Grenke Chess Classic 2-9 February 2015

[Barry Sandercock]

Another good win for Magnus today.

[Chris Rice]

Yes good game from Carlsen. Mickey managed to cling on for a draw, the Naiditsch-Caruana game was an interesting Marshall and poor Vishy got swindled. Massive game today between World No 1 & 2's. Their rivaly is becoming a bit like Federer-Nadal used to be.

Round 5 - results

Aronian 1-0 Anand
Adams ½-½ Bacrot
Naiditsch ½-½ Caruana
Carlsen 1-0 Baramidze

http://en.chessbase.com/post/grenke-rd5 ... n-the-lead
http://www.chess.com/news/grenke-r5-car ... again-3312

Standings:

1 = Carlsen, Naiditsch 3½
3 Caruana 3
4= Aronian, Bacrot, Adams 2½
7 Anand 1½
8 Baramidze 1

Round 6

Anand - Baramidze
Caruana - Carlsen
Bacrot - Naiditsch
Aronian - Adams

[John McKenna]

Yes good game from Carlsen. Mickey managed to cling on for a draw, the Naiditsch-Caruana game was an interesting Marshall and poor Vishy got swindled. Massive game today between World No 1 & 2's. Their rivaly is becoming a bit like Federer-Nadal used to be...


Standings:

1 = Carlsen, Naiditsch 3½
3 Caruana 3
4= Aronian, Bacrot 2½
7 Anand 1½
8 Baramidze 1

...

My thanks to Chris for his concise round ups above.
Just an observation - Adams has been omitted from the standings and is 4th= with Aronian & Bacrot on 2.5/5.

[Chris Rice]

Thanks John, now corrected.

[Mick Norris]

Standings:

1 = Carlsen, Naiditsch 3½
3 Caruana 3
4= Aronian, Bacrot, Adams 2½
7 Anand 1½
8 Baramidze 1

Round 6

Anand - Baramidze
Caruana - Carlsen
Bacrot - Naiditsch
Aronian - Adams

3 draws, with Anand currently winning

Round 7
SNr Name Elo Res. Name Elo SNr
4 GM Adams Michael 2738 - GM Anand Viswanathan 2797 8
5 GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2706 - GM Aronian Levon 2777 3
6 GM Carlsen Magnus 2865 - GM Bacrot Etienne 2711 2
7 GM Baramidze David 2594 - GM Caruana Fabiano 2811 1

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Baramidze a bit out of his depth by rating, but giving a good account of himself over the board.

[Chris Rice]

I'd agree with that, Baramidze may have only 1/6 but he's only down 7 Elo points, has played well and must have learned a lot from this experience.

Round 6

Anand 1-0 Baramidze
Caruana ½-½ Carlsen
Bacrot ½-½ Naiditsch
Aronian ½-½ Adams

Standings:

1 = Carlsen, Naiditsch 4
3 Caruana 3½
4= Aronian, Bacrot, Adams 3
7 Anand 2½
8 Baramidze 1

http://en.chessbase.com/post/grenke-rd6-anand-only-win

Last round today. I'm thinking that Caruana and Carlsen will win while the other two games are drawn? That'll leave Carlsen as the clear tournament winner. However, the organisers have confirmed if there is a tie for first there will be a play off.

Adams (3) - Anand (2.5)
Naiditsch (4) - Aronian (3)
Carlsen (4) - Bacrot (3)
Baramidze (1) - Caruana (3.5)

The tiebreakers are:

1. Number of wins 2. Number of wins with Black 3. Head-to-head score

Does this look fair to you? I always considered that head-to-head should be the first tiebreaker.

Anyway if there is still a tie for first place after that: 2 games with 10 min + 2 sec a move; then if needed 2 games with 5 min + 2 sec a move; finally a game with 6 min for White and 5 min for Black + 2 sec a move (in case of a draw Black wins)

So if Carlsen ties for first on points, then he wins on tiebreaks as he will have won more games than either Naiditsch or Caruana. This does not look right at all to me especially if he ties for first with Naiditsch, as Naiditsch beat him in their individual game.

If Naiditsch wins and Carlsen draws then Naiditsch wins

Caruana can only win the tournament I think if both Carlsen and Naiditsch lose and he wins because if Caruana wins while Carlsen & Naiditsch draw, Carlsen wins, Caruana will take second because he'll have won one more game with the black pieces than Naiditsch did.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Possible six-way tie for first if Adams beats Anand, Aronian beats Naiditsch, Bacrot beats Carlsen and Caruana draws with Baramidze. Wonder who would win on tie-break there? Still Carlsen because of his three wins.

[Barry Sandercock]

Carlsen and Naiditsch have both drawn and if Caruana wins, does Carlsen win on tie-break ?

[Ray Sayers]

Yes. Number of wins is 1st tiebreak.

Bizarre. There is going to be a quick play play off.

[Chris Rice]

Round 7 results

Adams 1-0 Anand
Naiditsch ½-½ Aronian
Carlsen ½-½ Bacrot
Baramidze ½-½ Caruana

Mickey won with Vishy once again losing another drawn rook and pawn ending. This tournament has been a complete disaster for Anand who loses 15 Elo and drops to No 9 on the live list.

Final standings:

1= Carlsen, Naiditsch 4.5
3= Adams, Caruan 4
5= Aronian, Bacrot 3.5
7 Anand 2.5
8 Baramidze 1.5

OK so now the German organisers decided to lob the tiebreak rules out of the window and have a play off between Naiditsch and Carlsen. Personally I believe the tiebreakers were not in the appropriate order and head to head should have been first when Naiditsch would have won the tournament. Still rules are rules and the first tiebreaker was number of wins and Carlsen should have been declared the outright winner without the need for a play-off. But the play-off went ahead which was very obliging on Carlsen’s part, not sure that would have been the case if say Kasparov or Fischer were still the world champions.

Anyway, the good thing was we got a few more games to watch and after a win apiece and two draws in the blitz Carlsen won the Armageddon game and won his 23rd Super tournament, which incidentally is also the number of Super tournaments that Kramnik and Anand have won as well but everything tells you that Carlsen has barely even started.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/grenke-fin ... armageddon
http://www.chess.com/news/carlsen-beats ... assic-9851

[Clive Blackburn]

OK so now the German organisers decided to lob the tiebreak rules out of the window and have a play off between Naiditsch and Carlsen.

This is ridiculous! Why bother having tiebreak rules at all if the organisers can just change them as and when they see fit?

[Clive Blackburn]

Really we should never have been in this situation because Carlsen had very good chances of beating Bacrot but unfortunately failed to convert into a win.

[Ray Sayers]

Aha! I understand why there was a tie break now! It is because the tie was for 1st place. The rules actually say:

Tiebreakers: 1. Number of wins, 2. Number of wins with Black, 3. Head-to-head score

In case of a tie for first place: 2 games with 10 min + 2 sec a move; then if needed 2 games with 5 min + 2 sec a move; finally a game with 6 min for White and 5 min for Black + 2 sec a move (in case of a draw Black wins)

So the number of wins is the 1st tie break UNLESS THE TIE IS FOR 1st PLACE!!

[Clive Blackburn]

Oh thank you Ray, that explains it!

I did wonder why Carlsen agreed so readily to a play-off!