Qatar Masters Open - strongest open ever held

[Chris Rice]

The Qatar Masters starts today and a ChessBase report details how it will be the strongest tournament in history. 92 grandmasters participating, 56 of them over 2600, and 14 over 2700. Should be amazing. However, what is the definition of an Open? Somewhat laughably I did want to enter myself only to find that the organiser, having received an influx of the worlds top players, raised the bar to players who were at least 2300+ I suppose you could argue that its open to all players with a rating higher that 2300 but then again you could have a tournament with 10 players and say that its an "Open" tournament open to those 10 players only? Ah well guess I should thank the organisers from saving me from what would almost certainly have been a complete humiliation. Imagine being on 0/4 and paired against some 2600.

http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/

http://en.chessbase.com/post/qatar-mast ... -wednesday

[Mick Norris]

Will be interesting to see how Kramnik does

[Mick Norris]

First round pairings
http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/pairings/

[Chris Rice]

Live games
http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/live-games/

Video stream with Simon Williams/Danny King

http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/video-stream/

[David Robertson]

the strongest tournament in history. 92 grandmasters participating, 56 of them over 2600, and 14 over 2700. Should be amazing

Beats funding Hamas, that's for sure

[Barry Sandercock]

Excellent website. 78 live games !

[Nick Burrows]

Results and Rd 2 Pairings:

http://chess-results.com/tnr153113.aspx ... =30&wi=821

[Stewart Reuben]

There are a few players 2200+ in the event.
Gibraltar we are very meticulous about that. We claim it is the strongest open tournament in the world and, indeed, anybody can enter. That causes a space problem. Restricting it to 2200+ would help solve that problem, but then we wouldn't be able to boast.
It is unquestionably the strongest Swiss ever held. Prior to this was the Aeroflot A tournament.
Qatar is a very impressive event. Nearly everybody has a title. The median of the 150+ players is over 2500, Gib this year was about 2290 (with 250+ players). 94 GMs and 40 federations.

[Roger de Coverly]

There are a few players 2200+ in the event. Where does it say it is 'open'?

ChessBase article
http://en.chessbase.com/post/qatar-mast ... -wednesday

Open only in the sense of "not an all play all".

[Stewart Reuben]

I looked and corrected myself. It is indeed called the Qatar Open.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Chess24 pointing out that David Anton began in a somewhat juvenile style: 1 e4, 2 Nc3, 3 Bc4, 4 Qf3, 5 Nb5. He seemed to get an advantage anyway.

Perhaps he was trying to make the event look like an Open despite the minimum rating requirement by playing like a total beginner.

[Barry Sandercock]

He seemed to get away with the bizarre opening and seems to have an even game now (move 32)

[Roger de Coverly]

He seemed to get away with the bizarre opening and seems to have an even game now (move 32)

I think it was a matter of poking Black with concrete threats such as mate on f7, to get a concession, in this case Ke7 after which Black has to castle by hand. After that both players rearranged their pieces into more conventional structures. I don't think the White queen looked particularly well placed, although it eventually reached h4 once the position had some passing resemblance to a middle game from a Grand Prix Attack.

Kramnik got hit by an Evans' Gambit in round 1 and could only draw. He also only drew in round 2, in a game which turned bizarre very rapidly.

[NickFaulks]

Kramnik got hit by an Evans' Gambit in round 1 and could only draw. He also only drew in round 2, in a game which turned bizarre very rapidly.

On move 11 in the second game, did he accidentally touch his king? If so, it was very sporting of his opponent to reply by doing the same.

[Stewart Reuben]

4.3...if the player having the move touches on the chessboard, with the intention of moving or capturing:
There then follow the requirements.