45th VILLA DE BENASQUE INTERNATIONAL CHESS OPEN 2026. ROUND 1
This Sunday, 5 July, the 45th Villa de Benasque International Open began with a round marked by equality in many of the games, due to the use of the accelerated Swiss system in the pairing process.
The Benasque sports hall began to empty of players after 7 p.m., although many games were still in progress as we approached four hours of play.
In addition to some highly interesting games, these more evenly matched encounters produced surprises on the top boards, starting with the defeat of the tournament’s number 11 seed, Germany’s Bennet Hagner, against Madrid player Lope Serrano. Several players managed to take half a point from titled opponents: Basque under-18 player Iker Tafall on board 9, Catalan player Guerau Benseny on board 14, Madrid player Jorge Blanco on board 16, and Valencian player Luis González on board 27.
The same pattern continued throughout the rest of the tournament. For example, between boards 30 and 40, titled players had to concede as many as four draws. It was a great debut for the broadcast of the top 35 boards, which proved very entertaining for spectators, with so many favourites dropping points.
In previous years, it was usually from round 3 or 4 onwards that one could see which of the favourites were losing their chances of fighting for the top prizes. In this edition, however, that has already started to happen in the very first round.
Once again, the gathering of around fifty chess players gives Benasque a very special atmosphere, also helped by the many chess fans who come along, even if only for a couple of days.
The chess players also took advantage of the afternoon to begin registering for the various side events, an essential part of the Open. In addition to individual registrations, it was an afternoon for forming football and 3×3 basketball teams among the large number of young chess players present at the Open.
In the second round, the main pairings are as follows:
| 1 | Martín Cabeza Nicolas | 1 | 1 | GM | Antipov Mikhail Al. | ||
| 2 | GM | Jacobson Brandon | 1 | 1 | Jiménez Freniche David | ||
| 3 | Suárez Álvarez Miguel | 1 | 1 | GM | Petkov Momchil | ||
| 4 | GM | Samant Aditya S | 1 | 1 | Yu Tianxiang Carlos | ||
| 5 | FM | Gómez Anadón Daniel | 1 | 1 | GM | Cardoso Cardoso José Gabriel | |
| 6 | GM | Tiglon Bryce | 1 | 1 | Camps Abadía Arnau | ||
| 7 | AIM | Alonso Vargas David | 1 | 1 | GM | Avila Pavas Santiago | |
| 8 | GM | Zoler Dan | 1 | 1 | Benet Morant Damia | ||
| 9 | GM | Castellanos Rodríguez Renier | 1 | 1 | Gómez Fernández Pedro Javier | ||
| 10 | IM | Habans Aguerrea Javier | 1 | 1 | Blázquez Sanz Oscar | ||
| 11 | Antoneac Antoneac Pablo S. | 1 | 1 | FM | Marrujo Pardo Mauricio E | ||
| 12 | Pallares Jover Adrián | 1 | 1 | IM | Vergara Anton Diego | ||
| 13 | CM | Conon Catalin | 1 | 1 | GM | Cifuentes Parada Roberto | |
| 14 | FM | Povshednyi Ivan | 1 | 1 | IM | Martín González Ángel | |
| 15 | Ezcurra Garzo Adrián | 1 | 1 | IM | Xie Felix |