Canadian GM Hansen,E into the World Cup

Oct 24

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Mar del Plata 2012 :
‘The banana ate the monkey’– Chessbase News

Canadian GM Hansen,E qualifies for the World Cup. Hansen scored a GM norm in the recent Olympiad and also won this year’s Canadian Open Championship for a highly sucessful year so far.

Kaidanov(L)-Hansen(R) during blitz playoff
‘It finally came down to the last round, by which point Julio Granda Zuniga was guaranteed a spot as were both American GMs Kaidanov and Shabalov. Argentine GM Diego Flores had 1.0/3 and Canadian IM Eric Hansen had 0.5/3, meaning that Hansen had a must-win situation with black, since even a draw meant he was out. Until then the 20-year-old’s play had been tense and tentative, which was completely at odds with his massive speed chess strength. Consider that the young IM has a colossal 3300 blitz rating in online chess, a stratospheric rating reserved until now only to 2700-rated grandmasters. He had been very tense due to the circumstances, and in his own words, was overthinking it.

As he later explained, with nothing to lose (his description), the tension lifted and he played at his most relaxed. He by no means rolled over Flores, but a late mistake by Diego when both were down to a minute, cost him the game, and Eric Hansen had pulled off the miracle, coming from behind and becoming the last and least expected qualifier.

The banana ate the monkey.’-From Chessbase.com

Final standings after eleven rounds
Rk Tit Name Fed Rtg Pts TB rtg+/-
1 GM Granda Zuniga Julio E PER 2647 8.5 73.5 3.8
2 GM Shabalov Alexander USA 2570 8.5 71.0 9.3
3 GM Flores Diego ARG 2598 8.5 71.0 2.4
4 IM Hansen Eric CAN 2527 8.5 68.5 7.8
5 GM Kaidanov Gregory S USA 2587 8.5 67.0 5.9

Felgaer,R (2579) – Hansen,Eric (2527) [C18]
7th Americas Continental 2012 Mar del Plata ARG (11.5), 21.10.2012
GM Hansen,E(black) to play against GM Felgaer managed to survive the storm and went on to win a clutch game in a topical French Winawer line.

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