Erwin L'Ami Wins Rabat Marathon Blitz
Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 1:58PM
Dennis Monokroussos in Erwin L'Ami, Rabat blitz 2015

It's looking like a very good year for Dutch GM Erwin L'Ami. Earlier this year he won a very strong open tournament in Reykjavik, clinching first place with a round to spare, and now he has won the Rabat Blitz Marathon with an enormous (and undefeated) score of 18.5/21 - and that's with a quick last-round draw against a player 400 points lower-rated to clinch clear first. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov finished half a point behind, and Daniel Fridman was in third with 16.

By the end the top players had run out of GMs to face, but in the critical stretch when they all faced each other L'Ami had a fantastic run. Starting in round 4, he had wins against GMs David Larino Nieto, Mamedyarov (with a lot of luck in that game), Loek van Wely (who finished fourth), Fridman, drew with Alexei Shirov (and was pressing), beat Bartlomiej Heberla, drew with Sergey Fedorchuk (but was completely winning), drew with Fernando Peralta, beat a couple of non-GMs before beating Alfonso Romero Holmes and (after another intervening win vs. a non-GM) drew with Fabien Libiszewski. Going 8-2 vs. GMs will win a player a lot of tournaments!

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