Josh Colas on ’19 European Tour

IM-elect Josh Colas
Photo courtesy of Webster University (SPICE)

Josh Colas just finished his junior year at Webster University and has begun a series of tournaments in Europe. Colas has a GM norm and two IM norms needing only to reach 2400 to have the IM title conferred. He is looking to add to his collection of norms and Elo points during this tour. Planned are tournaments in Spain, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The first was the Benasque International Open which features a strong field of Grandmasters throughout Europe and Latin America.

Grandmasters Robert Hovhannisyan of Armenia and Mateusz Bartel of Poland won the tournament with 8.5/10, but the Armenian had better tiebreaks and declared the overall winner. Colas got 7/10 including 50% against GMs and a win over Peru’s WGM Deysi Cora. Deysi is the sister of Josh’s Webster teammate GM Jorge Cori. Josh gained 25 Elo points in Benasque and begins his second tournament today, the Czech Open in Pardubice, Czech Republic, July 19th-28th. He will then compete in Hungary beginning August 4th.

FM Josh Colas (2302-USA)
2019 Benasque International Open Benasque (Spain)
#	Title	Player	ELO	Fed	Flag	Result
1		SARTO RAMOS, Angel	1818	Spain		1
2		VIÑAL GUTIERREZ, Pedro	2026	Spain		0
3		PES MATEO, Ángel	1961	Spain		1F
4		NÚÑEZ REIZ, Antonio	2110	Spain		1
5	WFM	REPRESA PÉREZ, Mireya	2017	Spain		1
6	GM	JANSA, Vlastimil	2457	Czech Republic		1
7	GM	RYCHAGOV, Andrey	2537	Russia		0
8	GM	GASCON DEL NOGAL, José Rafael	2466	Venezeula		½
9	WGM	CORI, Deysi	2405	Peru		1
10	IM	ADMIRAAL, Miguoel	2504	Netherlands		½
Score: 7/10 (Standings)

Synopsis of Benasque: Josh starts off his European tour with a decent +4 result. He got a chance to play three Grandmasters including Czech legend Vlastimil Jansa, whom he beat. Jansa played in the Olympiad for Czechoslovakia and is a three-time national champion (1964, 1974, 1984). Jansa is highly regarded as a trainer and was the teacher of Czech super-GM, David Navara. Josh also played WGM Deysi Cori, a long-time Peruvian women’s champion and IM Miguoel Admiraal, a rising Dutch talent.

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FM Josh Colas (2302-USA)
2019 Czech Open Pardubice (Czech Republic)
#	Title	Player	ELO	Fed	Flag	Result
1	WGM	PTACNIKOVA, Lenka	2074	Iceland		1
2	GM	GAGARE, Shardul	2476	India		0
3		PETR, Jan	2107	Czech Republic		½
4		JINSOO, Kim	2087	South Korea		0
5		BUCHCAR, Tomas	2141	Czech Republic		½
6		NIEDBALA , Bartolomiej	2152	Poland		0
7		GLOSER, David	2123	Czech Republic		1
8		GALICEK, Stanislav	2140	Czech Republic		½
9	WFM	GELLER, Anastasia	2186	Russia		½
Score: 4/9 (Standings, Main Site)

Synopsis of Pardubice: Challenging tournament, but Josh maintains a positive outlook. Didn’t see all of the games, but I noticed Josh struggles with the white pieces. He’ll certainly clean that up for his next tournament. As you can see, Josh got one GM and was paired down the rest of the way. Open Swiss pairings always make getting GM norms more difficult. You may not get paired with the required three GMs. The closed tournament format is better suited since every norm seeker will play a strong field (including the three GMs). Perhaps we will have to organize a couple of GM norm tournaments to give Josh (and players like him) more norm opportunities.

On forward!