabo (ROU 2516) - 19 etc

The prices were good, the accommodation cheap, surely worth of trying next year. More information on the tournament website