ICCD World Individual Championship, Yerevan (Armenia)

[Alasdair MacLeod]

There are several tournaments being held in Armenia where we currently have two English players involved - Christopher Kreuzer in the main closed event representing England and Barry David in the Open event. The other events are: Senior, Women, Junior and Deafblind.

Round 1 started yesterday and Christopher Kreuzer sprung a surprise by beating IM Orsag (ELO 2332, Czech Republic). Well done to Chris!

He has provided the gamescore and some comments of his own: http://chessmicrobase.com/microbases/73 ... n=7vm3dpdq

Results page of the 16th ICCD World Individual Championship: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr222423. ... d=1&wi=821

In the 2nd round Chris is black against FM Bozinovic (ELO 2191, Croatia).

Barry David, playing in the Open, won his game by default.

Results page of the 5th ICCD World Individual Open Championship: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr222424. ... d=1&wi=821

In the 2nd round Barry is white against Ljubov Kireeva (ELO 1970, Russia).


Here's hoping the rest of the tournament goes well for them!

[Barry Sandercock]

Round 1. Excellent game by Christopher. Keep up the good work.

[Barry Sandercock]

Unfortunately he lost in round 2, but still another 7 rounds to go.

[Alasdair MacLeod]

Unfortunately he lost in round 2, but still another 7 rounds to go.

Yes, very true. Here's the game with comments by Chris http://chessmicrobase.com/g/oi4jvcio

In round 3, Chris is white against Ghadimi (Germany, 2122). Chris is seeded 16th out of 23 players including 2 GM's, 3 IM's and 2 FM's, so will be a tough tournament.

On a happier note, Barry beat Kireeva (Russia, 1970) with white in round 2 of the Open event, an excellent result against a player rated over 200 points higher. In round 3 Barry, on 2/2, is black against Checiak (Poland, 2049).

Maybe Chris and Barry are playing tag on beating much higher rated opponents so it must be Chris' turn to do the same for round 3?....

[Barry Sandercock]

Round 2. Another well played game by Chris. Just a bit unlucky in time trouble.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thanks, Alasdair and Barry. I'm not going to say too much here, but just popping in briefly to say that both me and Barry (David) lost today. My loss was a bit brutal (I blundered on the last move of the time control in a position that I should have drawn earlier if I'd had the time to think about the position properly).

Bozinovic (my round 2 opponent) is playing well - he drew with Israeli GM Gruenfeld today. Five-way tie for the lead. The blitz tournament (held today) was won by Italian IM Collutiis. Phillip Gardner represented England and scored 4/9.

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr222794. ... t=1&wi=821

[Mick Norris]

Chris, hope you are enjoying it

Good luck to you and all the English players

[Alasdair MacLeod]

Round 4 - Chris bounced back to beat Nurymov (1913) and is on 2/4.

In round 5, he will be white against Janchivnyambuu (2042).

I think it's 2 rounds tomorrow. Barry is also on 2/4 in the Open event.

[Alasdair MacLeod]

It was a good day for Chris, he won then in the late afternoon drew in the 6th round against Varvaglione (2228) with black.

So far, 3.5/6 and a 2195 performance. 9th out of 24 participants.

In the 7th round he's white against Gerasimov (2181).

It's very tightly bunched at the top - 4 of the GM's and IM's are on 4.5/6 while the no.1 seed IM Collutiis is 5th on 4/6.

In the Open, Barry lost and won his 2 games yesterday and is on 3/6.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The game I played against Varvaglione was really exciting (sadly this was mainly because I tried my hardest to lose it after getting a winning position). I lost today against Gerasimov (though Barry won his game in the Open and is on 4/7).

It is still very tight at the top. The IM I beat in round one (Milan Orsag) has recovered well to take the sole lead on 5.5/7 ahead of a chasing pack of three on 5 points (I have no complaints about that, as Orsag's score boosts my tie-break and leaves me in 12th place at the top of my score group of 3.5/7). Orsag beat Klasan in round 7 today after the defending champion missed a nice tactical finish. Collutiis won on time after being in a losing position against Ghadimi. Rest day tomorrow. Two draws might be enough for Orsag now but he has to play Klaric first, and then almost certainly Collutiis in the final round.

Can you tell I am rooting for Orsag? It would be nice to say I'd beaten a World Champion.

[Nick Grey]

Enjoy the Rest day Chris. I take it that you will not be a Wimbledon tomorrow.

[Alasdair MacLeod]

It was a good day for the English players yesterday.

In Round 8 Chris beat Kudrashou (2018) to reach 4.5/8, a performance of 2171. Chris is currently 9th out of 24 participants.

Latest crosstable after Round 8;
http://chess-results.com/tnr222423.aspx ... t=4&wi=821

As you can see, at the top it's close amongst the favourites. IM Collutiis beat GM Gruenfeld in round 8 to join IM Orsag as the joint leader on 6/8.

In the final round which has just started, Chris is black against GM Gruenfeld (2459) so that means Chris has played 8 players above his own rating, another good indication of his excellent performance.

In the Open event, Barry beat Muratov (1859) to reach 5/8. He is currently in 5th place out of 27 players. In the final round he is black against Mochalsky (1877). Barry has good chances of 3rd place and a medal if results go his way. The top 2 places are already out of reach.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

My game against GM Gruenfeld finished in brutal fashion as I won the exchange on move 30 and immediately offered a draw (which was declined) and then allowed mate in two. To be fair, he was probably still winning even if I hadn't blundered, as he had two pawns and a powerful bishop pair for the exchange.

This was on board 4. Board one headed towards a relatively sedate draw. Boards 2 and 3 were where the real fireworks were, as the lower-rated players demonstrated how to beat titled players, with Janchivnyambuu (2042) beating IM Klasan and Reutov (2100) beating GM Klaric. This upended all the tiebreaks, allowing top seed IM Duilio Collutiis of Italy to take the title with 6.5/9 on the second tie-break ahead of IM Orsag who also scored 6.5/9. (GM Gruenfeld was third with 6/9).

I finished in 12th place (mainly because I had beaten Janchivnyambuu and his win in the last round boosted my tie-break scores). That is top half and 50% (4.5/9) and a gain of 43 rating points (the biggest gain of anyone in the tournament). Overall, I am pleased with that.

Barry David drew in the final round and finished on 5.5/9 in sixth place in the Open.

EDIT: Apologies, a mistake above, the Open score by Barry was 5.5/9, not out of 7! Final round rankings: 16th ICCD World Individual Men Deaf Ch.2016 and 5th ICCD Open Individual Deaf Chess Ch.2016.

[Mick Norris]

Well done Chris, great result in gaining rating points, but more importantly hope you enjoyed it - Orsag was the one you beat, so pity he didn't win it

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thanks, Mick. I did enjoy the event, which is the main thing as you say.

All nine games with my (at times rather dodgy) annotations:

Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9