Millionaire Chess 6-10 October 2016

[Chris Rice]

Maurice Ashley on FB is saying this, the third edition, is likely to be the final one. When questioned he said "I cannot expect Amy to continue to support a tournament that operates at a loss. If chess players do not feel it's worth it enough to register in great numbers, then I think the hard decision has to be made. She has been magnanimous enough." Think most of us didn't really think it was going to work long term but one hopes that the final edition at least breaks even for all the effort they put in.

Again it's missing the really big names but it's a very strong tournament nonetheless and we've got Gawain to cheer on.

https://millionairechess.com/mc3-list-participants

[Kevin Thurlow]

We can cheer Steve Barrett on as well, though Gawain will probably expect to score more points!

[Tim Harding]

Barrett has 1.5/4 after two days. Gawain is one of nine players on 3.5 (nobody has 4) and plays Swiercz at 4pm BST,

https://millionairechess.com/

Top pairings:
Shimanov-Adhiban
Emilio Cordova-Mamedov
Bruzon Batista-Xiong [World Junior Champ at age 15!]
Jones-Swiercz
and
Shankland (3) v Sevian (3.5)

[Tim Harding]

Gawain survived a difficult game to draw with Swiercz so is in the large group (13 I think) on 4.
Shankland beat Sevian.
Adhiban is in sole lead on 4.5

Round 6 starts at 11pm BST. EDIT: Gawain has Black against GM Chirila of Romania (2526).
Tomorrow will be the big day (round 7 and playoffs if the format is the same as before) to decide who makes it into Millionaire Monday.

[LawrenceCooper]

Pairings for Round 7. Millionaire Chess 3: Open
Bd # Res White # Res Black
1 6 GM Gawain C B Jones 1 GM B. Adhiban
2 9 GM Dariusz Swiercz 3 GM Rauf Mamedov
3 8 GM Emilio Cordova 5 GM Jeffery Xiong
4 24 GM Kayden W Troff 10 GM Jianchao Zhou
5 4 GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli 27 IM Awonder Liang

1 1-7 GM B. Adhiban 16110022 2689 W63 D59 W35 W14 W30 D8 5.0
2 GM Rauf Mamedov 14255497 2678 W52 D35 W59 W33 D5 W12 5.0
3 GM Jeffery Xiong 13648621 2647 W64 W25 D33 W21 D13 W27 5.0
4 GM Gawain C B Jones 16113702 2647 W41 D39 W36 W32 D6 W17 5.0
5 GM Emilio Cordova 16113682 2637 W66 W28 W20 D15 D2 W29 5.0
6 GM Dariusz Swiercz 16113717 2636 W53 W26 D21 W10 D4 W13 5.0
7 GM Jianchao Zhou 15524414 2630 W67 D46 W43 D22 W23 W11 5.0
8 8-10 GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli 14937741 2658 W73 W38 D32 D17 W20 D1 4.5
9 GM Kayden W Troff 12939342 2501 W55 L50 W66 D70 W62 W30 4.5
10 IM Awonder Liang 13999045 2478 W69 X--- D12 L6 W43 W31 4.5

[NickFaulks]

In Round 6, Gawain appears to have won on time in a simple and completely drawn rook ending. Not supposed to happen with five second delay. Still, they all count and I hope he does well later today.

[Ian Thompson]

In Round 6, Gawain appears to have won on time in a simple and completely drawn rook ending. Not supposed to happen with five second delay. Still, they all count and I hope he does well later today.

I don't know what happened in this case, but, If you're playing off the delay only, then all it needs is a piece knocked over and you may well run out of time before you can correct it (and definitely will if you knock it on the floor). Being in America, and using delays rather than increments, once you're down to the delay there's no way out of it, unlike with increments where you can get some time back on your clock with a few quick moves.

Another factor could have been the type of clock being used. If it was one that doesn't show the delay time counting down, and just has a flashing symbol on the display, that increases the risk of misjudging things and losing on time.

[LawrenceCooper]

Barring something unexpected happening on board 1 it looks like 7 players playing off for 4 places with boards 2-5 all drawn.

[NickFaulks]

I wonder whether the players know any more than we do about what it takes to get into the hugely lucrative Final Four. That wouldn't be hard, because all we have is "MCO Tie-break Play-off Format for determining Final 4 (To be determined)".

[NickFaulks]

I'm not much use at endings, but if I were White I'd be thinking about winning Gawain's game.

[Tim Harding]

I'm not much use at endings, but if I were White I'd be thinking about winning Gawain's game.

I think it was a clear draw with rooks on but Adhiban, having more time, overpressed and indeed it now looks as if Gawain should be through to Millionaire Monday. Fingers crossed...

And he's done it; fantastic! Others must play off.

Swiercz must be kicking himself as he missed a brilliancy with 37 Qg7+ which would have put him through.

He is one of five playing for three places and Adhiban is out.

[LawrenceCooper]

I'm not much use at endings, but if I were White I'd be thinking about winning Gawain's game.

I think it was a clear draw with rooks on but Adhiban, having more time, overpressed and indeed it now looks as if Gawain should be through to Millionaire Monday. Fingers crossed...

And he's done it; fantastic! Others must play off.

[Leonard Barden]

round 5- opponent, in a winning position, allowed threefold repetition
round 6- opponent overstepped in a completely drawn ending
round 7- opponent blundered in a completely drawn ending

but of course it is also true that Gawain's persistence and never give up approach has been amply rewarded.

[Tim Harding]

I wonder whether the players know any more than we do about what it takes to get into the hugely lucrative Final Four. That wouldn't be hard, because all we have is "MCO Tie-break Play-off Format for determining Final 4 (To be determined)".

The playoffs start at 11pm BST so we shall be told at 10pm:

"The full schedule for the qualifying round will depend on the number of players competing for the final four spots in each section and will be announced an hour before the beginning of the round."

As there's an odd number they cannot do a knockout so I guess it will be a round-robin rapid, likely G/25 with a 5-second delay which is the format for tomorrow's semifinal. Only a guess though.

[LawrenceCooper]

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... yoff/1/1/1 starting at 23:00 UK time.