Tradewise Gibraltar Masters

[IM Jack Rudd]

Assuming that all of them have 4-4 colour splits apart from Bacrot, he will get his due colour against any of them.

[Mick Norris]

Rank after Round 8
Rk. SNo Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 w we w-we K rtg+/-
1 2 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime FRA 2785 6,5 2837 6,5 5,95 0,55 10 5,5
2 11 GM Bacrot Etienne FRA 2697 6,5 2834 6 5,01 0,99 10 9,9
3 4 GM Harikrishna P. IND 2755 6,5 2803 6,5 5,98 0,52 10 5,2
4 24 GM Anton Guijarro David ESP 2639 6,5 2755 6,5 5,29 1,21 10 12,1

Round 9
Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 2 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2785 6½ 6½ GM Bacrot Etienne 2697 11
2 24 GM Anton Guijarro David 2639 6½ 6½ GM Harikrishna P. 2755 4

[IM Jack Rudd]

David Sedgwick finishes his opponent off nicely this morning:

[Event "Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 "] [Site "Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar"] [Date "2016.02.03"] [Round "5.32"] [White "Sedgwick, David"] [Black "Wright, Jonathan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "1973"] [BlackElo "1902"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "2016.01.30"] 1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. d4 cxd4 5. cxd4 e6 6. Nf3 d6 7. Bc4 dxe5 8. dxe5 Bb4+ 9. Bd2 Bxd2+ 10. Qxd2 O-O 11. O-O Nb6 12. Bd3 Nc6 13. Rd1 Qc7 14. Qe2 g6 15. Nc3 Nd5 16. Rac1 Nf4 17. Qe4 Nxd3 18. Rxd3 a6 19. Re1 Qe7 20. Qf4 Kg7 21. Ne4 Nb4 22. Rd6 Nd5 23. Qg3 b6 24. Nd4 Bb7 25. Nf6 Nxf6 26. Nf5+ exf5 27. exf6+ Qxf6 28. Rxf6 Kxf6 29. Qe5+ 1-0

[Roger de Coverly]

David Sedgwick finishes his opponent off nicely this morning:

He's had some good results recently. One can only suppose that when sitting on a stage for over a week with ten of the world's best players, some of it rubs off.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Ah yes, the "boring" 2c3 Sicilian again

[Sue Maroroa]

Hi everyone,
I just wrote an update on Gawain's website about my recent visit to Gib and have a small prize to giveaway if anyone wants to enter. http://gawainjones.co.uk/gib-a-giveaway/

Thanks for reading,
Sue

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Well, that was a relatively quick draw on top board between MVL and Bacrot. On board 2, seeing whether they can take the lead, Harikrishna an exchange up for a pawn against Anton (the young Spanish GM), but the engines give White a slight edge (strong bishop pair). I have no idea which side I would prefer to take in that position (currently at move 25).

[IM Jack Rudd]

You will take my sacrificed rook.

[Event "Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 "] [Site "Gibraltar"] [Date "2016.02.03"] [Round "9.76"] [White "Verneuil, Pascal"] [Black "Kohlweyer, Bernd"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "2205"] [BlackElo "2404"] [PlyCount "54"] [EventDate "2016.01.26"] 1. e4 c5 2. b3 g6 3. Bb2 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Bc4 Nb6 6. e6 f6 7. exd7+ Bxd7 8. Qe2 e5 9. f4 Nxc4 10. Qxc4 b5 11. Qe2 Bg7 12. Nc3 O-O 13. fxe5 fxe5 14. O-O-O Nc6 15. Nxb5 Nd4 16. Nxd4 cxd4 17. Nf3 Rc8 18. Kb1 Rxc2 19. Rc1 d3 20. Qe3 Rxb2+ 21. Kxb2 e4+ 22. Kb1 exf3 23. gxf3 Qa5 24. Qc5 Qxd2 25. Qa3 Qg2 26. Rhd1 Bf5 27. Rc5 Qe2 0-1

[Mick Norris]

Well, that was a relatively quick draw on top board between MVL and Bacrot. On board 2, seeing whether they can take the lead, Harikrishna an exchange up for a pawn against Anton (the young Spanish GM), but the engines give White a slight edge (strong bishop pair). I have no idea which side I would prefer to take in that position (currently at move 25).

Board 2 drawn - 8 players on 7/9 going into the last round including Nakamura and Li Chao, so the draw will be interesting

Gawain only half a point behind

[NickFaulks]

Nakamura fortunate to get 6W4B. The French plan of taking a half point bye has indeed netted both Bacrot and Maze 5W4B.

[Mick Norris]

Round 10 on 2016/02/04 at 10 am
Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 1 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2787 7 7 GM Anton Guijarro David 2639 24
2 35 GM Maze Sebastien 2591 7 7 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2785 2
3 4 GM Harikrishna P. 2755 7 7 GM Li Chao B 2751 5
4 11 GM Bacrot Etienne 2697 7 7 GM Sethuraman S.P. 2639 25
5 6 GM Yu Yangyi 2747 6½ 6½ GM Jones Gawain C B 2625 28
6 7 GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2732 6½ 6½ GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2642 23
7 26 GM Grandelius Nils 2635 6½ 6½ GM Ragger Markus 2689 14
8 22 GM Sutovsky Emil 2647 6½ 6½ GM Bachmann Axel 2610 34
9 45 GM Lalith Babu M R 2553 6½ 6 GM Rapport Richard 2721 9

There is a maximum of 4 players in a play-off, so the tie-break may be important if the top 4 boards are drawn

Will be interesting to see how Gawain does, but he's had a good tournament to follow his win in New Zealand, he will be gaining rating points however he does today

[David Sedgwick]

David Sedgwick finishes his opponent off nicely this morning:

Thank you for the plug.

He's had some good results recently.

Not really. I only won the one game in Gibraltar and I lost back most or all of the rating points I gained at Hastings.

One can only suppose that when sitting on a stage for over a week with ten of the world's best players, some of it rubs off.

If there were anything in this theory, one would have expected evidence to appear somewhat earlier than the 7th London Chess Classic.

[MartinCarpenter]

It just takes time, that's all

The position below, from Kamsky - Shvager round after white's move 12, struck me as mildly amusing. I suppose it'd be a bit easy as a retro analysis puzzle.

r2qk1r1/1p1bbp1p/p1nppn2/8/2P1PP2/1NN5/PP1Q2PP/R1B1KB1R

[Roger de Coverly]

The position below, from Kamsky - Shvager round after white's move 12, struck me as mildly amusing.

Despite the extra pawn, engines seem to score this as only slightly better for White. You might wonder whether Black's King intends to stay in the centre, but White's King would lack its usual security in such positions, given the half open g file.

I did wonder if it was some bizarre new line of theory, but it seems this game may be the first.

[NickFaulks]

What on earth has Howell just done? If this doesn't convert him to sensible use of the clock, nothing will.