Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

The very latest International round up of English news.
Chris Rice
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by Chris Rice » Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:26 am

Not exactly optimal play during that difficult rook ending but Howell showed great determination throughout. David is Black versus rapidly improving Axel Bachman from Paraguay while Nakamura is white against Yu Yangyi. I'll just mention that Alan Walton drew with Natalia Zhukova yesterday, another great result for him. Finally I see that the ECF President is playing in the Challengers B. He's on 1/3 so far. http://chess-results.com/tnr158553.aspx ... YES&wi=821

Round 7 results

1 Howell David W L 2670 ½-½ Nakamura Hikaru 2776
2 Yu Yangyi 2724 ½-½ Hou Yifan 2673
3 Adhiban B. 2630 0-1 Naroditsky Daniel 2622
4 Wagner Dennis 2501 0-1 Bachmann Axel 2629
5 Topalov Veselin 2800 ½-½ Lenderman Aleksandr 2614
6 Salgado Lopez Ivan 2628 0-1 Svidler Peter 2739
7 Vitiugov Nikita 2735 1-0 Roiz Michael 2592
8 Sethuraman S.P. 2624 0-1 Jakovenko Dmitry 2733
9 Harikrishna P. 2723 1-0 Muzychuk Anna 2544
10 Vazquez Igarza Renier 2592 0-1 Rapport Richard 2716
11 Oparin Grigoriy 2551 0-1 Cheparinov Ivan 2681
12 Lalith Babu M.R. 2537 ½-½ Rodshtein Maxim 2680
13 Venkatesh M.R. 2460 0-1 Wei Yi 2675

Standings:

1 Nakamura 6.5
2= Howell, Yu Yangyi, Naroditsky, Bachmann, 6
6= Vitiugov, Svidler, Harikrishna, Hou Yifan, Jakovenko, Wei Yi, Rapport, Cheparinov 5.5
14= Topalov, Vishnu Prasanna, Lenderman, Wagner, Adhiban, Lalith, Rodshtein 5

Round 8 pairings:

1 Nakamura (2776) 6½ 6 Yu Yangyi (2724)
2 Bachmann (2629) 6 6 Howell David (2670)
3 Naroditsky (2622) 6 5½ Vitiugov (2735)
4 Svidler (2739) 5½ 5½ Hou Yifan (2673)
5 Rapport (2716) 5½ 5½ Jakovenko (2733)
6 Cheparinov (2681) 5½ 5½ Harikrishna (2723)
7 Wei Yi (2675) 5½ 5 Rodshtein (2680)
8 Ju Wenjun (2547) 5 5 Topalov (2800)


ChessBase report: http://en.chessbase.com/post/gibraltar- ... ly-stopped

Chris Rice
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by Chris Rice » Tue Feb 03, 2015 6:16 pm

Incredible performance by Nakamura in this tournament:

Nakamura- Yu Yangyi 1-0

Chris Rice
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by Chris Rice » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:19 pm

Another great save by David Howell as Black against Bachman. I was struggling through the game as a comment by Dennis Monokroussos this morning kept popping in to my mind. If Matthew Turner had been playing we could have had a Bachman-Turner pairing. You ain't seen nothing yet. Actually bought that on vinyl when I was a kid.

Chris Rice
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by Chris Rice » Wed Feb 04, 2015 5:23 am

Nakamura now up to world number 7 on the live list, gaining 18.8 Elo so far, achieving his highest ever rating and the 12th highest of all time. http://www.2700chess.com/

Round 8 results:

1 Nakamura (2776) 1-0 Yu Yangyi (2724)
2 Bachmann (2629) ½-½ Howell David (2670)
3 Naroditsky (2622) ½-½ Vitiugov (2735)
4 Svidler (2739) ½-½ Hou Yifan (2673)
5 Rapport (2716) ½-½ Jakovenko (2733)
6 Cheparinov (2681) ½-½ Harikrishna (2723)
7 Wei Yi (2675) ½-½ Rodshtein (2680)
8 Ju Wenjun (2547) 0-1 Topalov (2800)

Standings:

1 Nakamura 7.5 (performance rating 3054!)
2= Howell David W L, Naroditsky, Bachmann Axel 6.5
5= Vitiugov, Svidler, Yu Yangyi, Topalov, Hou Yifan, Harikrishna, Jakovenko, Wagner, Wei Yi, Rapport, Adhiban, Cheparinov, Padmini, Nakar, Mareco, Bok 6

Meanwhile in the Challengers B our ECF President won his first game and moves to 2/4

28 Machlik Monika (2015) 0-1 Lawson Dominic (1951)

Round 9 pairings:

1 Bachmann Axel 2629 6½ 7½ Nakamura Hikaru 2776
2 Howell David W L 2670 6½ 6½ Naroditsky Daniel 2622
3 Topalov Veselin 2800 6 6 Wei Yi 2675
4 Adhiban B. 2630 6 6 Svidler Peter 2739
5 Vitiugov Nikita 2735 6 6 Mareco Sandro 2583
6 Jakovenko Dmitry 2733 6 6 Bok Benjamin 2572
7 Yu Yangyi 2724 6 6 Wagner Dennis 2501
8 Harikrishna P. 2723 6 6 Padmini Rout 2388
9 Hou Yifan 2673 6 6 Rapport Richard 2716
10 Nakar Eylon 2419 6 6 Cheparinov Ivan 2681

http://en.chessbase.com/post/gibraltar- ... point-lead

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:19 pm

Best wishes to Lawrence Trent and Alan Walton today, who by my calculations need a win for a GM norm and a draw for an IM norm respectively.

Jonathan Rogers
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by Jonathan Rogers » Wed Feb 04, 2015 1:15 pm

Seconded!

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MJMcCready
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by MJMcCready » Wed Feb 04, 2015 2:58 pm

If someone could explain what -on earth- GM Rapport has played today, I would be interested to know.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Wed Feb 04, 2015 3:11 pm

It's a fairly standard line in the Modern, that. The idea is to swap off the bad bishop and then put all your pawns on the light squares to blunt white's attacking ideas.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by MJMcCready » Wed Feb 04, 2015 3:15 pm

Well, it certainly looks very strange. I didn't know black can play ...d5 in the modern but then I've never played it.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Feb 04, 2015 3:16 pm

MJMcCready wrote:If someone could explain what -on earth- GM Rapport has played today, I would be interested to know.
Pretty much the same idea (Gurgenidze system) as a famous Fischer-Petrosian game.

This one in fact
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1106870

Substituting a6 for c6 is a novel twist, but appears to be a known idea. As to why you cannot just take on d5, that's left as an exercise for the reader or your favourite engine. There are lines with similar ideas in both the Bg5 Grunfeld and the Smyslov Kings Indian.

With the ever increasing popularity of the .. a6 idea in the Modern, more similar games might be anticipated.

Jonathan Rogers
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by Jonathan Rogers » Wed Feb 04, 2015 4:12 pm

MJMcCready wrote:Well, it certainly looks very strange. I didn't know black can play ...d5 in the modern but then I've never played it.
Even 1 e4 g6 2 d4 Bg7 3 Nc3 d5 can be played - I remember Matt Turner showing me some ideas in 1998. A little while later it featured in a brief SOS article in New In Chess.

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by Carl Hibbard » Wed Feb 04, 2015 4:17 pm

The Nakamura position is squeaking a bit today?
Cheers
Carl Hibbard

Chris Rice
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by Chris Rice » Thu Feb 05, 2015 5:11 am

Nakamura draws but David Howell continues to impress with another great win versus Naroditsky. Sadly both Lawrence and Alan lost but as Lawrence is still averaging over 2500 and Alan at 2396 do they still have chances if they win their last round? Perhaps Jack can advise?

Hou Yifan, the current women's world champion, is also playing superb chess at the moment and is now the world number 58. She did an interview with Stuart Conquest in Gibraltar and dropped a bombshell and announced she won't be defending her title in Sochi as she doesn't like the knockout system to decide the women's world championship. http://chess-news.ru/en/node/18054

Round 9 results:

1 Bachmann Axel 2629 ½ Nakamura Hikaru 2776
2 Howell David W L 2670 1-0 Naroditsky Daniel 2622
3 Topalov Veselin 2800 ½ Wei Yi 2675
4 Adhiban B. 2630 ½ Svidler Peter 2739
5 Vitiugov Nikita 2735 1-0 Mareco Sandro 2583
6 Jakovenko Dmitry 2733 ½ Bok Benjamin 2572
7 Yu Yangyi 2724 ½ Wagner Dennis 2501
8 Harikrishna P. 2723 1-0 Padmini Rout 2388
9 Hou Yifan 2673 1-0 Rapport Richard 2716
10 Nakar Eylon 2419 ½ Cheparinov Ivan 2681

Standings:

1 Nakamura 8
2 Howell David W L 7.5
3= Vitiugov Hou Yifan, Harikrishna Bachmann 7
7= Svidler, Topalov, Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi, Wagner (GM norm), Jakovenko, Adhiban, Naroditsky, Cheparinov, Matlakov, Nakar Eylon (GM norm), Kuipers Stefan (GM norm), Iturrizaga, Sutovsky 6.5

http://en.chessbase.com/post/gibraltar- ... r-gm-norms

Round 10 final pairings:

1 Nakamura Hikaru 2776 8 7 Harikrishna P. 2723
2 Hou Yifan 2673 7 7½ Howell David W L 2670
3 Vitiugov Nikita 2735 7 7 Bachmann Axel 2629
4 Bartel Mateusz 2631 6½ 6½ Topalov Veselin 2800
5 Svidler Peter 2739 6½ 6½ Sutovsky Emil 2637
6 Naroditsky Daniel 2622 6½ 6½ Jakovenko Dmitry 2733
7 Bok Benjamin 2572 6½ 6½ Yu Yangyi 2724
8 Kuipers Stefan 2390 6½ 6½ Matlakov Maxim 2695
9 Cheparinov Ivan 2681 6½ 6½ Adhiban B. 2630
10 Wei Yi 2675 6½ 6½ Felgaer Ruben 2575
11 Wagner Dennis 2501 6½ 6½ Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo 2649

LawrenceCooper
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Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by LawrenceCooper » Thu Feb 05, 2015 12:21 pm

Board 3 was a draw so potentially good news for David.

Clive Blackburn

Re: Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

Post by Clive Blackburn » Thu Feb 05, 2015 1:44 pm

I can see Howell's game ending up as a draw

Yifan Hou - David Howell