Shamkir Chess

[Tim Harding]

The Shamkir Chess elite event (Gashimov Memorial) just began at noon BST today.

Chess24 will have coverage by Tiviakov and Ljubojevic but at the moment they are running pre-tournament announcements.

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 2016/1/1/1

Round 1:
Safarli-Eljanov 1 Nf3 d5 2 c4 e6 3 g3
Caruana-Harikrishna, Taimanov Sicilian 5 Nc3 Qc7 6 Be3 a6 7 Qf3
Mamedyarov-Karjakin, Queen's Indian 4 g3 Ba6
Mamedov-Giri, Sicilian 2 c3 Nf6
Radjabov-Hou Yifan 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 g3 c5 4 Bg2 cxd4 5 0-0

[John McKenna]

Thanks for that timely reminder, Tim.

No idea who will win it but I'll be watching Hou and Safarli battle to avoid sharing the wooden spoon.

[Tim Harding]

Thanks for that timely reminder, Tim.

No idea who will win it but I'll be watching Hou and Safarli battle to avoid sharing the wooden spoon.

(UPDATING WITH OPENINGS OF TODAY'S GAMES):

Actually Mamedov has the lowest rating going into the event.
I guess the Azeris wanted to include all their top four for strong practice before the home Olympiad.

Hou Yifan plays Safarli today. It's a Winawer French with the unusual (?) 7 h4!?

Safarli actually could have won yesterday - or lost. See the analysis at ChessBase.

Yesterday was disappointing as the other games were boring draws.

Other games today:
Giri-Karjakin 1 g3 transposing to Symmetrical English
Harikrishna-Mamedyarov: Tiger's Modern (4...a6)
Eljanov-Caruana: Gruenfeld 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 Bg5
Mamedov-Radjabov: Caro-Kann 4...Bf5

[MartinCarpenter]

Its one of the positional main lines, although it does seem to have turned slightly weird now. Rooks taking day trips to g4 is far from unknown but still

Revised on move 17 - quite delightful! White's most recent moves:

10 Rh4, 11 Rg4, 12 Bd3, 13 dxc5, 14 Rb4, 15 Rxb7, 16 Rb3, 17 Rbb1.

Suppose she'll move something else next

[John McKenna]

Thanks, again to Tim, and Martin for posting the updates, above.

I'm backing Rauf Mamedov to finish above Hou and Safarli in this event, which is a fitting tribute to Vugar Gashimov.

That said, it must also be something of a training/exhibition tournament, in my view, too.

Anyway, must have a look at today's games now.

[Tim Harding]

Giri, Caruana and Harikrishna won. The other two games were drawn.

Karjakin and Eljanov (opponents of the first two) seemed to go wrong coming up to move 40; Karjakin's 34...Rhe8 was clearly the culprit. I am not sure what precisely was the fatal error by Eljanov.
After that very instructive and precise play followed by Giri and Caruana.

Giri had three different queens (not on the board simultaneously) which is a bit unusual.

Mamedyarov was just pushed off the board without offering much resistance.

Tomorrow's pairings:
Radjabov-Giri
Safarli-Mamedov
Caruana-Hou Yifan
Mamedyarov-Eljanov
Karjakin-Harikrishna

[Mick Norris]

chess.com round 1 report the end of the report with Safarli- Eljanov is worth a look

chess.com round 2 report

[Tim Harding]

Mamedov and Safarli agreed a quick draw. They raced through 28 moves.

Harikrishna looks to be for the chop already after less than two hours; his Petroff went badly wrong against Karjakin.

[Tim Harding]

I was not able to follow the later stages of round 3 but can now report (thanks to chess24) that Karjakin did indeed beat Harikrishna.
Caruana is in the sole lead on 2/5/3 after beating Hou Yifan.
Giri is in sole second place after drawing with Black against Radjabov.
Mamedyarov beat Eljanov to get back to 50 per cent.
So currently Eljanov is the back marker on -2.

Round 4 pairings (noon Sunday):
Giri-Harikrishna
Eljanov-Karjakin
Hou Yifan-Mamedyarov
Mamedov-Caruana
Radjabov-Safarli

Also on live tomorrow are the European Women's Championship and round 2 of the French Team Championship which has several 2550+ GMs.
In the former, I'm pleased to see both Jovanka Houska and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant are in the leading group on 2/2.
Ketevan has a tough pairing tomorrow, board 1 with White against Elizabeth Paehtz who did so well in Reykjavik.

[MJMcCready]

I was not able to follow the later stages of round 3 but can now report (thanks to chess24) that Karjakin did indeed beat Harikrishna.
Caruana is in the sole lead on 2/5/3 after beating Hou Yifan.
Giri is in sole second place after drawing with Black against Radjabov.
Mamedyarov beat Eljanov to get back to 50 per cent.
So currently Eljanov is the back marker on -2.

Round 4 pairings (noon Sunday):
Giri-Harikrishna
Eljanov-Karjakin
Hou Yifan-Mamedyarov
Mamedov-Caruana
Radjabov-Safarli

Also on live tomorrow are the European Women's Championship and round 2 of the French Team Championship which has several 2550+ GMs.
In the former, I'm pleased to see both Jovanka Houska and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant are in the leading group on 2/2.
Ketevan has a tough pairing tomorrow, board 1 with White against Elizabeth Paehtz who did so well in Reykjavik.

He did indeed. I found the Karjakin game to be a little odd. It looked like black had a very bad position after 20 moves, but admittedly I don't know that line.

[Mick Norris]

I found the Karjakin game to be a little odd. It looked like black had a very bad position after 20 moves, but admittedly I don't know that line.

After 12 moves according to chess.com report

[JustinHorton]

He did indeed. I found the Karjakin game to be a little odd.

Yes. No idea what Black's up to there.

[LawrenceCooper]

A quick win for Giri to complete a forgettable 2 rounds for Harikrishna.

[Mick Norris]

Another win for Caruana, taking him to +3 with Giri on +2 and no-one else currently in positive territory - Caruana above Kramnik on live ratings again too

[Tim Harding]

Eljanov-Karjakin, Radjabov-Safarli, and Hou Yifan-Mamedyarov all drawn.

Mamedov played very enterprisingly against Caruana and ended up with R+2P versus two minus pieces. The online engine seemed to reckon it was OK but then Caruana found a neat way to win the exchange. The engine says Mamedov's error was to play 28 b3 instead of 28 b4, but I suspect Caruana always figured his bishop pair would eventually carry more weight.

Yes, Harikrishna's grab of the knight on d4 was horribly refuted. In yesterday's game it looks as if bad opening preparation (or more likely mixing up two lines from preparation) caused the disaster.

Tomorrow's line-up:
Safarli-Giri
Caruana-Radjabov
Mamedyarov-Mamedov
Karjain-Hou Yifan
Harikrishna-Eljanov


In the Women's Eu Ch, Jovanka Houska drew and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant looks about to do the same.