Qatar Masters Open 20-29 December

[Tim Harding]

No need to miss your daily fix of top chess over Christmas.

Carlsen, Kramnik, Giri, So, Karjakin, Li Chao b, Mamedyarov, Howell (and Ravi Haria) etc. will be in action in the Qatar Masters Open which starts on 20 December and continues to the 29th.
It's a good chance for Magnus to lose more rating points; he hasn't played an Open in years, I believe.

I expect there to be commentary on chess24 (there was last year).
Christmas Day is a rest day. Games start at 3pm Doha local time (= noon GMT I think) except the last round which is three hours earlier.
Minimum rating was supposed to be 2300 though they seem to have accepted entries from a few titled players just below that mark.

http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/english/

I think the Al-AIn chess classic in the Emirates is on at roughly the same dates (22-31 December).
Last year Qatar finished before Christmas so they didn't clash.

[Carl Hibbard]

It's a good chance for Magnus to lose more rating points; he hasn't played an Open in years, I believe.

Be interesting to watch for sure.

[Nick Burrows]

Good god, David Howell is only the 21st seed!

[Carl Hibbard]

Good god, David Howell is only the 21st seed!

With 50 over 2600 be 'interesting' to see how Magnus gets on!

[Roger de Coverly]

With 50 over 2600 be 'interesting' to see how Magnus gets on!

I wonder if he will be captured in the same pose as Kramnik last year. That was looking carefully at the opponent's name tag as if saying "Who are you and remind me how you spell your name".

[Mick Norris]

It is possible that this is the first appearance by a reigning World Champion in a Swiss Open at standard time controls since Boris Spassky played in Vancouver in 1971

according to TWIC

[John McKenna]

Possibly not - according to me.

What about World Champion A. Karpov in the 1983 West German Open Ch?

Probably a Swiss of 15 rounds and in R1 - Karpov,A (2710) 0-1 Hartmann,W (2290)!!

[Chris Rice]

That's a good bit of research John. Crazy game.

Hannover 1983 Round 1
White: Karpov, Anatoly
Black Hartmann, Wolfram


1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. g4 a6 7. g5 Nfd7 8. Bg2 Nc6 9. a4 Be7 10. h4 h6 11. gxh6 g6 12. Nf3 Nde5 13. Ng5 f6 14. Nh3 Bf8 15. f4 Nf7 16. Be3 Qa5 17. Qd2 Nxh6 18. Nf2 Bd7 19. Bf3 O-O-O 20. O-O-O Be8 21. h5 d5 22. exd5 Nf5 23. Qe1 Nb4 24. dxe6 Rxd1+ 25. Bxd1 Bc6 26. Rg1 gxh5 27. Kb1 Nxe3 28. Qxe3 Bc5 29. Qe1 Qb6 30. Rf1 f5 31. Nd3 Nxd3 32. cxd3 Bg2 33. a5 Qd6 34. Rf2 Bxf2 35. Qxf2 Bc6 36. Bb3 h4 37. Qa7 h3 38. e7 h2 39. Be6+ Qxe6 40. Qa8+ Kd7 41. Qxh8 h1=Q+ 0-1

[Matt Mackenzie]

Nope, that was an all play all (the crosstable is in Informator 36)

Karpov's only loss and he won the event.

[John McKenna]

Thanks to Chris Rice for putting the game up, above, and to Matt Mackenzie for looking up the format of the event and pointing out the error of my ways.

Karpov scored (+8,=6,-1) and did annotate his only loss in Hannover, but very lightly - ... 24.dxe6, with the better position and two extra pawns. 24... Rxd1+ 25.Bxd1 (Nfxd1 would have been an easy win.) 25... Bc6 26.Rg1 (Nfe4 White could still claim an advantage)...

I thought it might be a Swiss since the name of the event is given as the West German Open Championship, and I believe some earlier ones may have been Swisses. My guess is that it was 'open' to certain invited non-Germans and therefore that word was used.

Obviously the 1983 W. German 'Open' was not a Swiss and therefore my challenge to Mick's Norris' reported TWIC claim fails.

It is possible that this is the first appearance by a reigning World Champion in a Swiss Open at standard time controls since Boris Spassky played in Vancouver in 1971

according to TWIC

It will be interesting to see who gets to play Magnus in the 1st round at the Swiss-format Qatar Masters.

[Mick Norris]

I thought it might be a Swiss since the name of the event is given as the West German Open Championship, and I believe some earlier ones may have been Swisses. My guess is that it was 'open' to certain invited non-Germans and therefore that word was used.

According to wiki Spassky was joint winner in 1973 with Ulf Andersson and again in 1979, 1975 was Walter Browne, Karpov won also in 1977 - though it doesn't give the event format

Back on topic, will be interesting to see how Magnus plays in Qatar

[John McKenna]

Thanks for the background, Mick.

When I have time I may try to see if the W. German Open was ever a Swiss.

The annual Dutch Open Ch. (during the summer in Dieren) used to, and may still, have a Swiss top section of 64 predetermined contestants (above 2200, perhaps) from the Netherlands and various other countries. That means the Dutch Open Champion is sometimes not a Netherlander.

Back on topic, Magnus probably neither knows nor cares about Karpov being caught cold by a hot Hartmann all those years ago.

He's already had a couple of early upsets against 'weaker' players but nowhere near the scale of Karpov-Hartmann.

Then again everybody is 'weaker' than Magnus on a scale of 1,000 to 3,000 Elo points.

[Mick Norris]

Thanks for the background, Mick.

When I have time I may try to see if the W. German Open was ever a Swiss.

Thanks for the diversion, the Karpov game was very interesting, if you had left the names off it would have taken quite a few guesses for me to work out which World Champion was playing like that

[Mick Norris]

The annual Dutch Open Ch. (during the summer in Dieren) used to, and may still, have a Swiss top section of 64 predetermined contestants (above 2200, perhaps) from the Netherlands and various other countries. That means the Dutch Open Champion is sometimes not a Netherlander.

The official Dutch championship has been a 12 player APA since 1909 according to wiki which is interesting in itself

Reinderman won the Dutch Open at Dieren, which is the one you are referring to, last year
website

I see that Ivanchuk played draughts

[Steven DuCharme]

I think they should play in a swimming pool