Battle of the Sexes Chess Tournament: Round 10

By John Saunders

Round 10 of the #GibChess Battle of the Sexes match-tournament, held at Gibraltar’s Garrison Library on Thursday 3 February, saw the men’s team win by 6½-3½ to finish overall winners by 53-47. On the day they needed four points to be sure of overall success, but they managed to go undefeated on the day as three of their number won their games to reach a score of 6½. The winners on the final day were Bobby Cheng, who beat Jovi Houska; Ravi Haria, who beat Olga Girya; and Bilel Bellahcene, who defeated Marie Sebag (her only loss of the event). Balazs Csonka drew his game with Marsel Efroimski and this was enough to secure his second grandmaster norm.

The best individual score of 7/10 was achieved by Balazs Csonka (Hungary) and Bilel Bellahcene (Algeria). One member of the women’s team, Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine) scored 6½/10, as did two members of the men’s team, captain Sabino Brunello (Italy) and Ravi Haria (England).