International grand master Pavel Tregubov became the winner of IV International rapid chess tournament Pivdenny Bank Chess Cup in memory of Efim Geller.

The tournament in memory of Geller organized by «Pivdenny» bank took place in the Odessa National Academy of Law, from May, 30th till June, 1st. Competition passed on circular system in 2 circles with the time control — 10 minutes per game with addition of 5 seconds for each move. Prize-winning fund — 35 thousand dollars.

The representative of France P. Tregubov has shared 1-4 places with three other participants, but his additional parameter appeared to be better than competitors’. Tregubov has won the main cup of tournament and the first prize — 10 thousand dollars.

According to the rules, in case of equal quantity of points the winner is defined on additional parameters. The main arbitrator of the tournament Oleg Tovchiga has counted up Berger's coefficient which gave the following results: the first — Tregubov — 59,75; the second — Drozdovsky — 57,25; the third — Gelfand — 54,25; the fourth — Ponomarev — 49,75.

Final positions: 1. Pavel Tregubov (France) — 9; 2. Yury Drozdovsky (Ukraine, Odessa) — 9; 3. Boris Gelfand (Israel) — 9; 4. Ruslan Ponomarev (Ukraine) — 9; 5. Anatoly Karpov (Russia) – 8.5; 6. Victor Korchnoy (Switzerland) — 4; 7. Valery Beym (Austria) — 4; 8. Mikhail Golubev (Ukraine, Odessa) – 3.5.

Historic game between Anatoly Karpov and Victor Korchnoy took place within the limits the tournament. Old contenders have met on the second day of the competition in 7-th round. The game has turned out very fascinating. Two «K»’s have played a debut non-standardly — Korchnoy offered up a piece and Karpov’s king has remained without castling. Then Korchnoy has found an interesting resource having enticed white’s king in the center. It seemed that the game comes to a draw by repetition of moves. However Karpov has found a brilliant combination — Anatoly Evgenievich has offered up his rook and as consequence black appeared before an unpleasant dilemma — to get mat or to lose a queen. Korchnoy did not begin to do neither that nor another — he has simply surrendered on 19-th move. In the second circle contenders have played a drawn game. Thus, Karpov has won an original mini-duel.

The winner of the first rapid chess tournament in 2005 was Ukrainian Ruslan Ponamarev, in 2006 Frenchman Joel Lautier was the best and in 2007 — Ukrainian Vasily Ivanchuk.