45th VILLA DE BENASQUE INTERNATIONAL CHESS OPEN 2026. ROUND 7

American GM Brandon Jacobson has once again become the sole leader after defeating Indian Grandmaster Aditya Samant with the black pieces. However, the bombshell came after the round ended, when the leader informed the organisers that, due to unforeseen circumstances, he had to withdraw from the Open.

On the boards featuring players on 5 points, there was an overwhelming majority of wins for the favourites, with the exception of Javier Habans’ defeat against Alejandro Castellanos, the draw on board four between Grandmasters Elizbar Ubilava and Renier Castellanos, and the draw between young Catalan player Hugo Uber and Hungarian IM Aron Pasti.

Mikhail Antipov, Momchil Petkov and Hagner Bennet won with the white pieces against Mauricio Marrujo, Felix Xie and Markel Vesga.

In the group of players on 4.5 points, the favourites also scored victories, except for Anna Matnadaze’s defeat against Catalan junior Arnau Caps, the draw between China’s Ruijun Jin and Italy’s Fulvio Zamengo, and the draws achieved by young Zaragoza players Raúl Moya and Catalin Conon against FIDE Masters.

Overall standings:

1	GM	Jacobson Brandon	6½
2	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	6
3	GM	Petkov Momchil	6
4	FM	Castellanos Gómez Alejandro	6
5	IM	Hagner Bennet	6
6	GM	Samant Aditya S	5½
7	GM	Ubilava Elizbar	5½
8	GM	Avila Pavas Santiago	5½
9	GM	Cardoso Cardoso José Gabriel	5½
10	GM	Castellanos Rodríguez Renier	5½
11	IM	Vergara Anton Diego	5½
12	GM	Tiglon Bryce	5½
13	IM	Pásti Áron	5½
14	IM	Hernández Cristian Andres	5½
15	FM	Krauchi Romero Martín	5½

Veterans’ standings

1	GM	Ubilava Elizbar	5½
2	GM	De La Villa Garcia Jesus Maria	5½
3	GM	Cifuentes Parada Roberto	5
4		Rodríguez García Manuel Francisco	4½
5	GM	Campora Daniel H.	4½

Junior standings

1	IM	Hagner Bennet	6
2	FM	Krauchi Romero Martín	5½
3	FM	Uber Gracia Hugo	5½
4		Camps Abadía Arnau	5½
5	IM	Habans Aguerrea Javier	5

Women’s standings

1	WGM	Cervantes Landeiro Thalia	4½
2	WFM	Hernández Bermúdez Manuela	4½
3	IM	Matnadze Bujiashvili Ann	4½
4		Miranda Herrera Belen	4½
5		Diéguez Novoa Pura	4½

Elo Band A

1	FM	Castellanos Gómez Alejandro	6
2	GM	Ubilava Elizbar	5½
3	IM	Hernández Cristian Andres	5½
4	FM	Krauchi Romero Martín	5½
5	FM	Uber Gracia Hugo	5½

Elo Band B+-

1		Camps Abadía Arnau	5½
2		Odriozola Coscolin Alex	5½
3	AFM	Morales Carmona José Manuel	5
4		Jin Ruijun	5
5	CM	Fernández Estremera Fernando	5

Elo Band C

1		Moya Gimeno Raúl	5
2		Serrano Ruiz Lope	4½
3		Gutiérrez Toro Raúl	4½
4	AIM	Benseny Martínez Guerau	4½
5		Carnero Rodríguez Sergio	4½

Elo Band D

1		Paniagua Tomillo Iván	5
2	WFM	Hernández Bermúdez Manuela	4½
3		Sanroman Pérez Luis	4½
4		González González Asier	4½
5		Martínez Agudo Jorge	4½

Elo Band E

1		Chang Eli	4½
2		Latre Rodríguez Francisco	4
3		Ceinos Diez Mariano	4
4		Vedant Nayudu	4
5		González Ferreras José Antonio	3½

Among the players with an Aragonese licence, Diego Vergara leads with 5.5 points. On 5 points are Daniel Romero, Máximo Lorente, Roberto Cifuentes, Catalin Conon, Adrian Pallarés, Nicolás Asensio, Adrián Villuendas and Raúl Moya.

Round 8 pairings:

1	IM	Hagner Bennet	6		6	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.
2	FM	Castellanos Gómez Alejandro	6		6	GM	Petkov Momchil
3	IM	Vergara Anton Diego	5½		5½	GM	Samant Aditya S
4	GM	Ubilava Elizbar	5½		5½	GM	Cardoso Cardoso José Gabriel
5	GM	Tiglon Bryce	5½		5½	FM	Krauchi Romero Martín
6	GM	Avila Pavas Santiago	5½		5½	IM	Hernández Cristian Andres
7	FM	Vergara Jofre Felipe	5½		5½	IM	Di Benedetto Edoardo
8	GM	Castellanos Rodríguez Renier	5½		5½	FM	Uber Gracia Hugo
9	IM	Pásti Áron	5½		5½		Odriozola Coscolin Alex
10	GM	De La Villa Garcia Jesus Maria	5½		5½		Camps Abadía Arnau

Following Jacobson’s withdrawal, the 20 players paired on the top 10 boards all have chances of winning the Open. On the first two boards, Antipov and Petkov will have to defend with the black pieces against Hagner and Castellanos, who have much lower Elo ratings.

And among those on 5.5 points, it will be a crucial round in order to reach the final two rounds with chances of fighting for the biggest prizes.

As part of the Open’s parallel activities, tomorrow, Sunday, at 10 p.m., Leontxo García will give a talk, while football, guiñote, mus and table football are already in their final stages.