Sharjah Masters 2017

[Barry Sandercock]

Good endgame win by Gawain Jones, giving him 4/4.

[LawrenceCooper]

A sense of normality has been restored to the pairings:

Round 5 on 2017/03/27 at 16:30
Bo. No. Name FED Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name FED Rtg No.
1 10 GM Jones Gawain C B ENG 2676 4 4 GM Wang Hao CHN 2683 5
2 6 GM Adhiban B. IND 2682 4 4 GM Kravtsiv Martyn UKR 2641 21
3 16 GM Fressinet Laurent FRA 2662 4 3½ GM Amin Bassem EGY 2660 17
4 28 GM Adly Ahmed EGY 2593 3½ 3½ GM Kryvoruchko Yuriy UKR 2708 2
5 31 GM Gledura Benjamin HUN 2588 3½ 3½ GM Akopian Vladimir ARM 2675 11
6 142 WFM Srija Seshadri IND 2166 3½ 3½ GM Kuzubov Yuriy UKR 2643 19
7 38 GM Svane Rasmus GER 2570 3½ 3½ GM Oleksiyenko Mykhaylo UKR 2643 20

[NickFaulks]

A sense of normality has been restored to the pairings:

Only on the top boards.

[LawrenceCooper]

A sense of normality has been restored to the pairings:

Only on the top boards.

Good point.

[Tim Harding]

Gawain and Wang Hao decided to take the day off (drawn in 14 moves).

[LawrenceCooper]

Gawain and Wang Hao decided to take the day off (drawn in 14 moves).

Gawain via Twitter: "Surprised on moves 1, 2+ 3. After 10yr old opp exhausted me with near perfect defence yesterday decided to take pragmatic draw."

[Alex Holowczak]

I don't think so. It looks like rounds 1-3 had two separate tournaments with top half in one and bottom half in the other with everyone coming together in round 4.

Are we all agreed that this pairing system stinks?

It doesn't look great, but it's good that someone tried it out so we could establish in practice that it stinks.

However, there are probably better tournaments that could have been used as test cases.

[Stewart Reuben]

Roger, >If FIDE aren't willing to allow the British domestic system of re-pairing,<

That isn't quite correct. FIDE are willing to allow it, provided BOTH players agree.
Win byes mess up all systems.

[Tim Harding]

Rasmus Svane won to join Gawain & co on 4.5/5. The other top boards also drew so top pairings for round 6 look like this:

GM Wang, Hao (4½) 2683 v GM Fressinet, L. (4½) 2662
GM Svane, Rasmus (4½) 2570 v GM Adhiban, B. (4½) 2682
GM Kravtsiv, M. (4½) 2641 v GM Jones, G. C. (4½) 2676

Then a heap of players on 4.

After two days of sub-2200 opponents, Praggnanandhaa is on 3.5 and next meets GM Iturrizaga Bonelli, Eduardo (2673) with White. A result there may get him back on track for a GM norm.

BTW, it's a rest day in Shenzhen tomorrow while on Wednesday evening the US Championships begin so we can enjoy some commentary in the evenings leading up to Easter.

[Chris Rice]

Great Chessbase report with loads of Danny King videos concentrating on the incredible junior performances being produced.

[Chris Rice]

Gawain considering his 22nd move. His position looks a bit rubbish to be honest now the queenside's blocked up.

Later: Gawain unfortunately was outplayed and lost, good game by Ktavtsiv, but depressing from a British point of view.

[Mick Norris]

Round 7
Bo. No. Name FED Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name FED Rtg No.
1 6 GM Adhiban B. IND 2682 5½ 5 GM Wang Hao CHN 2683 5
2 15 GM Mareco Sandro ARG 2664 5 5½ GM Kravtsiv Martyn UKR 2641 21
3 16 GM Fressinet Laurent FRA 2662 5 5 GM Sethuraman S.P. IND 2629 23
4 31 GM Gledura Benjamin HUN 2588 5 5 GM Amin Bassem EGY 2660 17
5 1 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw POL 2745 4½ 4½ GM Bok Benjamin NED 2596 27
6 2 GM Kryvoruchko Yuriy UKR 2708 4½ 4½ GM Svane Rasmus GER 2570 38
7 4 GM Naiditsch Arkadij AZE 2702 4½ 4½ GM Idani Pouya IRI 2576 35
8 28 GM Adly Ahmed EGY 2593 4½ 4½ GM Areshchenko Alexander UKR 2682 7
9 10 GM Jones Gawain C B ENG 2676 4½ 4½ Xu Yinglun CHN 2540 47

[Chris Rice]

Another difficult day for Gawain whose kingside attack in a Najdorf never really got going. He nearly survived but it looked like he went wrong with 29 Bxc4 instead of 29 Ba4 and eventually lost. He'll have to treat this as a warm up tournament for Dubai.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I suppose he is due a less than stellar showing......

[LawrenceCooper]

Another difficult day for Gawain whose kingside attack in a Najdorf never really got going. He nearly survived but it looked like he went wrong with 29 Bxc4 instead of 29 Ba4 and eventually lost. He'll have to treat this as a warm up tournament for Dubai.

Rather scary that his opponent is only the 21st highest rated player in China.