Jacobson scores 7½ out of 9
Montevideo once again served as a meeting point for regional chess with the staging of the 9th Chess Festival Ciudad de Montevideo. The festival combined women’s tournaments, blitz events, a professional open and promotional competitions, bringing together titled players and a broad base of local and international participants.
The main standard-time event, the 9th Ciudad de Montevideo Open “Antel Cup”, began on 30 January. The tournament featured 5 GMs, 9 IMs and 1 WGM, among a total of 27 titled players which made up a portion of the 79 participants. The event was played over nine rounds.
Top seed was Norwegian Olympiad representative Johan-Sebastian Christiansen (2656), followed by US grandmaster Brandon Jacobson (2584). The field also included the Italo-Argente grandmaster Carlos García Palermo, known for victories over Bobby Fischer (in a simul) and Anatoly Karpov during his career, and Mexican grandmaster Gilberto Hernández Guerrero. Two previous champions returned: Argentine grandmaster Leonardo Tristán, winner of the third edition, and Argentine international master Pablo Ismael Acosta, who won the fourth open.
Among the leading local players were IM Facundo Vázquez, winner of the 2025 Zonal 2.5, and IM Bernardo Roselli Mailhe, 22-time Uruguayan national champion.
The tournament took place at the Idea Vilariño Hall in the Complejo Torre de las Telecomunicaciones | Photos: Antel
The tournament produced an outright winner in second seed Brandon Jacobson. The 22-year-old from Plainfield, New Jersey, was the only player to remain undefeated over the nine rounds, finishing clear first with 7½/9. After five rounds, he was tied for the lead with Christiansen on 5/5. A victory with the white pieces against the top seed in round six gave Jacobson sole possession of first place, and three draws in the remaining rounds were sufficient to secure the title.
Christiansen was one of three players to finish half a point behind on 7/9, alongside Roselli and Tristán. According to tiebreak criteria, Christiansen and Roselli were placed second and third respectively, completing the podium in Montevideo.
Bernardo Roselli | Photo: Antel
García Palermo 0-1 Jacobson (Round 5)
Final standings
| 1 | GM | Jacobson, Brandon | 2584 | 7,5 | 0 | |
| 2 | GM | Christiansen, Johan-Sebastian | 2656 | 7 | 1 | |
| 3 | IM | Roselli Mailhe, Bernardo | 2288 | 7 | 2 | |
| 4 | GM | Tristan, Leonardo | 2477 | 7 | 2 | |
| 5 | IM | Acosta, Pablo Ismael | 2484 | 6,5 | 0 | |
| 6 | IM | Vazquez, Facundo | 2420 | 6,5 | 0 | |
| 7 | IM | Villegas, Franco | 2331 | 6,5 | 0 | |
| 8 | FM | Sanhueza, Cristian | 2246 | 6,5 | 0 | |
| 9 | GM | Hernandez Guerrero, Gilberto | 2411 | 6 | 0 | |
| 10 | GM | Garcia Palermo, Carlos Horacio | 2388 | 6 | 0 | |
| 11 | IM | Coppola, Claudio | 2216 | 6 | 0 | |
| 12 | Ocampos, Ian | 2233 | 6 | 0 | ||
| 13 | FM | Muniz, Rafael | 2158 | 6 | 0 | |
| 14 | FM | Izquierdo, Daniel | 2058 | 6 | 0 | |
| 15 | FM | Carbone, Diego | 2236 | 5,5 | 0 |
All available games
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores one of the most intriguing and under-examined areas of modern chess: reversed opening systems, focusing on the Reversed Grünfeld and the Reversed Dutch. At first glance, these two systems seem unrelated. However, they share a common strategic challenge: the value of tempi, structure, and psychology when familiar openings are played with colours reversed. Drawing on his long professional experience, Sokolov explains why these positions are far more subtle than they appear and why traditional engine evaluations often fail to capture their true complexity.
Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Larsen’s b4 Plan vs Reversed Stonewall Setups: Larsen – Spassky
