A superb lesson from Magnus Carlsen in endgame technique
Carlsen-Wang Yue, Medias 2010
It's been a while since we looked at the endgame, so this week we begin a short series on this often neglected area with a terrific demonstration of endgame technique from the ever-improving world No 1 Magnus Carlsen. Although White has the advantage of rook against bishop, Black has an extra pawn and a solid position. How did Carlsen make progress?
RB I'm pretty sure the answer lies in g4. The question is whether to nudge the pawn forward immediately or whether some preparation is needed first, perhaps exchanging on d5 or advancing the king to e3. The only way is concrete calculation, so let's see what happens after the immediate 1 g4. After 1...gxh4 2 gxh5 what would Black play? Maybe 2...Be4, threatening to block the pawn's advance. But White seems to have a whole host of good moves available – the rook could go to c7 or c4, the king could go to e3, or even g1 when it threatens to get to the black h-pawn via h2 and h3.
Does it make any difference if Black responds to 1 g4 with 1 hxg4...? Not that I can see. After 2 h5 Be4 3 Rc7 Black faces the same problem as he does in the first variation. In both cases White is completely winning, unless I'm missing something.
DK 1 g4 is the move. With this finesse White creates a distant passed pawn – quite an achievement considering that Black started with a pawn majority on this side of the board. The game continued 1 g4 hxg4 2 h5 Be4 3 Rc7. That's a really important move, not only preparing to push the pawn through, but preventing Black's king returning to block. Black tried to get counterplay with his own pawns, but White won the race with ease: 3...f5 4 h6 f4 5 h7 g3+ 6 Ke1 f3 7 h8(Q) f2+ 8 Ke2 Bd3+ 9 Ke3, and here Black resigned. He can also get a new queen, but White gets in first with the checks. For example: 9...f1(Q) 10 Qe8+ Kf5 11 Rf7+ winning the queen.
Every week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!
Y. Afek 2008 White to play and draw
Next week the solution.
Solution last week
Below you see the position from the game Gelfand-Wang Yue, Russian Team Ch 2010. In the dropdown selector above the board you can pick the position with the rook on g1, which was the ’study’ Gelfand showed to Carlsen at the Kings’ Tournament in Bazna.
El Gambito de Rey en manos de Carlsen en el King’s 2010, en Bazna, Rumania.
Carlsen Reina. Gana el King’s 2010 con 7,5/10; dos puntos de ventaja sobre Radjabov y Gelfand. Ganó 5 partidas, realizó una actuación equivalente a 2920 ELO; sube 13 puntos en el nuevo listado y con 2826 se aleja y se afirma en la cima del Ajedrez Mundial, seguido por Topalov (2803), Anand (2800) y Kramnik (2790).
Tras un comienzo tranquilo, con tres tablas, Magnus apretó el acelerador y ganó consecutivamente a Wang Yue, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov y Radjabov. Otro par de empates y un cierre con nuevo triunfo ante Wang Yue. Ganó 4 de los 5 mini-matches y sólo empató ante Gelfand (ambas partidas).
Dio la impresión que Carlsen estaba experimentando nuevas ideas que, aunque en algunos momentos parecieron poco convincentes, permitieron mostrar cómo Carlsen se las ingenió para salir de esos senderos pedregosos y hacer aún más espectacular su victoria. Así fue que en la 4ta Ronda sorprendió con el Gambito de Rey y elegimos esa partida como eje de la nota. No obstante, para deleite, conocimiento y estudio de nuestros lectores presentamos todas las partidas de Carlsen comentadas.
Magnus nunca utilizó el Gambito de Rey. "Las cosas no iban tan bien en el torneo pensé en probarlo y ver cómo va", dijo Carlsen después de la partida.
Su victoria no fue espectacular pero sobre todo tuvo un despliegue interesante y su visión y plan fue estratégico, de acumulación de ventajas, espacio, movilidad y su chance se basó en un peón aislado y pasado. Wang Yue no encontró los mejores caminos y fue quedando cada vez con menos espacio.
En los últimos 40 años, encuentro menos de 300 partidas en que jugadores de más de 2500 la utilizaron (incluyendo torneos blitz, rápidos y aún simultáneas). Entre los más entusiastas seguidores están el fuerte GM beloruso Alexei Fedorov (35 partidas), que la planteó ante Super GM con buen resultado (aunque la última fue en 2004, tablas justamente contra el niño Carlsen); los GM Joseph Gallager, Yuri Shulman aunque ante rivales un poco menos fuertes.
De los Top, Short es quien más la utilizó en partidas a ritmo normal y ante rivales fuertes. Del resto, encontraremos en partidas rápidas, blitz o simultáneas.
Cuando vi esta partida y que Carlsen había planteado el Gambito de Rey, varias historias vinieron a mi memoria. Lo primero fue el recuerdo de uno de mis ídolos, Boris Spassky y uno de los primeros libros de ajedrez que llegaron a mi biblioteca "XXVII Campeonato de Ajedrez de la U.R.S.S. 1960", con bastantes partidas comentadas. El Campeonato se jugó entre enero y febrero de 1960, lo ganó Korchnoi y Spassky planteó tres veces el Gambito de Rey, hizo 2.5/3 y entre sus derrotados estuvo Bronstein. En marzo de 1960, tanto Boris como David, vinieron a la Argentina, a jugar el tradicional Magistral de Mar del Plata. Y también vino, como en 1959, un joven de 17 años, Robert "Bobby" Fischer. Los tres Super-GM, estimándose que en ese momento superaban los 2700 ELO. Se dice que Bronstein, que conocía a Fischer del Interzonal de Portoroz 1958, fue el que acerco a Bobby y Boris, naciendo allí un fuerte vínculo amistoso entre ambos. El torneo lo ganaron Spassky y Fischer con un impresionante 13,5/15. Lo cierto es que en la 2da Ronda se enfrentaron y Boris planteó el Gambito de Rey. Bobby la analiza en "Mis 60 Partidas Memorables". Quedó mejor el Negro, pero errores le dieron el triunfo a las Blancas. Como dice Fischer en su libro: "Esta derrota me incitó a buscar una 'refutación' del Gambito de Rey. (___) El movimiento correcto (tras 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf 3.Cf3) es 3.__ d6!" y publicó sus análisis en el "American Chess Quarterly", Vol I (1961), núm 1; bajo el título "Un Busto para el Gambito de Rey", donde dice: "En mi opinión (___) se pierde forzosamente". Sin embargo, el mismo Fischer lo empleó varias veces en partidas importantes, aunque normalmente, tras 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 jugaba 3.Ac4. Y vino a mi recuerdo una partida en simultáneas de Bobby, sobre la que no tengo certeza de la fecha, 1970 (año en que arrasó en el Magistral de Buenos Aires, con 15/17) o en 1971 (cuando en Buenos Aires ganó la Final del Candidatura frente a Tigran Petrosian, 6,5-2,5). Las Simultáneas se jugaron en el Club Estudiantes de La Plata y un joven de 17 años, Carlos García Palermo, campeón de esa ciudad, triunfó sobre el Gambito de Rey planteado por Fischer y con el contra-gambito Faalkber con el que respondió Wang a Carlsen. Y vale el recuerdo de García Palermo, que terminó su carrera de Abogacía, obtuvo el título de GM, representó a la Argentina en Olimpíadas, terminó afincándose en Italia (a quien también representó y donde fue Campeón Nacional); y obtuvo una victoria sobre el entonces Campeón Mundial Anatoly Karpov, en Mar del Plata 1982.
Every week we present you an endgame study – this week not selected by IM Yochanan Afek but by another, quite famous player from Israel. Last week, at the Kings’ Tournament in Bazna, Boris Gelfand showed an ending to Magnus Carlsen, and he was happy to show it to our readers too. Good luck solving! Update: improved version after Mr. Gelfand emailed us.
At first we gave the position below, which actually happened in the game, and in which there’s only one winning move. But in fact a slightly altered position makes a much nicer study, as Boris Gelfand noted in an email to us. First the ‘wrong’ study, which you might try to solve as well:
From the game Gelfand-Wang Yue Russian Team Ch 2010 White to play and win
And now here’s the position Gelfand showed to Carlsen last week:
Inspired by Gelfand-Wang Yue Russian Team Ch 2010 White to play and win
Try solving without checking the tablebase! Next week the solution.
The gap between Magnus Carlsen (2826) and Veselin Topalov (2803) has increased to 23 points on the July 1 FIDE rating list. The Norwegian won 13 points whereas the Bulgarian dropped 9. Third is World Champion Viswanathan Anand, now with 2800 points exactly. Wang Yue dropped from 8th to 28th.
FIDE has published its July 1st rating list and since all the big events were entered in time, there’s no difference between the official top 10 and the “live” top 10 of Hans Arild Runde (which you can also find in the far right column on this website). In fact there aren’t very big changes in the top 10 compared to the previous list either.
Carlsen’s fine victory in Romania last week got him another 13 rating points and because Topalov lost 9 points in his match with Anand, the gap between the world’s number one and two is now 23 points. Those 9 points went to Anand, who thereby surpassed Kramnik to regain the 3rd spot, at a nice 2800 precisely.
At the Kings’ Tournament Gelfand lost twice to Radjabov; the two switched places on the rankings between spots 10 and 13. Malakhov and Navara are in the top 20 on this list – the latter thanks to a stunning 8.5/9 at the Czech Championship.
Vugar Gashimov, who was still 7th in the world on the January 2010 list, dropped further to a 26th spot. The biggest skydive was performed by Wang Yue, who lost 36 points and went down from 8th to 28th. Winning 16 points, Wang Hao surpassed him to become China’s number one at 2724.
After entering the top 100 on the May list, Anish Giri won 30 more points to climb to a 62nd place at 2672, but the highest rated Dutch player is Loek van Wely with five points more. Ivan Cheparinov is back in the top 100 with 2661.
The women’s list is still very stable, with very few changes in the top 10. Judit Polgar again didn’t play, but Humpy Koneru did. The Indian lost 22 points at the 3rd FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik and so the gap increased from 60 to 82 points. Below you’ll find the new top 100, the top 100 women, the top 20 juniors and the top 20 girls. We give the first two lists including the changes with the previous lists.
FIDE JULY 2010 RATING LIST: TOP 100 PLAYERS
Legend:
black color – player remained on the same position
green color – player moved up in the list
red color – player moved down in the list
blue color – player is new to the current Top list Old represents player’s position in the previous period list
The competition took place from June 14th to 25th 2010 in Medias, Romania. ROMGAZ and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade” of Bucharest organized a double round robin tournament with six top GMs: Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Ukrainian GM Ruslan Ponomariov, Boris Gelfand of Israel, the top Chinese player Wang Yue, Teimour Radjabov, the second highest ranked player of Azerbaijan, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, the best Romanian player.
A victory with black pieces against Wang Yue in the last round, left Carlsen an advantage of two points ahead from his immediate followers: Radjabov and Gelfand.
This time we have one and a half week of videos to look at. As the World Cup drags on, our game of kings doesn't seem ready to take a backseat! As always, for feedback and recommendations go to the forum!
If you signed up for the Analysis Exchange, go post your analysis! If you aren't, you have some serious questions to answer! :p
Magnus Carlsen finished the Kings Tournament in Bazna, Romania in style. The Norwegian beat Wang Yue with Black in the last round to finish with a 7.5/10 score, two points ahead of the rest of the field. Ponomariov and Radjabov defeated Nisipeanu and Gelfand respectively, also with the black pieces. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco – Final Report.
Marcel Adrian Piteiu, CEO of sponsor Romgaz, and Magnus Carlsen holding the trophy
The fourth Kings Tournament took place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. It was a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue played. The rate of play was 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move. No draw agreement by the players were allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
The event was organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament was officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue was the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers decidede to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna after five rounds, where everyone was staying.
ChessVibes was at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:
As Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Magnus Carlsen quickly calculated during the buffet after the closing ceremony, the final round of the Kings Tournament brought the number of Black victories to eight, against just seven for White! It was three times ‘0-1′ on the last day, and this included the fifth victory for Carlsen, against Wang Yue.
The Chinese GM played one of his worst games and thus finished with a very disappointing result. He had a very tough tournament, in which he never seemed to have recovered from his jetlag, and the 24 hours waiting at Munich airport (due to visa problems) before the start. For Carlsen it meant a relatively easy with to end with a 7.5/10 score, a 2918 performance and a new rating of 2826, the second highest in chess history.
The other two games were similar affairs, with the white players simply playing way below their normal level. Ponomariov could end a not very good tournament with a win, thanks to some big, strategical errors by his Romanian opponent. 7…Ne7 caught Nisipeanu by surprise and after that all his moves ‘deserved a question mark’, as he said afterwards. Ponomariov thought 17.d4 to be the decisive mistake.
Als Gelfand started to make mistakes at an early stage. He had his doubts about 14.Qd2, since the queen had to go to c2 soon afterwards. And after 17…c6 he suddenly saw that the planned 17.Ne3 is answered by the strong 17…Ne6 18.Bg3 f5, so there White’s position was already difficult. Radjabov thought it to be winning after 24…a5.
So the Kings Tournament ended in another great victory for Carlsen, who is getting closer to Kasparov’s record Elo. More importantly, the Norwegian showed that even after a break of a few months he can still maintain his high level, barely getting into real danger. Only Ponomariov had him on the ropes, but then missed a big chance when Carlsen created new complications.
Next on the world’s number one’s chess agenda is a rapid event with Anand, Polgar and Hammer in August in Norway and he’ll also play for Norway at the Olympiad. Soon we will find out if we will see him in one of the other big, upcoming tournaments: Shanghai, Bilbao and Nanjing. He already signed for London in December. Next top event is Dortmund, which starts July 15th and has Kramnik, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Leko, Naiditsch and Le Quang Liem.
La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna vient de s'achever sur le triomphe de Magnus Carlsen avec 7,5 points sur 10, soit une performance de 2920 Elo.
Celui que l'on imagine comme le prochain champion du monde d'échecs, a donné une véritable leçon en remportant 5 parties et en concédant 5 nulles. Il laisse ses plus proches poursuivants, Teimour Radjabov et Boris Gelfand, à 2 points derrière.
La Panthère rose
Ci-contre, le champion d'échecs norvégien Magnus Carlsen.
Résultats de la 10ème et dernière ronde : Journée totalement noire, les 3 parties s'achevant sur le score identique de 0-1. Magnus Carlsen, Ruslan Ponomariov et Teimour Radjabov s'imposent respectivement face à Wang Yue, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu et Boris Gelfand.
Magnus Carlsen impressively won the 4th Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania by a clear two points.
In a hard fought final round, all games were won by the player with the black pieces! Carlsen employed the Gruenfeld to win against Wang Yue and th...
All three games of round 9 in Bazna, Romania ended in draw. With one round to go, Carlsen leads the Kings Tournament with 6.5/9. Gelfand, who celebrated his 42nd birthday on Thursday, has a point less. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.
The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:
A bit more than an hour into the round, Radjabov and Wang Yue already finished their game. I was upstairs in my hotel room working on something else, and suddenly I saw the ‘1/2-1/2′ on the live transmission board. I went downstairs with my camera, but the players were nowhere to be seen. There wasn’t much to record anyway, since everything was theory, and analysed to a draw back in 2002.
More interesting were the other two games, but these two also ended in draws. Ponomariov-Gelfand had quite a disappointing finish, since there was still enough going on in the final position. The reason for this draw? Ponomariov was suddenly wondering what he was doing. He didn’t like his last few moves at all, and thought that if he’d continue that way, he’d certainly lose. Then he saw Gelfand had just two minutes left on the clock, and it was a good moment for a draw offer.
Nisipeanu surprised Carlsen by playing the Jänisch Gambit of the Ruy Lopez. This variation has mainly been played at top level by Radjabov recently, and Carlsen said he knew those games, but that he was less comfortable when he saw 5…d5 played. Therefore he didn’t go for the critical 9.Nxa7+, but the more solid 9.f4.
In his recent book The Ruy Lopez Revisited, Sokolov says about 16.Qf1 “this is considered to be White’s best. A number of other moves have been tried – almost everything. Black has adequate counterplay and the tables can easily turn,” and then 16.Nf7 Bxf7 17.Bxf7 Rhf8 (Timman-Speelman, London Candidates 1989), 16.Kb1, 16.a4, 16.Rdf1, 16.Bxe6+ and 16.g4 are mentioned. After 16.Rdf1 (instead of Carlsen’s 16.Rhf1) Sokolov gives 16…Rhe8 17.Bxf6 gxf6 18.Nf7 (18.Rxf6 Bxe5 as in the game is only possible with a rook on d1 instead of h1) 18…Rd7 Lau-Schiffer, Bundesliga 1996/97.
Nisipeanu played very accurately, e.g. his 21…Qh6+ and 25…Kc7! were strong. When Dorian Rogozenco told him that it had all been played in correspondence games, Nisipeanu said he ought to update his correspondence database, but in fact his second Iordachescu admitted they had looked at it. After the game Carlsen and Nisipeanu analysed a possible pawn ending for about half an hour.
At night, just like last year, Gelfand was given a birthday cake and we all toasted to his health with a glass of champagne. A very nice gesture from the organizers.
La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna se déroule du 14 au 25 juin à Medias. Ce tournoi d'échecs se joue en 10 rondes aller-retour, avec 6 grands-maîtres dont le n°1 au Elo Magnus Carlsen. Nous suivrons la partie Wang Yue - Magnus Carlsen lors de cette ultime ronde.
La Panthère rose
Ci-contre, le champion d'échecs norvégien Magnus Carlsen.
Résultats de la 9ème ronde : Statu quo avant la dernière ronde après les 3 nulles d'hier. Magnus Carlsen neutralise Nisipeanu avec les pièces blanches tandis que l'Israélien Boris Gelfand, son rival le plus proche, manque le gain en zeitnot avec les Noirs face à Ponomariov. Nulle également du Chinois Wang Yue face à Teimour Radjabov. Le joueur d'échecs norvégien consolide ainsi son leadership au classement avec 6,5 points sur 9 avant la dernière ronde. Avec un point d'avance sur Gelfand, c'est quasi plié pour Magnus !
La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna se déroule du 14 au 25 juin à Media?. Ce tournoi d'échecs se joue en 10 rondes aller-retour, avec 6 grands-maîtres dont le n°1 au Elo Magnus Carlsen.
La Panthère rose
Ci-contre, le champion d'échecs norvégien Magnus Carlsen.
Résultats de la 9ème ronde : Statu quo avant la dernière ronde après les 3 nulles du jour. Magnus Carlsen neutralise Nisipeanu avec les pièces blanches tandis que l'Israélien Boris Gelfand, son rival le plus proche, résiste avec les Noirs face à Ponomariov ainsi que le Chinois Wang Yue face à Radjabov. Le joueur d'échecs norvégien consolide ainsi son leadership au classement avec 6,5 points sur 9 avant la dernière ronde. C'est quasi plié pour Magnus !
On refait le match : Ronde 8 - Belle opération de Magnus Carlsen qui annule sans difficulté avec les Noirs face à Boris Gelfand.
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu defeated Wang Yue with the black pieces in round 8 of the Kings Tournament in Bazna, Romania. Gelfand-Carlsen and Radjabov-Ponomariov ended in a draw. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.
The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:
The eighth round saw the clash between the numbers one and two in the standings. For Gelfand, who played with the white pieces, it was an excellent opportunity to do something about Carlsen’s supreme reign in the tournament. And the Israel grandmaster got his chances, when his opponent allowed some complicated tactics on move 16.
In a more or less forced sequence of moves, both sides ‘won’ an exchange and the resulting position was analysed in the hotel lobby by Ponomariov and Radjabov, who had drawn a quiet game in thirty moves. “It looks promising for White, but Carlsen is a tricky guy, very tricky,” Ponomariov said.
And indeed the Norwegian appeared to be safe throughout the game, and even had the better chances in the end. Black’s activity is more important than White’s a-pawn, but there is no clear way to profit from the pin.
Nisipeanu was rewarded for his persistance in an ending against Wang Yue. At move 36 his second Viorel Iordechascu couldn’t find more ideas for Black and expected a draw soon, but his boss managed to find a way to get his king in. Then, on move 63, he said he wasn’t sure if ‘Dieter’ would find 63…Kc3 and especially 65…Rf1, which he called a ‘computer move’ to cut the king. But Nisipeanu found it (depicted below).
Bu Xiangzhi wins spectacular first Danzhou ‘Super GM’
Bu Xiangzhi edged out Li Chao on tiebreak to win what was advertised as the first ‘Super GM’ event in Danzhou, China. In a tournament that saw lots of spectacular games, Ni Hua finished on a disastrous 2/9.
The first ‘Hainan Danzhou Super Grand Master Chess Tournament’ took place June 11-20 in Danzhou City, Hainan province, China. The time control was 90 minutes, with 30 seconds increment from move 1. The average rating was 2622 and the prize fund 300,000 yuans (35,775 Euros).
Except for Wang Yue, who plays in Bazna, the full Chinese top was present: Wang Hao (2722), Bu Xiangzhi (2681), Ni Hua (2667), Zhou Jianchao (2652), Li Chao (2619), Hou Yifan (2589), Zhou Weiqi (2585), Yu Yangyi (2585), Zhao Jun (2574) and Ding Liren 2547).
In this 10-player round robin Bu Xiangzhi and Li Chao ended shared first, with only six points. It was Bu who had the better tiebreak. Ni Hua, last year still a 2700 player, finished on a disastrous 2/9 and dropped another bucket full of rating points.
Danzhou 2010 | Round 9 (Final) Standings
The tournament didn’t get much attention in the English media press, but perhaps unjustly so. While making a selection for replay in the game viewer, we came across lots of spectacular games:
In the seventh round of the Kings Tournament, which has returned to Bazna, Carlsen won against Radjabov. Gelfand is still a point behind the Norwegian after beating Nisipeanu with Black. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.
The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:
Monday morning the tournament organizers decided to move back to Bazna, where the first three editions of tournament were held as well. It was clear that the players weren’t really fond of the half an hour drive to Medias and back each day, but the final ‘drop’… were the drops of rain that fell on Carlsen and Ponomariov’s board in round 6.
To avoid any further problems as result of the unpredictable weather, all boards, pieces and other things were moved to the conference room of the hotel complex. The players and seconds were all quite happy about this. One of the reasons might have been that they now have some more football to watch each day!
After a somewhat slow start (certainly from hindsight) it’s now full steam ahead for Magnus Carlsen, who won his fourth game in a row. His tournament performance rating is now 2960 according to TWIC, 2955 according to Chessbase. (Who is right? Well, it doesn’t matter too much.) His live rating is now 2825.
“I thought it was a very good game actually,” said a cheerful Carlsen afterwards. The Norwegian pointed out that both he and his opponent Teimour Radjabov had probably played the strongest moves up till the rook ending. “He handled the position very well. I thought I should at least make him work a little bit for the half point,” said Carlsen, and after the inaccurate 32…Rc5 Black indeed needed to work hard. Radjabov had gotten into timetrouble and after 39…Kg8 the rook ending was lost. We are using Carlsen’s own words when we say that the rest was a ‘matter of technique’.
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu was clearly disappointed after his loss against Boris Gelfand, which brought the local hero on minus two. The Romanian was mostly disturbed by the simple tactics he missed in the middlegame. He had planned 21.Rxe4 dxe4 22.Qxe4 but this is refuted by 22…Qxc6.
Ruslan Ponomariov had no reason to be happy either after his draw with Wang Yue. The Ukrainian had been clearly better and a healthy pawn up, but couldn’t win the ending. It was surprising that he didn’t play the positional standard move 28.h4, and later he simply overlooked 37…Ng6 completely.
La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna se déroule du 14 au 25 juin à Media?. Ce tournoi d'échecs se joue en 10 rondes aller-retour, avec 6 grands-maîtres dont le n°1 au Elo Magnus Carlsen.
La Panthère rose
Ci-contre, le champion d'échecs Magnus Carlsen.
Résultats de le 8ème ronde : Magnus Carlsen annule avec les Noirs face à l'Israélien Boris Gelfand, son rival le plus proche. Le joueur d'échecs norvégien consolide ainsi son leadership au classement avec 6 points sur 8. Sur les 2 autres tables, nulle entre Radjabov et Ponomariov, Wang Yue - Nisipéanu est en cours. Journée de repos demain.
On refait le match : Belle opération de Magnus Carlsen qui annule sans difficulté avec les Noirs face à Boris Gelfand.
La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna se déroule du 14 au 25 juin à Media?. Ce tournoi d'échecs se joue en 10 rondes aller-retour, avec 6 grands-maîtres dont le n°1 au Elo Magnus Carlsen.
La Panthère rose
Ci-contre, le champion d'échecs Magnus Carlsen.
Résultats de le 7ème ronde : Magnus Carlsen écrase la concurrence. Le joueur d'échecs norvégien marque un 4ème point d'affilée face à Teimour Radjabov et consolide ainsi son leadership au classement avec 5,5 points sur 7. Sur les 2 autres tables, Gelfand gagne face à Nisipéanu et Ponomariov annule face à Wang Yue. Qui pourra arrêter la série du Norvégien ?
On refait le match : Quatrième victoire consécutive de Magnus Carlsen cette fois face au joueur azéri Teimour Radjabov.
Magnus Carlsen increased his lead at the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania to a full point. Today the Norwegian beat Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces, while Wang Yue-Gelfand and Radjabov-Nisipeanu ended in a draw. For now the games, later more.
The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:
After five rounds, Carlsen is in sole lead at the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania. The world’s number one defeated Nisipeanu with Black. Gelfand also won, against Ponomariov, while Wang Yue and Radjabov drew. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.
The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:
After hours of beautiful, sunny weather, for a few days in a row it has started to rain in the afternoon, here in Romania. On Saturday it was especially rough, with a thunder storm and hail shower which lasted for about twenty minutes, just when the players arrived at the venue.
They even waited in their cars for about ten minutes, before Henrik and Magnus Carlsen decided to go first. They took their shoos off and ran for their lives inside the building, after which the others followed, helped with umbrellas.
The bad weather continued for Nisipeanu and Ponomariov. The Romanian grandmaster faced the rare move 13…Re8 and already on moves 15 and 17 he played in accurately, sort of missing the feel for danger in that phase. Soon it became clear that his knight on a7 was never going to get back into the game.
Ponomariov was also caught by surprise, in his game against Gelfand, and was soon looking at a hopeless ending. He tried to make something out of it, but his opponent had no mercy. The Israeli GM was even more happy after the game when he heard Holland had won their second match at the World Cup.
Wang Yue was better for most of the middlegame, but it was hard to think of a clear plan. The ending was probbly already equal and at move 41 the players called it a day.
Three victories for the white pieces shook up the standings completely at the Kings Tournament in Media, Romania. Carlsen and Radjabov took over the lead from Gelfand and Nisipeanu, going into the first rest day. Now with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco & a long video with Radjabov explaining in ‘Corus style’ his win against Gelfand.
The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:
It was three times 1-0 at the Kings Tournament in Media, Romania today. In the best round so far, Carlsen used the King’s Gambit to beat Wang Yue; Ponomariov came up with novelty of his second Moiseenko to defeat Nisipeanu in a Blumenfeld and Radjabov managed to outprepare Gelfand in a Petroff.
Especially Carlsen’s second move attracted the attention at the start of the round. He is now clearly the highest rated player to ever try the most romantic of all openings, the King’s Gambit, in an official game, and who would mind to see it more often as a way to avoid the Petroff?
Unfortunately for decades more than one way to reach (at least) full equality has been known, and Wang Yue wasn’t worse after the opening either. However, after some inaccuracies White’s d-pawn became strong, and thanks to a nice tactic Carlsen managed to get it all the way to d7. Getting into a king of Zugzwang, China’s number one then decided to give an exchange to get rid of it, and thought the ending might have been a draw, if he hadn’t blundered with …g5.
Ponomariov recovered well from his loss in round 3, and used the strong novelty 7.e4! of his second Alexander Moiseenko to beat Nisipeanu in the Blumenfeld Gambit. White soon got a huge space advantage and only optically the Romanian seemed to get back in the game. “It was always very bad for me,” he said himself after the game.
The first game that finished was Radjabov-Gelfand, where the Azeri GM managed to outprepare his opponent in the Petroff. When Black went …Bd6 instead of …Bf6 it was basically already over. Don’t miss the 20-minute video with Radjabov explaining the game with a demo board!
Round 4 games with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco
Teimour Radjabov defeated Ruslan Ponomariov in the third round of the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania. Gelfand and Nisipeanu kept their slim lead; the Israeli drew with Carlsen while the Romanian split the point with Wang Yue. Games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.
The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:
Videos
Round 3
“I don’t agree,” Nisipeanu answered to the question whether there should be tournaments where the Petroff is not allowed. “It’s just an opening where White needs to work more.” Wang Yue improved upon a recent game between his compatriots Li Chao and Bu Xiangzhi, which ended in romantic style, as can be seen in today’s video. Nisipeanu couldn’t find anything tangible against the improvement and so the game ended quickly.
Carlsen tried an interesting plan with f4 and Rf1-f3, but soon found out that it was’t very dangerous, due to some accurate moves by Gelfand over the c-file. In fact it was Black who had the advantage in the second phase of the game, but the Israeli regretted playing …e5 too quickly. “If I prepare it with Kg7 first it’s much stronger.”
Gelfand’s reaction to Spain’s 1-0 loss against Switzerland at the World Cup: “It’s always better to lose the first game than the last.” He said he was rooting for Spain, and Holland. “I always root for Holland.” Carlsen also said he liked the Spanish team, despite the fact that, being a Real fan, he sees Barcelona delivering most players. “No, I don’t mind.”
Ponomariov reached a promising postion out of the opening against Radjabov, but then played too slowly. He agreed with his opponent that he should have tried b4-b5 at some point. In fact Radjabov could have won earlier, as he explains in the video, but “There I trusted my opponent too much.”
More comments by the players in the round 3 video, now up.
In the current Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania, World number 1 Magnus Carlsen pulled a surprise by using the Kings Gambit in his round 4 game against Wang Yue. Carlsen would certainly be the highest rated player ever to use this opening in a serious tournament game, and for fans of the opening, his opponent may well be the highest rated player* ever to lose to it. Of course at this level the opening is played with a more positional outlook than the 19th century hack and slash style you see in club chess, which makes the game all the more instructive to lower rated players. Also worth studying is the ending where Carlsen was up the exchange. In one of his books on the middlegame, Euwe stated that being up the exchange in the ending was almost always winning, and Carlsen proved this to be so (even when his opponent had an extra pawn).
*Of course Fischer may well have been the 'strongest' player to lose to the Kings Gambit, in his game against Spassky at Mar Del Plata in 1960.
La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna se déroule du 14 au 25 juin à Media?. Ce tournoi d'échecs majeur se joue en 10 rondes aller-retour, avec six grands-maîtres de premier plan dont le n°1 au classement Elo Magnus Carlsen.
La Panthère rose
Ci-contre, le génial champion d'échecs Magnus Carlsen.
Résultats de le 6ème ronde : Magnus Carlsen prend le meilleur sur Ponomariov et consolide sa première place au classement avec 4,5 points sur 6 laissant ses plus proches concurrents à 1 point. Les deux autres tables annulent, Wang Yue - Gelfand d'une part et Radjabov - Nisipeanu d'autre part. Qui pourra arrêter le Norvégien ?
On refait le match : Troisième victoire consécutive de Magnus Carlsen avec les Noirs face au joueur ukrainien Ruslan Ponomariov.
La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna se déroule du 14 au 25 juin à Media?. Ce tournoi d'échecs majeur se joue en 10 rondes aller-retour, avec six grands-maîtres de premier plan dont le n°1 au classement Elo Magnus Carlsen.
Au programme de ce dimanche, la ronde 6 avec notamment la partie entre Ruslan Ponomariov et Magnus Carlsen . Nous suivrons la compétition avec notre partenaire Chessdom, et aux commentaires, le grand-maître français Christian Bauer et le MI Alexander Ipatov. Les parties sont retransmises en direct à 14h30, heure de Paris.
Résultats de le 5ème ronde : Carlsen prend le meilleur sur Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu et passe en tête à mi-parcours avec 3,5 points sur 5. L'ex-coleader Radjabov annule contre Wang Yue et prend la seconde place à égalité avec Gelfand qui marque face à Ponomariov.
On refait le match : Seconde victoire du tournoi de Magnus Carlsen avec les Noirs face au joueur roumain Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.
La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna se déroule du 14 au 25 juin à Media?. Ce tournoi d'échecs majeur se joue en 10 rondes (matchs aller-retour) avec six grands-maîtres de premier plan dont le n°1 au classement Elo Magnus Carlsen (2813).
La Panthère rose
Ci-contre, le joueur roumain Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu battu ronde 5 par le norvégien Magnus Carlsen.
Résultats de le 5ème ronde : Carlsen prend le meilleur sur Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu et passe en tête à 3,5 points sur 5. Son ex-coleader Radjabov annule contre Wang Yue et Gelfand marque face à Ponomariov. Nous suivrons la compétition avec notre partenaire Chessdom, et aux commentaires, le grand-maître français Christian Bauer et le MI Alexander Ipatov. Les parties sont retransmises en direct à 14h30, heure de Paris.
On refait le match : Seconde victoire du tournoi de Magnus Carlsen avec les Noirs face au joueur roumain Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.
La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna se déroule du 14 au 25 juin à Media?. Ce tournoi d'échecs majeur se joue en 10 rondes (matchs aller-retour) avec six grands-maîtres de premier plan dont le n°1 au classement Elo Magnus Carlsen (2813).
La Panthère rose
Ci-contre, le champion norvégien Magnus Carlsen face au Chinois Wang Yue.
Résultats de la ronde 4 : 3 victoires blanches (Carlsen, Radjabov et Ponomariov) sur 3 hier. Magnus Carlsen et Teimour Radjabov prennent la tête du Bazna avec 2,5 points sur 4.
5ème ronde ce samedi après le journée de repos de vendredi. Nous suivrons la compétition avec notre partenaire Chessdom, et aux commentaires, le grand-maître français Christian Bauer et le MI Alexander Ipatov. Les parties sont retransmises en direct à 14h30, heure de Paris.
On refait le match : Première victoire ronde 4 de Magnus Carlsen face au Chinois Wang Yue sur un Gambit du Roi, une ouverture romantique !
La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna se déroule du 14 au 25 juin à Media?. Ce tournoi d'échecs majeur se joue en 10 rondes (matchs aller-retour) avec six grands-maîtres de premier plan dont le n°1 au classement Elo Magnus Carlsen (2813).
La Panthère rose
Résultats de la ronde 4 : Victoires blanches de Carlsen, Radjabov et Ponomariov. Carlsen et Radjabov prennent le commandement avec 2,5 points sur 4.
Ci-contre, le joueur azéri Teimour Radjabov.
Au programme du jour, la ronde 4 avec notamment le duel Carlsen- Wang Yue. Nous suivrons la compétition avec notre partenaire Chessdom, et aux commentaires, le grand-maître français Christian Bauer et le MI Alexander Ipatov. Les parties sont retransmises en direct à 14h30, heure de Paris.
On refait le match : Belle victoire ronde 3 de Teimour Radjabov qui surprend Ruslan Ponomariov sur l'aile Dame.
Bazna Kings Round Four Report - Radjabov and Carlsen win, take over the lead
Carlsen also anticipated Petroff defence from Wang Yue and that is why he "deviated" and played King's Gambit!? A nice reminder of the romantic 19th century... Black defended with Falkber countergambit, but chose a modest version with 3...exf4.
The 3rd Kings tournament takes place in Medias, Romania, Monday, June 14, 2010 - Friday, June 25, 2010.
Participants: Magnus Carlsen, Wang Yue, Boris Gelfand, Teimour Radjabov, Ruslan Ponomariov and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.
Games start at 13:30 UTC. Final round starts at 11:30 UTC
ChessOK is going to broadcast all games of the tournament with Rybka Aquarium commentary.
All three games in round 2 of the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania ended in a draw. Magnus Carlsen tried for a long time to win an ending against Teimour Radjabov, who said he was simultaneously “fighting against a flu.” Games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco & new video.
The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:
Videos
Round 2
Although the temperature in the playing hall was much better thanks to some improvements by the organizers, Ruslan Ponomariov again finished first in round 2. He said that by now he’s quite “fed up with these Catalans”, but still “Black is quite solid”. Wang Yue, who had to wait 20 hours at Munich airport and then had a 7-hour game in the first round, wasn’t unhappy with a short game.
More interesting was Gelfand-Nisipeanu, where we saw a clash between the bishop pair and the knight pair. Black was just in time with the risky but necessary …b5 move, because otherwise White would have had time for Rd1 and Be3, with an advantage. The players agreed that in the final position Black is probably a bit better, but continuing wouldn’t have been without risks. As Gelfand said it, “bishops are bishops.”
Carlsen was a bit surprised about Radjabov’s opening choice, but he thought he “handled it quite well,” as he reached a promising position. He thought he shouldn’t have gone for the luiquidation in the middlegame. “I thought I would win a pawn, but I didn’t.” Radjabov played carefully till the end, as he didn’t want to spoil it by falling for a trick after playing so long. “It was probably a draw all the time.”
More comments by the players in the round 2 video, now up.
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu made headlines in the local newspapers after beating Teimour Radjabov in the first round of the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania. Carlsen and Ponomariov drew relatively quickly, and Boris Gelfand defeated Wang Yue in the longest game of the round. Games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos with comments by all six players!
The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna (where everyone is staying) after the rest day, because they fear the daily, half-an-hour ride to Medias (and back) might prove too uncomfortable.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:
Videos
Round 1
On the first playing day the temperature was again well above 30 degrees Celcius and this could be felt at the venue. Naturally there is airco, but somehow this seemed to work better in the press room (thus far only occupied by press officer GM Dorian Rogozenco and yours truly) than in the playing hall. Ruslan Ponomariov could be found in the slightly cooler corridor often during the game, and in fact the Ukrainian was happy to be able to draw as soon as move 30 was reached. Carlsen “did notice it was a bit warmer than usual” but wasn’t much affected, he said.
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu started well, with a nice victory over Teimour Radjabov, who played too much “on intuition”, as he said after the game. Nisipeanu thought 21…f5 was “too ambitious” and he basically decided the game by the strong concept 23.Bxc6! and 24.f4, which left Black with a bad bishop and a bad structure.
Gelfand continued his strong form which he showed last week in Leon (though he’s still playing “game by game”, as he said afterwards), and played the best game of the round. It looked like Wang Yue had put up an impenetrable middlegame fortress, but in fact White’s way to break through with taking on h7 and g6 could’t be prevented according to Gelfand. He didn’t look at 50.Nxc6, which wins quicker, because he had correctly evaluated the endgame as technically winning.
Teimour Radjabov - Magnus Carlsen LIVE! - Live games from Bazna Kings 2010
Welcome to the live coverage of the Bazna Kings tournament. Today's featured game will be between Teimour Radjabov and Magnus Carlsen. It will be commented live by GM Christian Bauer and IM Alexander Ipatov. The other pairings of the day are Boris Gelfand - Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Wang Yue - Ruslan Ponomariov.
Bazna-Romania: inizia oggi il? 2?"Kings Tournament" che vede coinvolti 6 GM di primo piano. Il favorito è il norvegese Carlsen,n? 1 della lista FIDE mondiale. Già nel 2009 il torneo rumeno si affermò a livello internazionale grazie alla presenza di forti GM. Ad imporsi fu l'ucraino Ivanchuk che precedette di un punto Gelfand. Tale evento potrebbe entrare a far parte in futuro del circuito del Grande Slam.
Cerimonia di apertura con Nisipeanu, idolo locale(foto chessdom.com)
PARTECIPANTI:
Carlsen
NOR
2813-n?1
Wang Yue
CHI
2752-n?8
Gelfand
ISR
2741-n?11
Radjabov
ARZ
2740-n?13
Ponomariov
UKR
2733-n?18
Nisipeanu
ROM
2672-n?59
Magnus Carlsen, 2813
Wang Yue, 2752
Boris Gelfand, 2741
Teimour Radjabov, 2740
Ruslan Ponomariov, 2733
Magnus Carlsen dopo l'Amber dichiarò dal suo blog : " la primavera è ormai alle porte e in quel periodo non sarò particolarmente impegnato. Uno degli appuntamenti principali è il Bazna Tournament di Giugno in Romania. Sarà per me eccitante visitare per la prima volta questo Paese. L'edizione 2009 fu il torneo di scacchi più forte mai organizzato in Romania. Fu un successo e rese orgogliosa la comunità scacchistica locale." 1? turno-14 Giugno:
Il torneo-regole: ieri,domenica c'è stata la cerimonia di apertura. Oggi,lunedì 14 Giugno, inizia il torneo, un doppio girone all'italiana per un totale di 10 turni. Ogni giorno si gioca alle 14.30 tranne l'ultimo turno alle ore 12.30. Cadenza di gioco: 120 minuti x 40 mosse+ 20 minuti per altre 20 mosse+ 15 minuti per finire con? 30 secondi di incremento a partire dalla 61esima mossa.
Nel torneo non è possibile accordarsi per la patta prima della 30esima mossa. In ogni caso ciò può avvenire solo in determinati casi:
* triplice ripetizione della posizione * scacco perpetuo * posizioni patte teoriche
Criteti di spareggio: si guarderà nell'ordine 1) il numero di vittorie 2) gli scontri diretti 3)il Berger. Alcune novità riguardanti il Grande Slamdi questo e del prossimo anno, emerse dal congresso del Comitato Organizzatore svoltosi pochi mesi fa.
1)? si sta cercando di coinvolgere altri tornei all'interno del Grande Slam a patto che questi diano garanzia di almeno 3 edizioni di alto livello per gli anni futuri. Si tratta dei tornei :
- Memorial Tal (è stato il torneo più tosto del 2009) - London Chess Classic (anche nel 2010 sarà una grande edizione con Carlsen,Anand e Kramnik) - Bazna Kings (Romania,? in Giugno) - Tra le ipotesi anche San Luis e altri tornei dei continenti americani, per questo motivo Danailov sta incontrando? vari organizzatori d'oltreoceano.
2) La finale del Grande Slam 2010 a Shanghai e Bilbao avrà 8 finalisti, ovvero i 4 vincitori dei supertornei più altri 4 secondo criteri ancora da definire.
La novitàsarà che la Finale del Grande Slam sarà divisa in due parti e si disputerà in due città diverse : Shanghai (Cina, dal 3 al 12 Settembre) e la tradizionale Bilbao (Spagna, dal 6 al 14 Ottobre).? Infatti ad interrompere momentaneamente la manifestazione ci saranno le Olimpiadi 2010 in Russia !
Anche San Luis (Argentina) e Londra (Inghilterra) sono tornei presi in considerazione per farli entrare nel circuito. In ogni caso il Comitato organizzatore del Grande Slam ha posto una regola per i nuovi tornei, ovvero che questi diano garanzia di svolgere almeno 3 edizioni.
CALENDARIO 2010 GRANDE SLAM:
NANCHINO (CINA 2009) = Carlsen
WIJK AAN ZEE (OLANDA 2010) = Carlsen
LINARES (SPAGNA) = 12-25 Febbraio Topalov
SOFIA (BULGARIA)= 25 Maggio - 5 Giugno? Non disputato
FINALE MASTER = SHANGHAI ( Cina, 3-12 Settembre) & BILBAO ( Spagna, 6-14 Ottobre)
1. Short, Nigel g ENG 2660 7 2. Portisch, Lajos g HUN 2523 5 3. Andersson, Ulf g SWE 2537 5 4. Suba, Mihai g ROU 2487 4? 5. Khalifman, Alexander g RUS 2628 4? 6. Beliavsky, Alexander g SLO 2641 4? 7. Mecking, Henrique g BRA 2565 4? 8. Murariu, Andrei g ROU 2483 4 9. Timman, Jan g NED 2565 4 10. Vaganian, Rafael A g ARM 2617 3? 11. Sokolov, Andrei g FRA 2596 3?
Ce tournoi d'échecs majeur se joue en 10 rondes (matchs aller-retour) avec six grands-maîtres de premier plan dont le n°1 au classement Elo Magnus Carlsen (2813). Les parties sont retransmises en direct à 14h30, heure de Paris. Au programme du jour, la ronde 1 avec Carlsen - Ponomariov, Nisipeanu - Radjabov et Gelfand - Wang Yue. Nous suivrons la compétition avec notre partenaire Chessdom, et aux commentaires, le grand-maître français Christian Bauer et le MI Alexander Ipatov.
Today the opening ceremony and drawing of lots of the Kings Tournament in Romania took place. Tomorrow we’ll have Gelfand-Wang Yue, Nisipeanu-Radjabov and Carlsen-Ponomariov. Your editor-in-chief writes this brief, first report in Bazna, from where I’ll provide daily videos throughout the event.
The fourth Kings Tournament takes off tomorrow with the first round. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Again it’s organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters.
Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna (where everyone is staying) after the rest day, because they fear the daily, half-an-hour ride to Medias might prove too uncomfortable. It’s been pretty hot here the last few days, with temperatures way above 30 degrees Celcius (I was quite shocked when I left the airplaine in Sibiu) which isn’t normal for this area.
The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move. This is one reason why Gelfand loved to return to Bazna, as it is his favourite time control. I shook hands with him and all other five players in the hotel restaurant tonight, and everybody is in a good mood. They’re already talking about a possible football match between the players and the journalists on the first rest day! Soccer fan Carlsen was wearing the outfit of the Norwegian national team and is surely watching lots of FIFA World Cup here when not preparing…
The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website and thus having the opportunity to bring on-the-spot reports. I had to miss the drawing of lots, but chief arbiter Faik Gasanov handed me a piece of paper with the full pairings, which I give below:
Carlsen Ponomariov LIVE! - Live games from Bazna Kings 2010
Welcome to the live coverage of the Bazna Kings tournament. Today's featured game will be between Magnus Carlsen and Ruslan Ponomariov. It will be commented live by GM Christian Bauer and IM Alexander Ipatov.
The other pairings of the day are Nisipeanu - Radjabov and Gelfand - Wang Yue and you can follow them with computer analysis here and here.
Ding Liren takes early lead at Danzhou Hainan Super Tournament - Victories against Zhou Jianchao and
The First Danzhou Hainan Super Tournament is being held from 11th June to 20th June 2010 in Danzhou city, Hainan province, China. Ten top Chinese Grandmasters compete, with the exception of GM Wang Yue who will play Bazna Kings in Romania from Monday. The playing format is round robin and the time control will be 90 minutes per player with an incremental time of 30 seconds per move.
The fourth Kings Tournament takes off on Sunday with the opening ceremony and on Monday with the first round. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play in Medias, Romania and ChessVibes will be there too!
The fourth edition of the Kings Tournament will take place June 14-25 in Medias, Romania. Again it’s organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters.
Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin with a rest day after five rounds. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna). The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
No draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30. Any such draw claim will be permitted only through the Chief Arbiter in the case of a triple-repetition of the position, a perpetual check or a theoretically drawn position.
Norwegian GM and world’s number 1 Magnus Carlsen is, not surprisingly, top seed. Last year’s winner Vassily Ivanchuk is playing the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba and was been replaced by his fellow countryman, the ex-FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov. The other participants are the 2009 World Cup winner Boris Gelfand, the best Chinese player Wang Yue, Azerbaijan’s number two Teimour Radjabov and the best Romanian player Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. Together they create an average rating of 2742.
ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website and thus having the opportunity to bring on-the-spot reports from Medias, Romania. Don’t miss it!
Danzhou Hainan Super GM Chess Tournament - 11th to 20th June 2010 in Danzhou city, Hainan province,
Ten top Chinese Grandmasters will compete, with the exception of GM Wang Yue who will play Bazna Kings in Romania. The playing format is round robin and the time control will be 90 minutes per player with an incremental time of 30 seconds per move. The prize fund is about 36.000 EUR.
Wang Hao and Ju Wenjun became the new Chinese Champions on Friday in Xinghua, China. Wang Hao edged out Bu Xiangzhi and Zhou Jianchao on tiebreak after the three ended on 7.5/11. Ju Wenjun ended clear first with 8/11.
The Chinese Championship took place May 24-June 4 in Xinghua, China. The city is located in the central part of Jiangsu Province.
The rate of play of both the ‘open’ and the women section was 90 minutes and 30 seconds increment for the whole game. Except for Wang Yue, who played the FIDE Grand Prix, in Astrakhan, all Chinese top players participated. Hou Yifan played in the open section.
Wang Hao didn’t have a very impressive start; after six rounds he was still on a mediocre 50% score. However, thanks to a very strong finish of 4.5/5 (a draw against Bu Xiangzhi and wins versus Lu Shanglei, Zhou Jianchao, Zhou Weiqi and Ni Hua in the last round) he caught Bu Xiangzhi and Zhou Jianchao in the last round and then turned out to have the best tiebreak. His games and those of women champion Ju Wenjun can be found in the game viewer below.
Chinese Championship (Open) 2010 | Final Standings
Chinese Championship (Women) 2010 | Final Standings
The top eight of both groups qualified for next year’s Chinese Championship. The last four of both groups will play in the B group in 2011. More importantly, the championship decided the teams that will go to the 2010 Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk.
Before the tournament Wang Yue, Wang Hao and Li Chao b. had already qualified for the men’s team and Hou Yifan, Zhao Xue, Ju Wenjun and Wang Yu A. for the women’s team. The new qualifiers (men) are Bu Xiangzhi, Zhou Jianchao and (women) Huang Qian. So the Chinese teams will have:
Men: Wang Yue, Wang Hao, Bu Xiangzhi, Zhou Jianchao and Li Chao b
Women: Hou Yifan, Zhao Xue, Ju Wenjun, Huang Qian and Wang Yu A.
Anish Giri today defeated co-leader Jon Ludvig Hammer in a direct encounter to win the 18th Sigeman & Co tournament with a score of 4.5/5 (and a 2920 performance rating). Hammer finished clear second with a point less.
The 18th Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament took place at the classical Hipp Theater in central Malmo from May 26 till 30. The event was organized by the Limhamn Chess Club and just like last year, when Nigel Short won, six players face each other in a single round-robin. The time control was 40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game.
Round 4
On Saturday both the tournament leader and the tailender scored their first draw of the tournament. After three losses, Pia Cramling split the point with Nils Grandelius, but not before a short, but very sharp fight. The natural 14.Bc4 should be tried by White players next time, as it might give some chances.
After three victories Anish Giri drew with Johnny Hector, who preferred an unambitious variation of the Four Knights over the Petroff. It came down to checking whether Giri had done his homework, and the answer was yes. The two followed Wittmann-Greenfeld, Thessaloniki OL 1984 till the very end.
This allowed Jon Ludvig Hammer to catch Giri in the standings, as he also reached a 3.5/4 score by beating Tiger Hillarp Persson. That 7.Qe2 move of Hammer is quite interesting, and had been tried just once before. Hillarp Persson was probably doing OK until 18…Qc8?! after which White could develop a decisive initiative.
Round 5
And so even with just five rounds in total, the tournament today had a nice apotheosis with the two tournament leaders fighting each other for first prize. And indeed they fought for it – especially Giri, who had the white pieces. The young Dutchman repeated moves in a well-known Catalan variation, but luckily only once (where games such as Harikrishna-Jakovenko, Eljanov-Jakovenko and Mazé-Onischuk indeed ended in a draw).
On move 19 Giri deviated from last year’s Wang Yue-Carlsen; we noticed before that Hammer has a similar black repertoire as Norway’s/the world’s number one, and we don’t think it’s a coincidence. On move 21 Hammer took a principled decision.
Giri-Hammer, after 21.Nd3
Instead of playing against a white bind, he exchanged his light-squared bishop for the white knight on b3, giving White a doubled pawn and making the break c7-c5 possible. This has only one disadvantage, and Giri went for it: the weak pawn on a6.
He had correctly judged that White could untangle his bishop, before Black would have time to
create serious counterplay. Still, Hammer might have been able to hold it somewhere – especially at move 38. Black’s last, slim chance was to flee into a rook ending on move 41; after that it was just waiting for the moment when Giri would sac the exchange and run with the pawns.
Giri-Hammer, after 21.Nd3 54.Rxe7! was a nice way to win the tournament.
Grandelius beat Hector in a very difficult ending, and Hillarp Persson inflicted a fourth loss upon Cramling, using a very nice, postional exchange sacrifice. Both of these games are recommended for replay too.
Of the fifteen games in total, only four ended in draws. Hopefully for next year it will be possible to collect a bigger budget again, because Mr Johan Sigeman surely knows how to create a good (fighting) atmosphere in Malmo.
Anish Giri added his name to the list of Sigeman & Co winners: Hellers, I.Sokolov, Korchnoi, Lautier, Gelfand, Polgar, Gulko, Short, Ivanchuk, Nielsen, Sasikiran, Timman, Cheparinov, Hillarp Persson and Short
The last Grand Prix in Astrakhant has finished and the final standings of the FIDE Grand Prix series are already known. Levon Aronian is the overall winner with 500 points from 3 tournaments, which brings him the prize of 75 000 eur. Teimour Radjabov won the second position ahead of Alexander Grischuk, Dmitry Jakovenko, Wang Yue, Vugar Gashimov, Peter Leko, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Evgeny Alekseev, and Pavel Eljanov.
Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov qualify for the Candidate Matches for the FIDE World Championship 2012.
Final Chess Grand Prix standings - full statistics and information
The last Grand Prix in Astrakhant has finished and the final standings of the Grand Prix series are already known. Levon Aronian is the overall winner with 500 points from 3 tournaments, which brings him the prize of 75 000 eur. Teimour Radjabov grabs the second position ahead of Grischuk, Jakovenko, Wang Yue, Vugar Gashimov, and Peter Leko. In a fierce fight for the last prize winning positions Mamedyarov, Alekseev, and Eljanov make the last GP count, while Gelfand, Ivanchuk, and Bacrot stay out of top 10.
Eljanov wins final FIDE GP, Radjabov qualifies for Candidates
Pavel Eljanov today won the sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Astrakhan, Russia. The Ukrainian finished with a score of 8/13, a full point ahead of a group of five GMs. One of them was Teimour Radjabov, who finished second in the final GP standings and qualified for the FIDE Candidates matches.
The 6th FIDE Grand Prix took place May 10-24 in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) played. More details can be found in our first report.
Round 10
Would Pavel Eljanov be able to finish the tournament as strongly as he had played so far? How would he fare after the second and last rest day? Well, on Friday the Ukrainian had a crystal clear answer to this question. He defeated Hungarian top GM Peter Leko in 43 moves, perhaps not in the most convincing way, but the result is what counts.
Leko was more than fine after the opening (Eljanov didn’t like his 10.Ng3) and even rejected a draw offer on the 20th move. However, in the subsequent game the Hungarian made a few mistakes, and White obtained an advantage in the ending due to a strong passed pawn on the queenside. From that point Eljanov played very energetically. He did not allow Black to bring his king into the center, which would save the game for Leko. On the 43rd move White’s passed pawn became unstoppable, and Leko resigned.
Gashimov stayed half a point behind the leader after beating Inarkiev in a strong Ruy Lopez game. “I found an interesting plan with 15.Bd3 and 16.Re2,” he said afterwards. “My pawn sacrifice led to a curious position: White is a pawn down, Black pieces seem to be active, but actually White can play for a win at no risk. Soon I regained the material, keeping all the advantages of my position, then won an exchange and converted the advantage without much trouble.” Inarkiev: “I admit that Vugar played very energetically and deserved his win.”
Radjabov slowly but surely outplayed Akopian with Black in a Sveshnikov. “Maybe trading the queens was wrong,” said Akopian, “and I should have preferred 24.Qh6. I also don’t like my next moves – 26.Ndf4 and 28.f4. White’s position became very cramped, and Teimour showed good technique, not giving me any chances to survive.” 26.Ndf4 was a “serious inaccuracy” according to Radjabov.
Round 11
This round saw another Azeri derby: Radjabov versus Mamedyarov. It was an important game, since Radjabov’s win regained his chances to qualify for the Candidates matches. In the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez White got a small advantage and then developed a strong initiative following Black’s unsuccessful queen maneuver on the 19th move. The game transposed to a queen ending with a remote passed pawn for White. Black was short on time and committed the decisive error on the 38th move. Mamedyarov resigned immediately due to inevitable loss of the kingside pawns.
Radjabov: “I think after 20.Qf4 White may already be winning. Not sure if 28.d6 was necessary, but I thought I needed to force the issues. In any case, after this move it becomes extremely difficult for Black to hold.” Mamedyarov didn’t agree with Radjabov’s assessment of the opening: “In my opinion, White didn’t get any advantage. He started to take the upper hand only when I made a mistake by 19…Qd4 – this move is overambitious.”
Also relevant for the Candidates spot was Gashimov’s loss against Ponomariov. He couldn’t adopt his Benoni as the Ukrainian went for other schemes. Ponomariov about Gashimov only playing the Benoni: “The disadvantage is that he knows other lines superficially. Thus I decided to transpose to the Nimzo-Indian Defense. In my opinion, I got a very comfortable position. Perhaps in the middlegame I could play better. For example, on the 17th move I could take on g3 with the queen, making Black’s defensive task tougher. Yet, defending was unpleasant enough for such an active player as Vugar. He started to make reckless moves such as 26…h5, which helped me to win the game.”
Round 12
Five-time Russian champion Peter Svidler finally won his first game in Astrakhan. He successfully avoided Gelfand’s Petroff and used the Four Knights to beat the Israeli in 31 moves. Gelfand’s sharp f-pawn push on the 21st move proved to be a big mistake. Svidler delivered a nice tactical blow, and Black’s position collapsed.
Akopian defeated Ivanchuk in just 23 moves. The Ukrainian handled the Ragozin Variation of the Queen’s Gambit too passively. Akopian comfortably arranged his pieces and launched a kingside attack. On the 21st move the Armenian sacrificed an exchange, which turned out to be a very unpleasant surprise for Black. In two more moves Ivanchuk abandoned his resistance.
Akopian, after the game: “I’m surprised that the victory came so easily – I have a bad score against Vassily. The plan that I employed in this game is not new: White ignores the d4-pawn and concentrates on a kingside attack. Vassily played without confidence; his 14…g6 only provokes my attack. And on the next move he should have played 15…h5. After he missed this opportunity, my only problem was to choose correctly from several good continuations. The final position is so ugly for Black that Vassily just resigned. Well, this probably just wasn’t his day…”
Mamedyarov improved upon his first round game against Jakovenko, to which Leko couldn’t find a good answer. Perhaps White didn’t find all the best moves, but nevertheless Mamadyarov managed to transpose to an ending with a big advantage, which he effectively converted to the full point.
Leko: “This was a strange game. Losing to Eljanov killed my chances to qualify for the candidates matches, which obviously affected my motivation today. Of course, this is not a good excuse for my poor play against Shakhriyar…”
Alekseev-Inarkiev was the longest game of the 12th round. After interesting complications in the Slav Defense the players arrived at a very original position, in which White had three minor pieces against a rook and three pawns. White slowly but surely consolidated his pieces and launched the attack on the king. He then won a pawn and advanced to a winning ending. Despite Black’s stubborn resistance, Alekseev won the game on the 88th move.
Round 13
Eljanov needed a draw to secure sole first, and he did so with the black pieces against Gelfand. The two have worked together in the past years, but with White Gelfand did press for while. In a Nimzo he sacrificed a pawn to open up the position, but Eljanov gave back the material and after the exchange of the minor pieces the position remained balanced.
After winning the Bosna tournament in 2009, Eljanov now has a new ‘best tournament of his career’. Winning this Grand Prix, one of the strongest tournaments on average rating and of this scale ever held, is a fantastic result for the 27-year-old, who proved that his new status of Ukraine’s number one player wasn’t a coincidence.
Astrakhan Grand Prix 2010 | Round 13 (Final) Standings
Astrakhan Grand Prix 2010 | Schedule & results
After the 12th round, Ivanchuk, Leko, Mamedyarov and Alekseev were eliminated from qualifying for the runner-up position. Grischuk was also eliminated, because Radjabov scored well enough to ensure that even if he’d lose his final round, he’d gain enough GP points to surpass Grischuk.
In the final round of Astrakhan, Jakovenko was eliminated with his draw and Gashimov has been eliminated with his loss. The winner of the Radjabov-Wang Yue game decided matters: a win for the Chinese would have meant qualification, but Radjabov with White held a Petroff ending a pawn down to a draw and this was enough to end second in the overall Grand Prix. Thanks to ebutaljib for providing this table:
FIDE Grand Prix Series 2008-2009 | Overall Final Standings
And so an end has come to a long series of six super tournaments which had its ups and downs. Positive were the tournament websites, with extensive reports (disclaimer: which were written by yours truly in Baku and Sochi), sometimes videos (by the Turkish Chess Federation in Baku, Europe-Echecs in Sochi and – another disclaimer – by me in Nalchik) and sometimes game analysis by GM Sergey Shipov.
More importantly, a big number of players had the opportunity to play in big, strong events and make good money.
But of course many more things went wrong. Three host cities (Doha, Karlovy Vary and Montreux) withdrew when it became clear that the money wasn’t there. Their nominated players had to leave the series and Yannick Pelletier was hit the most, as he couldn’t play a single event. The Czech organizers were very disappointed when Adams and Carlsen had good reason to leave the series: because of the sudden change of the World Championship cycle, during the cycle.
When it all started, the idea was that the winner of the GP would play against the World Champ. (We would have had a Aronian-Anand match in 2012.) winner of the World Cup. (We would have a Gelfand-Aronian match and the winner would play Anand.) But during the Olympiad in Dresden, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov suddenly announced the Candidates ‘tournament’ (which would later be rephrased to ‘matches’), for which the numbers one and two of the GP Series would qualify.
Another point of criticism FIDE received by many (e.g. more than once by Kasparov) was about the locations of the events. The whole series never managed to leave the greater Caucasus region, and so no single event was organized in a bigger, Western city, which didn’t really help to attract corporate sponsorship either.
In general the idea wasn’t so bad. But the execution could have been much better.
Update: according to Harish in the comments, the pairings for the Candidates matches are:
1. Topalovs vs Kamsky ( 1 vs 8 )
2. Carlsen vs Radjabov ( 2 vs 7 )
3. Kramnik vs Nominee ( 3 vs 6 )
4. Aronian vs Gelfand ( 4 vs 5 )
La dernière étape du Grand Prix Fide vient de s'achever par la superbe victoire de l'Ukrainien Pavel Eljanov avec 8 points sur 13, un point devant ses concurrents directs.
Amicalement vôtre - John Barry
En sortant vainqueur de ce super tournoi, Pavel a prouvé qu'il avait bien sa place parmi l'élite des échecs mondiaux. Son esprit combatif est aussi à souligner. Il a remporté 5 parties, en a perdu 2 et annulé 6. Un nombre de parties décisives au delà des 50% - ce qui est peu commun pour un joueur à plus de 2750 Elo.
Un autre résultat important est tombé lors de cette ronde 13. Teimour Radjabov (7 points sur 13) se qualifie pour le tournoi des candidats, à la faveur de sa nulle contre le Chinois Wang Yue.
On refait le match de la ronde 12 : Bizarre cette partie perdue en 23 coups par Ivanchuk, d'autant que la situation ne lui semblait pas défavorable. Un mystère !
After nine rounds Pavel Eljanov is back in the lead in Astrakhan. The Ukrainian GM drew just three games, and he’s the only one who collected 5.5 points so far.
The 6th FIDE Grand Prix takes place May 10-24 in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) play. More details can be found in our first report.
Round 6
Tournament leader Pavel Eljanov lost his first game, with White against Evgeny Alekseev. In a Queen’s Indian the Russian seemed better prepared and not only did he keep improving his position, but also his advantage on the clock. Around move 27 Eljanov had 9 minutes left for 13 moves against Alekseev’s 26 minutes. White soon lost a pawn and eventually the game.
This allowed Ernesto Inarkiev to grab sole lead, by beating Boris Gelfand with the black pieces. After 19 moves of Semi-Slav theory Black equalized comfortably and then got the upper hand. After 26…b4 White had to give up two pieces for the rook and then Inarkiev never let go.
Jakovenko and Ponomariov played a sharp game in a line of the Exchange Grünfeld that has been topical since Giri-Sutovsky, Corus 2010. In a difficult position Ponomariov blundered with 21…Qc6? missing 22.Bxb5! immediately winning an important pawn. Although he then put up a lot of resistance, the Ukrainian couldn’t prevent a loss.
This round saw yet another decisive game: Akopian-Wang Yue 0-1. In the main line of the Petroff, the Chinese GM showed once again that it’s well possible to play for a win with Black too.
Rounds 7
Inarkiev’s lead was short-lived, as he lost the next game to Eljanov. They went for the topical 6…Qb6 line of the Advance Caro-Kann, where 11.Kd2 was new. Inarkiev’s 13.g4!? was quite inventive but Eljanov’s solid answer left White with a worse position. He had to give a pawn and for an Eljanov in good form this is enough to win.
Alekseev continued with another win to move into joint second place. The Russian defeated Akopian in a (very) Closed Ruy Lopez: the 12.d5 line of the Chigorin Defence. With 23.bxc4! he opened the queenside when Black decided to go all or nothing on the kingside, but it was nothing.
Rounds 8
This round saw the all Ukrainian derby Eljanov-Ponomariov. In a Catalan/Bogo Indian hybrid, White was the first to seize the initiative, and gained the control over the c-file in a queenless middlegame. However, Black’s nice prophylactic ideas Kf8-e8 and Rb8 before breaking open the queenside proved strong. The initiative went over to Black, and he clinched the full point after another mistake on move 43 by Eljanov in the rook ending.
After two wins, Alekseev was defeated in this eight round, by Mamedyarov. In the same opening as in Eljanov-Ponomariov, Mamedyarov tried an interesting new set-up that involved leaving his queen’s knight on b1 until move 25! It looks like 18…Ng4 was wrong.
The game of the round, and in fact of the tournament thus far, was Akopian-Inarkiev. Watch what happened:
Position after 14.b3
It looked like White was crushed like a patzer when Inarkiev played the obvious 14…Nxd5, but then it became clear what Akopian had in mind: 15.Nxf7!. Inarkiev responded well and gave up his queen to get a dynamically equal position. At some point Akopian avoided a move repetition and he was rewarded with the full point after 104 moves, when he won a Q vs R ending.
Rounds 9
Eljanov did it again. His last five (!) games ended in ‘0-1′, and being Black himself, he regained the sole lead on top of the leaderboard. And he did it in nice, Capablanca style, slowly outplaying Radjabov with the black pieces in a Ragozin ending.
The only other decisive game was the second win in a row for Mamedyarov, also with the black pieces. The Azeri defeated Inarkiev, who went for the rare 3.c4 in the Sicilian and continued somewhat passively. Mamedyarov showed his usual aggressive style and occupied the center with many pawns, which at some point cost White a piece.
Today is the second and last rest day of the tournament. With four rounds to go, Wang Yue and Radjabov will have to do better to reach the second and last spot in the Candidates. Gashimov and Jakovenko seem to have better chances right now, but the calculations remain complicated. We’ll repeat here what we mentioned before, and what Thomas pointed out. It makes most sense to look at two best results of the players who still have a chance to finish second:
The idea is that the third (worst) result doesn’t matter if they do better in Astrakhan. It follows that the maximum number of points any player can get is [number above] + 180 for clear first. The players’ chances are as follows:
- Radjabov can obviously defend his qualifying spot.
- Wang Yue is through if he finishes clear first (Radjabov can tie if he’s clear second, but has the inferior fourth result which is the tiebreaker).
- If Gashimov finishes clear first, Radjabov can stay ahead of him (but then Gashimov should get the wildcard, or would it go to Mamedyarov who is currently higher-rated?)
- If Ivanchuk is clear first, Radjabov needs to be at least clear third to stay ahead of Chucky. Noone else could catch him. This is because Ivanchuk’s score is “most improvable” – he had one really bad result in Nalchik (12th-14th) which will be deleted.
Ukraine’s new number one Pavel Eljanov started strongly in Astrakhan. After five rounds he’s leading the sixth FIDE Grand Prix tournament with 3.5 points. His compatriot Vassily Ivanchuk started with 1/4, but yesterday he defeated another Ukrainian, Ruslan Ponomariov, with the black pieces.
The sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix takes place May 10-24 in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) play. More details can be found in our first report.
Rounds 4-5
In round 4, played on Thursday, Vassily Ivanchuk already suffered his second loss. The Ukrainian obtained a big advantage in a Caro-Kann and the game quickly proceeded to an endgame. Ivanchuk needed to make a few accurate moves to secure a win, but instead he lost the thread. He conceded the initiative to the opponent, and soon initiated an unsuccessful rook maneuver, allowing Black to promote his passed pawn.
At the press conference “Chucky” said: “I got a big advantage, and all I needed to do was to find the best way of converting it. Maybe 34.Kd4 instead of 34.Kf4 was the right move. I’d probably win the game if I played 34.Kd4. And then I made an elementary blunder…” Inarkiev: “I consciously went for an inferior ending, expecting to neutralize White’s advantage. However, I made a mistake somewhere, and my position became lost. Of course I was very lucky in the end.”
All other games ended in a draw. (With five more undecisive games in round 5, the drawing percentage is now as a high as 78%). Good games were Akopian-Mamedyarov and Eljanov-Gashimov, where both Azeri GMs had winning chances.
On Friday Pavel Eljanov took the lead by defeating Wang Yue in round 5 with Black. Quite an achievement, we’d say, since the last classical game the ultra-solid Chinese number one lost with White was art Corus 2009!
It must be said that Eljanov was forced to defend a difficult position for most of the game. In his own words: “I played terribly in the first half of the game, partly because I underestimated my opponent. My position was worse, and I wasted a lot of time… Wang Yue played well and obtained a solid advantage.”
The Chinese obtained a big space advantage following a temporary pawn sacrifice in a well-known variation of the Slav Defense. Eljanov: “I even wanted to resign at some point, but then found the only chance and sacrificed an exchange. I was almost exhausted at that moment and had nothing to lose…” Prior to the first time control Eljanov managed to complicate the game with an exchange sacrifice, and Wang Yue got nervous. First he missed the winning continuation, and then, after the control was already passed, blundered a rook instead of transposing into a better ending.
Vassily Ivanchuk won his first game in Astrakhan, defeating his arch-rival Ruslan Ponomariov. Ponomariov, having White, got a slight advantage after of the opening, but made an unsuccessful pawn sacrifice on the 22nd move and gave away the initiative. White’s problems got worse after he missed Black’s strong bishop manoeuvre. After the first control Black already had a winning position.
Ponomariov’s take on the game at the press conference: “Both players showed a lot of creativity from the start, especially after Vassily Mikhailovich played 9…Qe7. I thought I played logically, developed my pieces… Ivanchuk was taking his decisions very fast, and maybe I didn’t get enough time to fully comprehend the position. After 28…Be3 I gave away the initiative completely. Black started to attack… Maybe I had to play something more principled, but it’s hard to say without serious analysis. I thought I played well, but Black’s energetic play left me perplexed.”
Ivanchuk said: “As far as I know, 9…Qe7 occurred in the Anand-Karpov match. I misplayed something in the opening, as I didn’t like my position early on. The a6- and b6-pawns could easily become weak. 22.h4 gave me some hope. Instead of 31.Nd5 White had 31.Bc2 intending 32.Bd1 with an unclear position.”
Saturday was the first rest day of the tournament. Today the sixth round is played.
Ville riche de 150 nationalités, Astrakhan surnommée "l'étoile du Sud" par Alexandre Dumas, accueille du 10 au 25 mai le Grand Prix Fide, un tournoi d'échecs majeur en 13 rondes.
Le 13 heures de Mourousi
Le grand-maître ukrainien Pavel Eljanov a pris samedi le leadership du tournoi en battant le Chinois Wang Yue dans la 5ème ronde. A noter la première victoire d'un autre Ukrainien, le prophète des échecs Vassily Ivanchuk face à son compatriote Ruslan Ponomariov. Place aujourd'hui à la 6ème ronde après la journée de repos.
On refait le match : Eljanov, qui avait les Noirs, a été forcé de défendre une position difficile pendant toute la partie. Le Chinois a obtenu un gros avantage d'espace après un sacrifice de pion provisoire dans une variante bien connue de la Défense slave. Mais Eljanov a réussi à compliquer le jeu par un astucieux un sacrifice de qualité perturbateur. Wang Yue a d'abord manqué la suite gagnante et ensuite, a donné une Tour nette au lieu de transposer dans une meilleure finale.
After three rounds a group of five players leads the FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan with 2/3: Gashimov, Leko, Ponomariov, Gelfand and Eljanov. In today’s third round all games ended in a draw.
The sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix takes place May 10-24 in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) play. More details can be found in our first report.
Rounds 2-3
Now that the World Championship match in Sofia has ended, many people wonder what the next cycle looks like. Well, the next big thing is the FIDE Candidates matches, which will provide a new opponent for Anand in 2012. Currently it is scheduled for April 2011, for which the following players have qualified:
Topalov, as the loser of the last match;
Kamsky, as the loser of the challenger’s match;
Aronian, as the winner of the Grand Prix Series;
Gelfand, as the winner of the World Cup;
Carlsen and Kramnik on rating.
Two more players will be added to this list: the number two of the FIDE Grand Prix Series, and a wild card from Azerbaijan, because the Candidates will be held in Baku. Which will complicate matters, since Aronian cannot play there.
So an important part of the new cycle is the FIDE Grand Prix Series, and as you know these days the sixth and last is taking place in Astrakhan, Russia, where after three rounds the drawing percentage is already as high as 77%. The third round, played today, saw draws only.
But first round 2, which was more eventful. Against Leko, Alekseev lost on time for the first time in his life, as he said himself at the press conference. Svidler blundered at an early stage against Ponomariov. In a Berlin Defence, the Russian grandmaster lost an important pawn due to a nasty trick, and resigned immediately.
After achieving not much in the opening, Eljanov managed to win a pawn against Akopian around the first time control, and then finished it off with exemplary technique.
Of the seven draws of today, some were quite interesting. Especially Gashimov-Gelfand and Inarkiev-Leko are games recommended for replay.
In the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan, Vugar Gashimov beat Vassily Ivanchuk in the only decisive game.
The sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix tournament started today in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) play.
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast, a federal subject of Russia. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of 23 metres below sea level. It has a population of a bit over 500,000 people.
This FIDE Grand Prix is the final of six events that form the 2008-2010 Series. It all started in April-May 2008 in Baku, followed by Sochi in August of the same year. After Doha withdrew, the third GP took place in December in Elista. Montreux also withdrew, and so the fourth was held in Nalchik. The fifth was in Jermuk in August last year.
All players were to play four of the six events, and for the overall standings their best three tournaments would count. Since Levon Aronian already secured overall victory after three evens, he was allowed to withdraw from this last event. The current GP standings are (thanks to ebutaljib
OK, Aronian won, but it doesn’t mean that this tournament is only for the prize money. Finishing second in the overall Grand Prix gets you a spot in the Candidates Tournament for the next World Championship cycle, so there’s still something to fight for in Astrakhan for a small number of players.
As Thomas pointed out, for this it makes more sense to look at two best results of the players who still have a chance to finish second:
The idea is that the third (worst) result doesn’t matter if they do better in Astrakhan. It follows that the maximum number of points any player can get is [number above] + 180 for clear first. The players’ chances are as follows:
- Radjabov can obviously defend his qualifying spot.
- Wang Yue is through if he finishes clear first (Radjabov can tie if he’s clear second, but has the inferior fourth result which is the tiebreaker).
- If Gashimov finishes clear first, Radjabov can stay ahead of him (but then Gashimov should get the wildcard, or would it go to Mamedyarov who is currently higher-rated?)
- If Ivanchuk is clear first, Radjabov needs to be at least clear third to stay ahead of Chucky. Noone else could catch him. This is because Ivanchuk’s score is “most improvable” – he had one really bad result in Nalchik (12th-14th) which will be deleted.
The opening ceremony of the final Grand Prix took place in the new Astrakhan State Drama Theatre on Sunday, a national holiday for the Russians. The ceremony was attended by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the Governor of Astrakhan Region Alexander Zhilkin, who stated that a new chess center will soon be established inside the theater. The speeched were followed by the traditional drawing of lots, and several dancing and singing acts.
On Monday the first round was played, and it was a bad start for Vassily Ivanchuk who let his queen trapped not long after the opening phase, against Vugar Gashimov. All the other games ended in a draws, and especially Wang Yue and Leko didn’t spend much time behind the chess board. They started repeating moves already on move 15 – necessary to draw early in FIDE GPs where the Sofia rule is in effect.
When I was in Baku for the first Grand Prix tournament, the plan of FIDE/Global Chess was to create a ‘media team’ that would take care of all six tournaments. This way each tournament website would be a bit better than the previous, and we’d be working to a very professional way of covering chess. Somewhere along the way this went wrong, because at the moment of writing the tournament website doesn’t have a PGN file, a bulletin, a video or game commentary. But OK, it’s only the first day, let’s give them some time.
Takes place in Azkaban, or something like that. Starting May 9. Final qualifier spot in the candidates is up for grabs. The players: Akopian, Alekseev, Eljanov, Gashimov, Gelfand, Inarkiev, Ivanchuk, Jakovenko, Leko, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Radjabov, Svidler, Wang Yue.
VI ed ultima tappa del Grand Prix FIDE media elo 2730!
Radjabov, Wang Yue e Gashimov favoriti per la corsa al 2° posto
In corsa anche Ivanchuk, Jakovenko e Leko
Pochissime speranze per Mamedyarov e Alekseev
Completano la lista Eljanov Gelfand Svidler Ponomariov Akopian e Inarkiev
E alla fine, il Grand Prix non affondò. Nonostante la defezione di alcune sedi ed il ritiro di Carlsen, la manifestazione ideata dal vulcanico presidente della FIDE giunge al suo ultimo atto, che si svolgerà in Astrakhan (Russia) dal 9 (cerimonia di apertura) al 25 maggio. La sesta prova, nonostante la rinuncia di Aronian che ha già vinto il GP, ha una media elo impressionante per un torneo con 14 partecipanti: 2730!
Ma non sono tutte rose e fiori, anzi. Il Grand Prix era stato pensato per far svolgere le prove nel maggior numero possibile di nazioni e continenti mentre le sei tappe, compresa l'ultima, si saranno disputate solo in Russia (4) Armenia e Azerbajan. E' difficile quindi imaginare che il Grand Prix possa essere riproposto, a meno che Ilyumzhinhov (o Karpov?) riesca a rilanciare il progetto coinvolgendo anche il resto del mondo...
Nonostante il primo posto sia stato già assegnato, il torneo riveste una notevole importanza, e non solo per i premi (30.000 euro al vincitore) e per il prestigio. II secondo classificato del Grand Prix si qualificherà, infatti, per il Torneo dei Candidati che deciderà lo sfidante di Anand (o Topalov) per il Titolo di Campione del Mondo.
Otto dei quattordici partecipanti sono ancora in corsa per questo traguardo. Solo Svidler, Akopian, Eljanov e Inarkiev sono matematicamente esclusi. Gelfand si è già qualificato tramite la World Cup mentre Ponomariov è stato convocato solo per sostituire Aronian.
Di seguito presento la classifica che conta, che considera solo i migliori due risultati ottenuti dai concorrenti (il regolamento prevede che venga scartato il peggior risultato ottenuto). E' infatti quasi certo, e vi risparmio le improbabili ipotesi che dovrebbero verificarsi perchè avvenga il contrario, che i 363,3 punti sinora ottenuti da Radjabov e Grischuk non saranno sufficienti per arrivare secondi.
Pos.
Nome
Punti
1
Radjabov
303,3
2
Wang Yue
273,3
3
Gashimov
263,3
4
Ivanchuk
245
5
Jakovenko
243,3
6
Leko
240
7
Mamedyarov
185
Alekseev
185
Partecipanti alla sesta prova del Grand Prix, in ordine di elo
Rank Mondiale
Nome
Nazione
Rating
6
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
AZE
2763
8
Wang, Yue
CHN
2752
9
Eljanov, Pavel
UKR
2751
11
Gelfand, Boris
ISR
2741
12
Ivanchuk, Vassily
UKR
2741
13
Radjabov, Teimour
AZE
2740
15
Svidler, Peter
RUS
2735
16
Leko, Peter
HUN
2735
17
Gashimov, Vugar
AZE
2734
18
Ponomariov, Ruslan
UKR
2733
21
Jakovenko, Dmitry
RUS
2725
37
Alekseev, Evgeny
RUS
2700
43
Akopian, Vladimir
ARM
2694
61
Inarkiev, Ernesto
RUS
2669
Regolamento
Calendario si gioca dal 10 al 24 maggio alle ore13. Previsti due giorni di riposo, il 15 ed il 20 maggio.
Tempo di riflessione 120' x 40 mosse + 60'x 20 mosse +15' per finire finire la partita +30" per mossa dalla 61esima mossa.
Patta solo con le regole di Sofia I giocatori non possono parlare con il proprio avversario durante la partita. I giocatori non possono, quindi, offrire la patta direttamente al proprio avversario. Si potrà reclamare la patta solo attraverso il capo-arbitro nei seguenti casi:
tripla ripetizione della posizione
scacco perpetuo
posizione di patta teorica
regola delle 50 mosse senza mosse di pedone e senza catture
Premi e sistema di punteggio
Posizione
Premi in Euro
Punti per il GP
1°
30,000
140 + 40 bonus
2
22,500
130 + 20
3°
20,000
120 + 10
4°
15,000
110
5°
12,500
100
6°
11,000
90
7°
10,000
80
8°
8,500
70
9°
7,500
60
10°
6,000
50
11°
5,500
40
12°
5,000
30
13°
4,500
20
14°
4,000
10
Classifica del Grand Prix prima dell'ultima prova
P.
Giocatore
Nazione
Baku
Sochi
Elista
Nalchik
Jermuk
Tappe disputate
Totale*
1
Aronian
ARM
180,0
180,0
140,0
3
500,0
2
Radjabov
AZE
60,0
150,0
153,3
3
363,3
3
Grischuk
RUS
105,0
45,0
153,3
105,0
4
363,3
4
Wang Yue
CHN
153,3
120,0
80,0
3
353,3
5
Gashimov
AZE
153,3
65,0
110,0
3
328,3
6
Leko
HUN
80,0
140,0
100,0
3
320,0
7
Jakovenko
RUS
90,0
153,3
35,0
3
278,3
8
Ivanchuk
UKR
65,0
20,0
180,0
3
265,0
9
Gelfand
ISR
30,0
85,0
140,0
3
255,0
10
Mamedyarov
AZE
105,0
80,0
55,0
3
240,0
11
Bacrot
FRA
15,0
80,0
105,0
55,0
4
240,0
12
Kamsky
USA
60,0
120,0
55,0
55,0
4
235,0
13
Svidler
RUS
85,0
90,0
55,0
3
230,0
14
Karjakin
UKR
60,0
90,0
55,0
80,0
4
230,0
15
Alekseev
RUS
35,0
85,0
100,0
3
220,0
16
Kasimdzhanov
UZB
80,0
20,0
100,0
3
200,0
17
Akopian
ARM
15,0
140,0
35,0
3
190,0
18
Cheparinov
BUL
35,0
45,0
50,0
10,0
4
130,0
19
Eljanov
UKR
35,0
20,0
70,0
3
125,0
20
Inarkiev
RUS
15,0
15,0
20,0
3
50,0
Navara
CZE
35,0
15,0
excl.
2
Carlsen
NOR
153,3
withdrew
1
Adams
ENG
85,0
withdrew
1
Al-Modiahki
QAT
15,0
excl.
1
Pelletier
SUI
excl.
0
* si considerano i tre risultati migliori
Radjabov, il favorito per la corsa al secondo posto ..
... ma nulla è impossibile per Ivanchuk ...
... senza dimenticare Wang Yue, Gashimov, Jakovenko e Leko!
uno splendido panorama della città di Astrakhan, una delle principali città della parte meridionale della Russia
GM GODENA e MI D'AMOREcontro 40 GM ! I nostri Michele Godena e Carlo D'Amore prenderanno parte al 40° Festival Internazionale Bosna 2010 che si svolgerà dal 5 al 14 Maggio presso la Dom mladih di Sarajevo ( città considerata la Gerusalemme dei Balcani, in Bosnia-Herzegovina). Trattasi di un Festival di alto livello con più di 30 GM ed alcune star come il cinese Wang Hao, il tedesco Naiditsch, il rumeno Nisipeanu, il moldavo Bologan e il russo Timofeev. Tra i giovani in cerca dell'acuto troviamo lo sloveno Luka Lenic, il croato Ivan Saric, l'Arzebaigiano Abasov e il neo GM ungherese Richard Rapport, 13 anni. Tra le ragazze presente la fortissima WGM Russa Nadezhda Kosintseva.
Il GM WANG HAO, n°1 del tabellone,ora ha raggiunto quota 2722 punti elo che lo collocano al 2° posto del ranking cinese dietro a Wang Yue (2752). Si tratta del suo best personale con cui ha ormai ampiamente scavalcato i compagni di squadra Bu (2681) e Ni Hua (2667).
GM GODENA alle OLIMPIADI 2008e il MI CARLO D'AMORE LISTA PREISCRITTI
1
GM
Wang Hao
8602883
CHN
2722
2
GM
Efimenko Zahar
14107201
UKR
2677
3
GM
Timofeev Artyom
4140419
RUS
2677
4
GM
Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter
1202758
ROU
2672
5
GM
Bologan Viktor
13900048
MDA
2668
6
GM
Mamedov Rauf
13401653
AZE
2653
7
GM
Gustafsson Jan
4625498
GER
2640
8
GM
Sandipan Chanda
5004225
IND
2640
9
GM
Vuckovic Bojan
922277
SRB
2640
10
GM
Ivanisevic Ivan
912417
SRB
2630
11
GM
Predojevic Borki
930849
BIH
2628
12
GM
Berg Emanuel
1704060
SWE
2616
13
GM
Mamedov Nidjat
13400819
AZE
2614
14
GM
Nikolic Predrag
14400014
BIH
2606
15
GM
Geetha Narayanan Gopal
5015693
IND
2604
16
GM
Lenic Luka
14603853
SLO
2592
17
GM
Stefansson Hannes
2300087
ISL
2588
18
GM
Fier Alexandr
2107139
BRA
2581
19
GM
Saric Ivan
14508150
CRO
2580
U20
20
GM
Perunovic Milos
921629
SRB
2574
21
GM
Brkic Ante
14506688
CRO
2573
22
GM
Kovacevic Aleksandar
903124
SRB
2573
23
GM
Bosiocic Marin
14507927
CRO
2562
24
GM
Nevednichy Vladislav
1205730
ROU
2560
25
GM
Jankovic Alojzije
14505959
CRO
2559
26
GM
Godena Michele
800090
ITA
2554
27
WGM
Kosintseva Nadezhda
4134974
RUS
2553
W
28
GM
Solak Dragan
916811
SRB
2547
29
GM
Svetushkin Dmitry
13900463
MDA
2547
30
GM
Maiorov Nikita
13501720
BLR
2544
31
GM
Bindrich Falko
4676670
GER
2539
U20
32
GM
Damljanovic Branko
900125
SRB
2539
33
GM
Jovanic Ognjen
14504081
CRO
2530
34
IM
Abasov Nijat Azad Oglu
13402960
AZE
2525
U20
35
GM
Panarin Mikhail
4153251
RUS
2521
36
GM
Berczes David
722960
HUN
2519
U20
37
IM
Martinovic Sasa
14509792
CRO
2515
U20
38
IM
Sebenik Matej
14602296
SLO
2515
39
GM
Prohaszka Peter
726265
HUN
2510
U20
40
IM
Rapport Richard
738590
HUN
2509
U20
41
IM
Sengupta Deep
5008352
IND
2508
42
GM
Tratar Marko
14600684
SLO
2507
43
IM
Szabo Krisztian
722901
HUN
2506
44
IM
Brandenburg Daan
1011014
NED
2503
45
GM
Petrosian Davit G
13301349
ARM
2490
46
IM
Krivoborodov Egor
4155890
RUS
2490
47
GM
Saric Ante
14506254
CRO
2489
48
IM
Durarbeyli Vasif
13402935
AZE
2487
U20
49
IM
D'amore Carlo
800066
ITA
2484
50
IM
Das Arghyadip
5003610
IND
2481
51
IM
Stojanovic Dalibor
922692
BIH
2481
52
IM
Pavlovic Milos M
924601
SRB
2478
53
IM
Grandelius Nils
1710400
SWE
2476
U20
54
IM
Gerzhoy Leonid
2806126
CAN
2469
55
IM
Neubauer Martin
1602675
AUT
2458
56
IM
Huschenbeth Niclas
24604747
GER
2457
U20
57
IM
Pruijssers Roeland
1013068
NED
2443
58
IM
Zufic Miroslav
14506157
CRO
2442
59
GM
Manik Mikulas
14900734
SVK
2440
60
FM
Kleijn Christov
1013564
NED
2431
U20
61
IM
Thorfinnsson Bragi
2300958
ISL
2422
62
IM
Bitalzadeh Ali
1010972
NED
2420
63
IM
Csiszar Csaba
705276
HUN
2417
64
IM
Van Oosterom Chiel
1013076
NED
2416
65
IM
Willemze Thomas
1007238
NED
2408
66
FM
Rachela Milan
14903180
SVK
2400
67
IM
Runic Zoran
14401410
BIH
2398
68
IM
Rukavina Josip
14500191
CRO
2397
69
IM
Manea Alexandru
1207660
ROU
2396
70
IM
Jakovljevic Vlado
916080
BIH
2395
IL GM WANG HAO, n° 1 del tabellone. Ora ha raggiunto quota 2722 punti elo, che lo colloca al 2° posto del ranking cinese dietro a Wang Yue.
Sarajevo oggi è completamente ricostruita anche se ovviamente alcune ferite risalenti alla guerra sviluppatasi negli anni '90 sono ancora visibili. Si è trattato infatti uno dei più lunghi assedi perpetrati ai danni di una città dopo la seconda guerra Mondiale. Duranti questi conflitti sono andati persi, a causa delle cannonate serbe, anche dei testi di valore che gli ebrei avevano portato a Sarajevo (e che erano custoditi nella Biblioteca Nazionale) quando fuggirono dalla Spagna dei Re Cattolici. Un altro evento violento viene alla mente quando si cita Sarajevo, ovvero il delitto di Francesco Ferdinando d'Austria, delitto che contribuì poi a far scoppiare la Prima Guerra Mondiale.
La Biblioteca nazionale di Sarajevo
Il ponte di Mostar (non lontano da Sarajevo), rappresenta il punto d'incontro e confluenza tra Oriente ed Occidente, tra mondo latino e mondo bizantino.
E' on line il numero 519 del nostro settimanale web, Messaggero Scacchi. E' possibile leggerlo in versione html o scaricarlo in formato pdf. Il file di partite è in formato PGN zippato.
In questo numero, fra l'altro:
3 - ARVIER: ANTONIO ROSINO CAMPIONE ITALIANO SENIOR PER SPAREGGIO TECNICO
4 - GRADUATORIA FIDE: TOP TEN QUASI IMMOBILE, WANG YUE SALE ALL'8° POSTO
5 - ELO ITALIANI: NIENTE SCOSSE AL VERTICE, VOCATURO AL TERZO POSTO
6 - BAKU (AZERBAIGIAN): VLADIMIR KRAMNIK PRIMO NELLA PRESIDENT'S CUP
7 - CUTRO: IL RUSSO NAUMKIN LA SPUNTA PER SPAREGGIO NEL FESTIVAL
Baku, Azerbaigian – Giunge alla quinta edizione la “President’s Cup”, dedicata in verità all’ex Presidente dell’Azerbaigian, deceduto nel 2003, Heydar Aliyev (l’attuale Presidente è suo figlio Ilham). Nelle prime tre edizioni il formato scelto era stato quello dell’open, nella quarta si era invece assistito ad un match tra Azerbaigian e Resto del Mondo a cadenza rapid, dove i pur forti giocatori locali non avevano potuto resistere ad una micidiale formazione composta da Anand, Kramnik, Shirov e Karjakin!
Quest’anno otto sono i partecipanti, quattro locali e quattro “stranieri”, ma il formato scelto è quello di un girone all’italiana di sola andata, quindi tutti contro tutti.
Questi i giocatori invitati:
Strano il mancato invito di Vugar Gashimov, ma l’Azerbaigian certo non sorprende in questo campo: in precedenza lo stesso Mamedyarov, a Torino 2006, non aveva preso parte alla squadra olimpica azera per problemi con la propria federazione.
Cadenza 25’ a testa; due turni previsti il 29 aprile, tre il 30 e gli ultimi due il primo maggio. Il 2 maggio si terrà un torneo blitz.
Nalchik, Russia – E’ in corso la terza prova del “Grand Prix FIDE Femminile”, competizione costituita da una serie di tornei (sei) che hanno la funzione di designare la prossima sfidante al titolo del Campionato del Mondo Femminile che si disputerà nel 2011. La Campionessa del Mondo in carica è Alexandra Kosteniuk, che difenderà il proprio titolo in Turchia nel dicembre di quest’anno, in un Campionato del Mondo KO. La Campionessa del Mondo designata da Turchia 2010 sarà appunto sfidata l’anno successivo dalla vincitrice del Grand Prix Femminile.
Attualmente leader del Grand Prix Femminile è la cinese Zhao Xue.
Queste le partecipanti alla terza prova del GP Femminile:
La prova si svolge dal 26 aprile al 7 maggio, giorno di riposo il primo maggio. Dunque 11 turni; la vincitrice del torneo disporrà di 6.500 euro, 15.000 per la vincitrice del Grand Prix.
La favorita è Koneru Humpy, ma non avrà gioco facile contro Tatiana Kosintseva, le cinesi Hou Yifan e Zhao Xue, senza dimenticare la Campionessa Europea Pia Cramling. Le altre giocatrici sono comunque tutte molte competitive e non ci sarebbe troppo da stupirsi di un loro inserimento nella vetta della classifica finale.
Praga - Consueto match “rapid”, denominato “?EZ CHESS TROPHY“, che ha avuto già diverse edizioni sempre con protagonista David Navara. Nel 2007 si confrontò con Nigel Short, con vittoria di David; nel 2008 con Kramnik che ovviamente stravinse; nel 2009 fu la volta di Ivanchuk, netta vittoria per Chucky. Nel 2010 è Judit Polgar la sfidante di Navara, avversaria tutt’altro che facile, molto forte nel gioco veloce.
And the Winner is…
Judit Polgar!
Il confronto è previsto dal 22 al 24 aprile.
Interessante il programma della manifestazione, anche per alcune accattivanti conferenze:
Giovedì 22
4 p.m. – „Vera Menchik – world’s first women’s chess champion“- lecture by GM Vlastimil Hort
5 p.m. – 1st game of the match David Navara – Judit Polgar
6.15 p.m. – 2ndgame of the match David Navara – Judit Polgar
7.30 p.m. – 3rd game of the match David Navara – Judit Polgar
Venerdì 23
4 p.m. – Quiz of History of female chess – prepared and held by GM Vlastimil Hort
5 p.m. – 4th game of the match David Navara – Judit Polgar
6.15 p.m. – 5th game of the match David Navara – Judit Polgar
7.30 p.m. – 6th game of the match David Navara – Judit Polgar
Sabato 24
4 p.m. – ”On beauty, women and little bit on chess” – lecture by GM Lubomir Kavalek
5 p.m. – 7th game of the match David Navara – Judit Polgar
6.15 pm. – 8th game of the match David Navara – Judit Polgar
7.30 p.m. – tie-break (if the need arises) of the match David Navara – Judit Polgar
Domenica 25
4 p.m. – simul of GM Judit Polgar against 25 competitors
Kragujevac, Serbia. Il Campionato Serbo si svolge dal 18 aprile al primo maggio. Quest’anno si sono registrate importanti defezioni, comunque il livello è sempre notevole.
La lista dei partecipanti:
Dicevamo delle assenze. Certo la mancanza di Bojan Vuckovic, 2630, di Robert Markus, 2618, e soprattutto di Ivan Ivanisevic, 2630 e Campione Serbo sia nel 2008 che nel 2009, si faranno sentire; comunque Milos Perunovic è un giocatore notevole, già Campione Serbo nel 2005 (per quell’anno è più corretto parlare di “Serbia e Montenegro”) e nel 2007, e la concorrenza è senz’altro di tutto rispetto.
Milos Perunovic, in una curiosa immagine (foto Chessbase)
Ovviamente girone all’italiana, tredici turni. Giorno di riposo il 23 aprile.
Hanoi, Vietnam – E’ in corso di svolgimento un match amichevole tra le rappresentative della Germania e del Vietnam, nel corso del 35° anniversario dell’inizio delle relazioni diplomatiche tra i due paesi.
L’incontro si svolge su sei scacchiere di scacchi “internazionali” (quattro maschili e due femminili) e una di scacchi “cinesi” o Xiangqi. Le due nazioni hanno preso molto sul serio l’evento, schierando formazioni molto competitive, come può risultare evidente sia per la Germania che schiera giocatori come i GM Daniel Fridman, 2650, e Jan Gustafsson, 2646, sia per il Vietnam che non risparmia i propri gioielli: Le Quang Liem, 2689 e Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, 2642. Il compito non certo semplice per i tedeschi di tenere il campo nella specialità dello Xiangqi è stato affidato nientemeno che a Robert Hübner, scacchista di primissimo livello che non ha mai nascosto la propria passione per i giochi “da tavolo” orientali, come appunto lo Xiangqi e il Go.
Questi i primi due turni in programma per quanto riguarda gli scacchi “internazionali”; nello Xiangqi Hübner ha dovuto cedere nella prima partita contro Huu Cuong Vu.
Hübner affronta Vu Huu Cuong nella specialità Xiangqi
Kyustendil, Bulgaria – 74^ edizione del Campionato Nazionale della Bulgaria dal 7 al 17 aprile. Ovviamente assenti Topalov (che al Campionato nazionale ha partecipato solo da giovanissimo) e Cheparinov (che invece l’ha vinto due volte, nel 2004 e nel 2005) in questo momento in ben altre faccende affaccendati; manca anche Delchev, colonna della squadra olimpica bulgara. In compenso è presente il n° 2 bulgaro (dietro a Topalov e davanti a Cheparinov) l’esperto Kiril Georgiev, Elo 2669, molto stabile vicino alla soglia dei 2700 ormai da una dozzina d’anni; a suo tempo fu Campione del Mondo Juniores e nel 2009 ha partecipato anche al Campionato Italiano a squadre, nella squadra “Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova”, contribuendo alla conquista del titolo. Senz’altro interessante anche la presenza di Kiprian Berbatov, classe 1996, già Campione Europeo Under 12, vera e propria speranza nazionale, tanto che è già stato candidato (nientemeno che da Danailov) come componente della prossima squadra olimpica bulgara.
Questo il lotto dei partecipanti:
Kiril Georgiev
Kiprian Berbatov
Girone all’italiana, tredici turni. Sono previsti un paio di doppi turni, la cadenza è quindi piuttosto “agile”: 90′ x 40 mosse + 30′ per finire, sempre con l’abbuono di 30″.
Kuala Lumpur, Malesia – Si svolge dal 7 al 12 aprile nella capitale della Malesia il 3° KL Open.
Partecipanti Over2500:
Presenti anche Aleksander Wohl (IM australiano, 2441, “secondo” di Aronian in diverse occasioni) e molti Indiani con Elo non alto ma sicuramente pericolosi.
Mikheil Mchedlishvili (foto Tiviakov per Chessbase)
Top Player dunque il georgiano Mikheil Mchedlishvili, da un paio d’anni solidamente sopra i 2600; ma probabilmente l’attrazione del torneo è Hou Yifan, nonostante il fatto che negli ultimi due anni si sia un pochino arenata, non mantenendo forse le aspettative che molti avevano nei suoi confronti all’epoca della sua esplosione a soli 12 anni: comunque avendo ora solo 16 anni le prospettive di un’ulteriore crescita certo non le mancano…
And the Winner is…
Hou Yifan, Cina!
Nove i turni di gioco previsti. Primo premio di 10.000 ringgit malesi, equivalenti a circa 2300 euro.
Salonicco, Grecia – E’ tempo di “Festival dei Giochi” a Salonicco: per la sesta volta viene organizzata questa ‘kermesse’ in cui accanto a biliardo, freccette, giochi di carte ed altri giochi da tavolo, anche gli scacchi sono in bella mostra. Quest’anno sono diverse le manifestazioni scacchistiche nell’ambito del “Festival dei Giochi”, a partire dall’Open “Thessaloniki 2010”, che vede la partecipazione anche di giocatori italiani particolarmente competitivi.
Questa la “TopTen” del torneo:
1
IM
Petrov Marijan
BUL
2526
2
IM
Grigorov Grigor
BUL
2510
3
IM
Esen Baris
TUR
2506
4
GM
Antic Dejan
SRB
2502
5
IM
Erdogdu Mert
TUR
2502
6
GM
Bezgodov Alexei
RUS
2497
7
GM
Vocaturo Daniele
ITA
2489
8
GM
Georgiev Krum
BUL
2447
9
GM
Velikov Petar
BUL
2423
10
IM
Piscopo Pierluigi
ITA
2418
Sono inoltre presenti:
19
FM
Stella Andrea
ITA
2283
29
WFM
Chierici Marianna
ITA
2094
Daniele Vocaturo (foto Chessbase)
Sono previsti nove turni di gioco.
Cadenza: 90′ x 40 mosse + 30′ per terminare, sempre con abbuono di 30″.
Primo premio di 1.000 euro.
Piuttosto variegato l’orario d’inizio delle partite:
Monday April 5th 16:00 Round 1
Tuesday April 6th 10:00 Round 2
Tuesday April 6th 17:00 Round 3
Wednesday April 7th 16:00 Round 4
Thursday April 8th 16:00 Round 5
Friday April 9th 10:00 Round 6
Friday April 9th 17:00 Round 7
Saturday April 10th 16:00 Round 8
Sunday April 11th 09:30 Round 9
Questo il quadro completo delle competizioni di scacchi organizzate presso il “Festival dei Giochi”:
A) European Individual School Championship dal 5 all’11 Aprile
B) Open Thessaloniki 2010 dal 5 all’11 Aprile
C) International Open Blitz, l’11 Aprile
D) Campionato Europeo Seniores Rapid, 8-9 Aprile
E) Campionato Europeo Seniores, dal 10 al 18 Aprile
And the Winner is…
Marijan Petrov, Bulgaria!
E nel Campionato Europeo Seniores “the Winner is…”
Dubai, Emirati Arabi Uniti – Il 12° Dubai Open è previsto dal 5 al 13 aprile. E’ questo un torneo che per montepremi, confort di soggiorno e inviti non lesinati attira sempre un folto gruppo di GM anche di ottimo livello: l’edizione 2010 non fa eccezione.
Questa la “Top 20” del 12° Dubai Open
Gabriel Sargissian
Nove turni di gioco. Cadenza 90′ con incremento di 30″ a mossa. Primo premio di 8.000 $.
Il 9 aprile è previsto un giorno di riposo (solo per alcuni, visto che è in programma un torneo ‘Blitz’). Doppio turno il 10 aprile.
And the Winner is…
Edoardo Iturrizaga, Venezuela!
Tejas Ravichandran: 15enne non titolato che vince nei primi tre turni contro tre GM!
Filadelfia - Uno dei SuperOpen (a livello quantitativo, difficilmente a livello qualitativo) americani si disputa dal 31 marzo al 4 aprile: si tratta del “Philadelphia Open“. La presenza di Gata Kamsky dà immediato prestigio al torneo.
And the Winner is…
Gata Kamsky, USA!
Questi gli Over 2500 presenti:
Occhi puntati comunque non solo su Gata ma anche su Ray Robson che oramai è considerato “stella di prima grandezza” nel panorama scacchistico statunitense.
Ray Robson
Previsti nove turni. Montepremi variabile in realazione al numero degli iscritti, comunque i 10.000 dollari per il primo classificato dovrebbero essere disponibili.
Deizisau, Germania – E’ iniziato il 14° Neckar Open, competizione che quest’anno coinvolge ben 718 giocatori in tre tornei.
Nell’Open A (più di 400 partecipanti!) questi i giocatori più qualificati:
Naiditsch è un giocatore di altra categoria (un anno fa ha toccato “quota 2700″) ma non sempre i SuperGM dominano i tornei ai quali partecipano e qui ci sono veramente molti GM insidiosi. Arkadij ha già partecipato all’edizione 2009 e in quell’occasione ha dovuto condividere il primo posto con i GM Bachmann e Peralta.
Arkadij Naiditsch (foto Giorgios Souleidis)
Partecipano anche giocatori italiani di ottimo livello:
32. Dvirnyy Daniyyl IM 2450
36. Rombaldoni Axel IM 2439
55. Napoli Nicolo’ FM 2362
95. Corvi Marco FM 2275
229. Paulmichl Martin 2094
255. Spornberger Maximilian 2074
Nicolo' Napoli (foto Giorgios Souleidis)
Daniyyl Dvirnyy (foto Giorgios Souleidis)
Il promettente 14enne Maximilian Spornberger
Si gioca dal primo al 5 aprile, previsti nove turni. 2.500 euro per il primo classificato.
Every week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!
El Gambito de Rey en manos de Carlsen en el King’s 2010, en Bazna, Rumania.
Magnus nunca utilizó el Gambito de Rey. "Las cosas no iban tan bien en el torneo pensé en probarlo y ver cómo va", dijo Carlsen después de la partida.
Bronstein. En marzo de 1960, tanto Boris como David, vinieron a 
Sin embargo, el mismo Fischer lo empleó varias veces en partidas importantes, aunque normalmente, tras 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 jugaba 3.Ac4. Y vino a mi recuerdo una partida en simultáneas de Bobby, sobre la que no tengo certeza de la fecha, 1970 (año en que arrasó en el Magistral de Buenos Aires, con 15/17) o en 1971 (cuando en Buenos Aires ganó 
Every week we present you an endgame study – this week not selected by IM Yochanan Afek but by another, quite famous player from Israel. Last week, at the Kings’ Tournament in Bazna, Boris Gelfand showed an ending to Magnus Carlsen, and he was happy to show it to our readers too. Good luck solving! Update: improved version after Mr. Gelfand emailed us.
The gap between Magnus Carlsen (2826) and Veselin Topalov (2803) has increased to 23 points on the July 1 FIDE rating list. The Norwegian won 13 points whereas the Bulgarian dropped 9. Third is World Champion Viswanathan Anand, now with 2800 points exactly. Wang Yue dropped from 8th to 28th.
Carlsen’s fine victory in Romania last week got him another 13 rating points and because Topalov lost 9 points in his match with Anand, the gap between the world’s number one and two is now 23 points. Those 9 points went to Anand, who thereby surpassed Kramnik to regain the 3rd spot, at a nice 2800 precisely.
Magnus Carlsen finished the Kings Tournament in Bazna, Romania in style. The Norwegian beat Wang Yue with Black in the last round to finish with a 7.5/10 score, two points ahead of the rest of the field. Ponomariov and Radjabov defeated Nisipeanu and Gelfand respectively, also with the black pieces. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco – Final Report.
All three games of round 9 in Bazna, Romania ended in draw. With one round to go, Carlsen leads the Kings Tournament with 6.5/9. Gelfand, who celebrated his 42nd birthday on Thursday, has a point less. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu defeated Wang Yue with the black pieces in round 8 of the Kings Tournament in Bazna, Romania. Gelfand-Carlsen and Radjabov-Ponomariov ended in a draw. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.
Bu Xiangzhi edged out Li Chao on tiebreak to win what was advertised as the first ‘Super GM’ event in Danzhou, China. In a tournament that saw lots of spectacular games, Ni Hua finished on a disastrous 2/9.
In the seventh round of the Kings Tournament, which has returned to Bazna, Carlsen won against Radjabov. Gelfand is still a point behind the Norwegian after beating Nisipeanu with Black. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.
Magnus Carlsen increased his lead at the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania to a full point. Today the Norwegian beat Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces, while Wang Yue-Gelfand and Radjabov-Nisipeanu ended in a draw. For now the games, later more.
After five rounds, Carlsen is in sole lead at the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania. The world’s number one defeated Nisipeanu with Black. Gelfand also won, against Ponomariov, while Wang Yue and Radjabov drew. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.
Three victories for the white pieces shook up the standings completely at the Kings Tournament in Media, Romania. Carlsen and Radjabov took over the lead from Gelfand and Nisipeanu, going into the first rest day. Now with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco & a long video with Radjabov explaining in ‘Corus style’ his win against Gelfand.
Teimour Radjabov defeated Ruslan Ponomariov in the third round of the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania. Gelfand and Nisipeanu kept their slim lead; the Israeli drew with Carlsen while the Romanian split the point with Wang Yue. Games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.
The 3rd Kings tournament takes place in Medias, Romania, Monday, June 14, 2010 - Friday, June 25, 2010.
PGN
All three games in round 2 of the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania ended in a draw. Magnus Carlsen tried for a long time to win an ending against Teimour Radjabov, who said he was simultaneously “fighting against a flu.” Games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco & new video.
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu made headlines in the local newspapers after beating Teimour Radjabov in the first round of the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania. Carlsen and Ponomariov drew relatively quickly, and Boris Gelfand defeated Wang Yue in the longest game of the round. Games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos with comments by all six players!
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Today the opening ceremony and drawing of lots of the Kings Tournament in Romania took place. Tomorrow we’ll have Gelfand-Wang Yue, Nisipeanu-Radjabov and Carlsen-Ponomariov. Your editor-in-chief writes this brief, first report in Bazna, from where I’ll provide daily videos throughout the event.
Wang Hao and Ju Wenjun became the new Chinese Champions on Friday in Xinghua, China. Wang Hao edged out Bu Xiangzhi and Zhou Jianchao on tiebreak after the three ended on 7.5/11. Ju Wenjun ended clear first with 8/11.
Anish Giri today defeated co-leader Jon Ludvig Hammer in a direct encounter to win the 18th Sigeman & Co tournament with a score of 4.5/5 (and a 2920 performance rating). Hammer finished clear second with a point less.
The last Grand Prix in Astrakhant has finished and the final standings of the FIDE Grand Prix series are already known. Levon Aronian is the overall winner with 500 points from 3 tournaments, which brings him the prize of 75 000 eur. Teimour Radjabov won the second position ahead of Alexander Grischuk, Dmitry Jakovenko, Wang Yue, Vugar Gashimov, Peter Leko, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Evgeny Alekseev, and Pavel Eljanov.
Pavel Eljanov today won the sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Astrakhan, Russia. The Ukrainian finished with a score of 8/13, a full point ahead of a group of five GMs. One of them was Teimour Radjabov, who finished second in the final GP standings and qualified for the FIDE Candidates matches.
After nine rounds Pavel Eljanov is back in the lead in Astrakhan. The Ukrainian GM drew just three games, and he’s the only one who collected 5.5 points so far.
Ukraine’s new number one Pavel Eljanov started strongly in Astrakhan. After five rounds he’s leading the sixth FIDE Grand Prix tournament with 3.5 points. His compatriot Vassily Ivanchuk started with 1/4, but yesterday he defeated another Ukrainian, Ruslan Ponomariov, with the black pieces.
After three rounds a group of five players leads the FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan with 2/3: Gashimov, Leko, Ponomariov, Gelfand and Eljanov. In today’s third round all games ended in a draw.
The final FIDE Grand Prix is held in in Astrakhan from May 9th to 25th.
In the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan, Vugar Gashimov beat Vassily Ivanchuk in the only decisive game.
Sito ufficiale
