St Louis Winter Classic

[Chris Rice]

David Howell is leading the A-Group in this with 3/4. The field is incredibly strong, with players from the Susan Polgar school and he had to ride his luck in Round 1 against Ipatov (see second link below for report) .

https://chessdailynews.com/howell-leads ... s-after-4/
https://chess24.com/en/read/news/howell ... n-st-louis

[NickFaulks]

After an Eastman Cup match on Monday we were lamenting some pretty basic missed opportunities, but they were actually no worse than things that have been going on in St Louis.

[Chris Rice]

David Howell drew yesterday to maintain his lead with 3.5/5

https://chessdailynews.com/howell-maint ... d-after-5/

[Mick Norris]

David has white against the 2 players half a point behind him; Fedoseev today (6 pm UK time), Swiercz in the penultimate round

[Chris Rice]

David drew his game with Aeroflot winner, Fedoseev, to go to 4/6 and retains a half point lead. ChessBase report by Albert Silver on the event attached. http://en.chessbase.com/post/2017-winte ... c-heats-up

[Mick Norris]

Draw in 20 moves today for David

Fedoseev beat Xiong to catch David on 4.5/7, with Ipatov on 4 along with Swiercz who plays David today

[Ian Thompson]

Some analysis of Howell's round 3 game here - http://en.chessbase.com/post/tactical-a ... broadcasts - showing that both players made numerous mistakes in a complicated position.

[Leonard Barden]

Howell drew with Swiercz, and will probably drop to tied second as Ipatov won and Fedoseev is winning.

[Chris Rice]

Fedoseev did indeed win so he leads on 5.5/8 with Howell and Ipatov on 5. In the last round Fedoseev has White against Shankland which will be tough while David's got Black against one of the tailenders Li so he still is in with a chance of catching Fedoseev if he wins. Ipatov has Black against Cordoba (2655) so realistically he probably won't get more than a draw. Could be an exciting finish. David currently has a performance rating of 2740 against his current Elo of 2657 so he should gain a few Elo from the tournament. http://uschesschamps.com/2017-winter-ch ... gs-a-group

[Mick Norris]

Fedoseev lost; Swiercz won to catch him on 5.5/9

Ipatov looks lost, so if David can win he wins the event

[JustinHorton]

Link to David's game here

[NickFaulks]

Link to David's game here

I don't see how David wins, +1 or not.

[NickFaulks]

Ipatov looks lost, so if David can win he wins the event

Interesting end to the Ipatov game, just the seven pawns down.

[Chris Rice]

Link to David's game here

I don't see how David wins, +1 or not.

I don't see it either so a likely draw and if so a three player play off with Swiercz and Fedoseev. Can't immediately see from the official site how that's going to work. http://uschesschamps.com/2017-winter-ch ... egulations

[IM Jack Rudd]

The winning attempt is presumably going to be based on winning the e-pawn, and then at the right time, sacrificing the rook for the bishop and b-pawn (if the knight and bishop have been exchanged), or going for a mating attack (if they haven't). Not sure whether it's enough, but it might be tricky to defend.