Shamkir Chess

Jonathan Rogers · Post by **Jonathan Rogers** » Mon May 30, 2016 4:05 pm

After a false start, this has turned into quite an event, reminding us that a bit of imbalance in strength in a round robin does tend to lead to more unbalanced games as well.

Particularly impressed with Caruana and Giri, since both could have been forgiven for feeling a bit depressed still quite soon after the candidates.

Tim Harding · Post by **Tim Harding** » Mon May 30, 2016 4:14 pm

Round 5: Caruana's streak continues with a win against Radjabov. He now has 4.5/5.
Giri has just won with Black against Safarli and reach 4 (though chess24 is temporarily showedg the reverse result.)

Harikrishna beat Eljanov.
Karjakin beat Hou Yifan whose Open Spanish doesn't seem to hack it at this level.
Mamedyarov-Mamedov was a draw, hardly a surprise.

Shame about the awful video commentary. As somebody (with an Armenian name!) commented on chess24 yesterday, will they do it better for the Olympiad? I expect so; the World Cup coverage was fine last year. A pity they didn't get Miroshnichenko to do it, though, instead of Tiviakov mumbling into his laptop.

Tomorrow's a rest day. Round 6 on Wednesday:
Giri-Eljanov
Hou Yifan-Harikrishna
Mamedov-Karjakin
Radjabov-Mamedyarov
Safarli-Caruana

So I wouldn't bet against Caruana scoring a fifth consecutive win.

There is coverage currently of the French teams but some of the live boards don't seem to be working:
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 2016/3/1/2

LawrenceCooper · Post by **LawrenceCooper** » Mon May 30, 2016 4:25 pm

Tim Harding wrote:Karjakin beat Hou Yifan whose Open Spanish doesn't seem to hack it at this level.

Whilst that may be the case it certainly wasn't today, especially had she played 25.....d3. Once she chose to liquidate to the ending Karjakin did outplay her remarkably easily, perhaps showing the difference between a higher 2700 and a higher 2600.

NickFaulks · Post by **NickFaulks** » Mon May 30, 2016 4:35 pm

LawrenceCooper wrote: Once she chose to liquidate to the ending Karjakin did outplay her remarkably easily, perhaps showing the difference between a higher 2700 and a higher 2600

I thought it looked more like the difference between a 2500 GM and me - very disappointing. Had it been me, I'm sure that I would have played the ending distracted by wishing that I had gone for the principled 25...d3, but I thought top players were supposed to put things like that out of their minds.

LawrenceCooper · Post by **LawrenceCooper** » Mon May 30, 2016 4:38 pm

NickFaulks wrote:
LawrenceCooper wrote: Once she chose to liquidate to the ending Karjakin did outplay her remarkably easily, perhaps showing the difference between a higher 2700 and a higher 2600
I thought it looked more like the difference between a 2500 GM and me - very disappointing. Had it been me, I'm sure that I would have played the ending distracted by wishing that I had gone for the principled 25...d3, but I thought top players were supposed to put things like that out of their minds.

Yes, I was being tactful as I tend to be when players way better than me seemingly play below their level.

Mick Norris · Post by **Mick Norris** » Mon May 30, 2016 4:59 pm

Jonathan Rogers wrote:After a false start, this has turned into quite an event, reminding us that a bit of imbalance in strength in a round robin does tend to lead to more unbalanced games as well.

Particularly impressed with Caruana and Giri, since both could have been forgiven for feeling a bit depressed still quite soon after the candidates.

Agree with that, Giri has repaired the rating damage he suffered in Norway to go up to number 4 on the live ratings, and Caruana seems to be flowing too

Probably benefiting from the work they did for the Candidates though

Andrew Bak · Post by **Andrew Bak** » Mon May 30, 2016 11:13 pm

I've thought for the last couple of years that Hou's opening repertoire is a bit ropey, but perhaps more worrying is that's it's quite narrow.

Fortunately this is something that is relatively easy to fix and given her amazing fighting qualities and tactical nouse, I hope she can make the step up to be a consistent 2700+ player.

JustinHorton · Post by **JustinHorton** » Tue May 31, 2016 10:17 am

People might recall a rook ending she failed to win against Giri not very long ago.

LawrenceCooper · Post by **LawrenceCooper** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 2:14 pm

Two draws already Mamedov-Karjakin & Radjabov-Mamedyarov reinforcing what we probably already knew about it being a two horse race between Caruana & Giri for first place.

Matt Mackenzie · Post by **Matt Mackenzie** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 3:01 pm

You mean that two local players had a quick draw again?

Tim Harding · Post by **Tim Harding** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 4:17 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:You mean that two local players had a quick draw again?

Actually I thought at first Radjabov was trying to win, but it came down to perpetual in a rook ending - so maybe it was just an exhibition game for the local fans as they were playing rapidly. I suspect it's a variation they had discussed before?

All five games drawn today.

Tomorrow's pairings feature the one we've been waiting for:

Caruana-Giri
Mamedyarov-Safarli
Karjakin-Radjabov
Harikrishna-Mamedov
Eljanov-Hou Yifan

Mick Norris · Post by **Mick Norris** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 4:57 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:You mean that two local players had a quick draw again?

Care to predict Mamedyarov-Safarli tomorrow?

Tim Harding · Post by **Tim Harding** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 12:22 pm

Caruana-Giri raced through the opening moves.

I only found two precedents for the position after White's 20th:

Giri thought 7 minutes and then broke new ground; he has played 20...bxa2 instead, continuing 21 Rxa2 Nc4 22 Qd4 Qb3 23 Nc3.

Tim Harding · Post by **Tim Harding** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 12:33 pm

NickFaulks · Post by **NickFaulks** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 1:33 pm

Mick Norris wrote: Care to predict Mamedyarov-Safarli tomorrow?

Looking like a real game.

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