Grand-Prix 2017 Events Venues and Dates confirmed

[Chris Rice]

Despite what I quoted at top of page, Giri's a goner. Against Radjabov he got his pieces pulled out of position and allowed Black to punch through to get at the WK with queen & rook, with his own Q, R & N bystanding.

A real surprise. Just looking at the analysis on the ChessBase report and its remarkable how Giri's decent looking position got turned around so quickly.

[Chris Rice]

Rd 2

Radjabov 2724 (1) - Eljanov 2739 (1)
Harikrishna 2737 (1) - Adams 2736(1)
Jakovenko 2703 (½) - Aronian 2809 (½)
Mamedyarov 2800 (½) - Inarkiev 2707 (½)
Grischuk 2761 (½) - Rapport 2694 (½)
Li Chao 2735 (½) - Svidler 2749 (½)
Nepomniachtchi 2742 (½) - Gelfand 2728 (½)
Salem A.R. Saleh 2638 (0) - Giri 2775 (0)
Hou Yifan 2666 (0) - Riazantsev 2671 (0)

[John McKenna]

Thanks to Chris & Loz for all the info.

In that Chessbase News round-1 report even Yermolinsky is confused having correctly given the dates as 6th-15th July he goes on to say, incorrectly, "The tournament runs from June 6-15..."

No matter, but I hope that today Adams, playing Black in an Italian game, does not get confused in yet another promising position, against Harikrishna, and lose by trying too hard, with less time on his clock, as move 40 approaches. Enough is enough.

[LawrenceCooper]

Nepomniachtchi-Gelfand an early draw.

[LawrenceCooper]

Inarkiev got his queen trapped in 20 moves so Mamedyarov is the early leader.

[LawrenceCooper]

A solid draw from Adams who looked like the one, if any, who had an advantage.

Radjabov has beaten Eljanov and now leads with 2/2 whilst Aronian beat Jakovenko to move to 1.5. Giri beat Salem.

Svidler held what I thought may have been a difficult ending a pawn down.

[LawrenceCooper]

Hou Yifan seemed to be on the verge of victory but after 43 Qb3+ Kh8 it was only a draw.

[LawrenceCooper]

Pairings/Results
Round 2 on 2017/07/07 at 14:00
Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 12 GM Radjabov Teimour 2724 1 1 - 0 1 GM Eljanov Pavel 2739 7
2 8 GM Harikrishna Pentala 2737 1 ½ - ½ 1 GM Adams Michael 2736 9
3 14 GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2703 ½ 0 - 1 ½ GM Aronian Levon 2809 1
4 2 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2800 ½ 1 - 0 ½ GM Inarkiev Ernesto 2707 13
5 4 GM Grischuk Alexander 2761 ½ 1 - 0 ½ GM Rapport Richard 2694 15
6 10 GM Li Chao B 2735 ½ ½ - ½ ½ GM Svidler Peter 2749 5
7 6 GM Nepomniachtchi Ian 2742 ½ ½ - ½ ½ GM Gelfand Boris 2728 11
8 18 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2638 0 0 - 1 0 GM Giri Anish 2775 3
9 16 GM Hou Yifan 2666 0 ½ - ½ 0 GM Riazantsev Alexander 2654 17

[LawrenceCooper]

Pairings/Results
Round 3 on 2017/07/08 at 14:00
Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 1 GM Aronian Levon 2809 1½ 2 GM Radjabov Teimour 2724 12
2 8 GM Harikrishna Pentala 2737 1½ 1½ GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2800 2
3 9 GM Adams Michael 2736 1½ 1½ GM Grischuk Alexander 2761 4
4 3 GM Giri Anish 2775 1 1 GM Li Chao B 2735 10
5 5 GM Svidler Peter 2749 1 1 GM Gelfand Boris 2728 11
6 7 GM Eljanov Pavel 2739 1 1 GM Nepomniachtchi Ian 2742 6
7 13 GM Inarkiev Ernesto 2707 ½ ½ GM Hou Yifan 2666 16
8 15 GM Rapport Richard 2694 ½ ½ GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2703 14
9 17 GM Riazantsev Alexander 2654 ½ 0 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2638 18

[Mick Norris]

A real surprise. Just looking at the analysis on the ChessBase report and its remarkable how Giri's decent looking position got turned around so quickly.

chess.com report

Unfortunately, it seems the further we go into this Grand Prix Series, the worse it gets. Before we look at yesterday's games, larger GP issues need to be discussed first.

Agon, the company that owns the right to organise events in the world championship cycle, managed to find three sponsors for their events. Nonetheless, as reported earlier, they couldn't pay an amount of $500,000 in time to FIDE, which was due for late 2016. And, at least until a week ago, FIDE was still waiting for its share of the Moscow Grand Prix prize money (€26,000 / $29,700).

Because of that, the World Chess Federation couldn't pay the prize money to the players. This week, most (but not all) Moscow participants have finally received their money, 1.5 months after the tournament.

Many would argue that Agon is not only treating the world's best players with less respect than they deserve. The chess fans are also suffering.

The user experience for following the Candidates', the world championship match and now these Grand Prix tournaments is simply worse that at other major tournaments. An important reason is Agon's position towards the live transmission of games.

By trying (and, thus far, failing) to limit the live transmission to the WorldChess website, Agon has alienated a number of well-established chess websites. One of the major Russian sites, ChessPro, hasn't covered Agon's events since the Candidates' Tournament last year. Chess24, who have been involved in lawsuits with Agon, decided to boycott the Moscow Grand Prix altogether and also did not cover yesterday's first round of the Geneva GP.

[Tim Harding]

Pairings/Results
Round 3 on 2017/07/08 at 14:00
Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 1 GM Aronian Levon 2809 1½ 2 GM Radjabov Teimour 2724 12 Catalan
2 8 GM Harikrishna Pentala 2737 1½ 1½ GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2800 2 Italian Game
3 9 GM Adams Michael 2736 1½ 1½ GM Grischuk Alexander 2761 4 Sicilian 3 Bb5+
4 3 GM Giri Anish 2775 1 1 GM Li Chao B 2735 10 Slav with Giri having long think at move 4 it seems
5 5 GM Svidler Peter 2749 1 1 GM Gelfand Boris 2728 11 Symmetrical English
6 7 GM Eljanov Pavel 2739 1 1 GM Nepomniachtchi Ian 2742 6 Najdorf 6 Be2
7 13 GM Inarkiev Ernesto 2707 ½ ½ GM Hou Yifan 2666 16 Open Catalan
8 15 GM Rapport Richard 2694 ½ ½ GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2703 14 Nimzoindian 4 g3, sort of Catalan?
9 17 GM Riazantsev Alexander 2654 ½ 0 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2638 18 Gruenfeld

Under way at https://live.chessbase.com/watch/fide-g ... prix-2017/

I have written in the openings above.
Aronian is playing his early Na3 against Closed Catalan (...Bb4+, ...Be7).

[LawrenceCooper]

Adams-Grischuk an early draw quickly followed by Svidler-Gelfand.

[LawrenceCooper]

Eljanov has beaten Nepomniachtchi whilst Aronian-Radjabov, Giri-Li Chau & Riazantsev-Salem were drawn. Harikrishna-Mamedyarov has also just ended as a draw although white seemed to be doing very well for most of it.

[LawrenceCooper]

Pairings/Results
Round 3 on 2017/07/08 at 14:00
Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 1 GM Aronian Levon 2809 1½ ½ - ½ 2 GM Radjabov Teimour 2724 12
2 8 GM Harikrishna Pentala 2737 1½ ½ - ½ 1½ GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2800 2
3 9 GM Adams Michael 2736 1½ ½ - ½ 1½ GM Grischuk Alexander 2761 4
4 3 GM Giri Anish 2775 1 ½ - ½ 1 GM Li Chao B 2735 10
5 5 GM Svidler Peter 2749 1 ½ - ½ 1 GM Gelfand Boris 2728 11
6 7 GM Eljanov Pavel 2739 1 1 - 0 1 GM Nepomniachtchi Ian 2742 6
7 13 GM Inarkiev Ernesto 2707 ½ ½ - ½ ½ GM Hou Yifan 2666 16
8 15 GM Rapport Richard 2694 ½ 0 - 1 ½ GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2703 14
9 17 GM Riazantsev Alexander 2654 ½ ½ - ½ 0 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2638 18

Pairings/Results
Round 4 on 2017/07/09 at 14:00
Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
1 12 GM Radjabov Teimour 2724 2½ 2 GM Harikrishna Pentala 2737 8
2 4 GM Grischuk Alexander 2761 2 2 GM Aronian Levon 2809 1
3 2 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2800 2 2 GM Eljanov Pavel 2739 7
4 5 GM Svidler Peter 2749 1½ 2 GM Adams Michael 2736 9
5 11 GM Gelfand Boris 2728 1½ 1½ GM Giri Anish 2775 3
6 10 GM Li Chao B 2735 1½ 1½ GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2703 14
7 6 GM Nepomniachtchi Ian 2742 1 1 GM Hou Yifan 2666 16
8 17 GM Riazantsev Alexander 2654 1 1 GM Inarkiev Ernesto 2707 13
9 18 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2638 ½ ½ GM Rapport Richard 2694 15

[NickFaulks]

Rapport found a way to lose a drawn R v R+N. Quite extraordinary.