A comforting hug before starting the game. Alanna Berikkyzy of KAZ, is the reigning U-10 world champion (last year she also won the world championship in her age group, she has two consecutive titles) (PHOTO: David Llada)
The final stretch of the VI El Llobregat Open Chess Tournament has begun, with the favorites for the victory sharpening their knives. The distances between them are minimal, those who dominate their nerves better will win the generous prizes.
The perception of sports practice has undergone profound transformations in recent decades. The almost mythical figure of the “iron athlete”, promoted by the media in the 1980s, represented an invincible athlete, oblivious to emotional wear and tear. The athlete bore a double burden of suffering: on the one hand, the weight of failing those who trusted him and, on the other, the intimate shame of feeling weak in an environment that demands absolute strength. This pressure, rooted in the old sports culture, made it difficult to ask for help.
Today, the image of athletes has become more humanized: their vulnerability and the importance of their mental well-being are recognized. In chess, for example, the figure of the sports psychologist has become common and no one is surprised that players, great talents under great pressure, take care of their emotional state with the help of professionals. 
GM Raja (India) (PHOTOGRAPH: David Llada)
The pressure to which the players are subjected is very high, knowing how to handle nerves in the VI El Llobregat Open Chess Tournament becomes a skill as decisive as the previous theoretical preparation. As the tournament progresses and the fight for the top positions intensifies, the pressure seeps into every detail: any inaccuracy can cost the game.
The bell was rung by Roman Shogdziev, the youngest international master of all time (PHOTO: David Llada).
The traditional ringing of the bell to start the round of play was given to the very young Roman Shogdziev, the youngest international master of all time, who achieved the title at the age of 10.
MI Nurgaliyev (Kazakhstan) (PHOTOGRAPH: David Llada)
In sporting terms, the Indian grandmasters Bharath and Pranesh won their games, so in the next round they will face each other on the first board. Both with 6 points out of a possible seven, they are in a privileged position to win the tournament. They are followed, half a point behind, by Nazari, Valiyev, Deuer and Petkov.
https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1149162.aspx?lan=2&art=1&rd=7&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
In Group B, Lavyaajyoti and Kaliakhmet lead with 5 points out of a possible 6, followed by Santos and Stachanczyk with 4.5.
https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1223188.aspx?lan=2&art=1&rd=6&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
For fans of the history of the sport, we will be unveiling in these chronicles the milestones achieved by the Llobregat Open Chess Tournament in the five previous editions:
- Best open held in Spain in the 2022 and 2023 editions, as certified by the Consejo Superior de Deportes and the FEDA (Spanish Chess Federation).
- We had more than one thousand participants; 50% international graduates.
- An average of 45 countries are represented at each edition.
- EL LLOBREGAT played: Gukesh, Narayanan, Abdusattorov, Mateusz Bartel, Erijaisi, Muraliu Karthikeyan, Puranik, Alvar Alonso, Maxime Lagarde, Kulkarni Bhakti, Mobina Alinasab, Rakshitta Ravi, Savitha Shri Baskar, Privanka Nutakki, Jaime Santos, Sara Khadem, Sabrina Vega, Lucas Van Foreest, Francisco Vallejo, Yangyi Yu, Ivan Cheparinov, Vladimir Fedoseev, Kiriil Alekseenko, Jaime Santos, Ponomariov, Amin Tabatabaei, Matthias Bluebaum, Vahap Sanal, Antoaneta Stefanova, Hans Niemann, Alain Pichot, Fernando Peralta… and so on up to more than a hundred grandmasters.
- In 2024, female participation was 17% (FIDE average is 11%; Spanish 6%; Catalan 7%).
- In 2024 we broadcast from 63 electronic boards and 12 cameras; 40,762 users from 40 countries connected to elllobregat.com/openchess, with a total of 71,515 pages served. On YouTube, the videos generated during the tournament totaled 415,892 views.
We would like to thank our sponsors: El Llobregat (magazine), Ajuntament de Sant Boi, Generalitat de Catalunya, Aigües de Barcelona and Diputació de Barcelona, without whose invaluable help an event of this magnitude would not be possible.
You can follow the games (from 4 p.m. onwards) daily on the web: https://www.elllobregat.com
