Domdaniel: A biog might be a good idea, now that Alex has won the 2010 Irish championship -- very convincingly, and by a full point.It included the following game, where Alex's opponent, Redmond, misunderstood the time at which the round was due to start, arrived an hour late, and was defaulted. Even though he was playing Black and still far from being certain of first place, Lopez very sportingly agreed to ignore the default and play the game anyway. This exquisite miniature was the result:
[Event "IRL ch"]
[Site "Dublin"]
[Date "2010.07.10"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Redmond, John"]
[Black "Astaneh Lopez, Alex"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A11"]
[WhiteElo "2205"]
[BlackElo "2367"]
[EventType "swiss"]
1.c4 c6 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 d5 4.e3 e6 5.b3 Bd6 6.Bb2 O-O 7.Qc2 Re8 8.Be2 a6 9.g4 e5 10.g5 d4 11.gxf6 dxc3 12.Bxc3 Qxf6 13.Rg1 Bf5 14.Qb2 c5 15.O-O-O Nc6 16.Rg2 Nd4! 17.exd4 exd4 18.Nxd4 cxd4 19.Bxd4 Qxd4! 0-1
[20.Qxd4 Ba3+ is nasty...]
Alex got the FM title in his mid-teens and quickly shot up to a rating in the upper 2300s. He's been stalled there for the past couple of years, however - the familiar story of chess having to compete with university studies. As a result, he's played in relatively few major events -- though he's won several weekend swisses in Ireland (beating me three times in the process). He's also beaten several GMs, and only lost to Svidler when he went wrong in a tenable endgame due to time pressure.
After this victory I expect to see him with at least the IM title soon.
Kibitzing
