2017 Shamkir - Gashimov Memorial

[Chris Rice]

The first round of this 10 player APA starts at noon (BST) today. Mega strong as usual:

Eljanov, P. (0) 2751 — Radjabov, T. (0) 2710
Wojtaszek, R. (0) 2745 — Kramnik, V. (0) 2811
So, Wesley (0) 2822 — Mamedyarov (0) 2772
Karjakin, S. (0) 2783 — Harikrishna. (0) 2755
Topalov, V. (0) 2741 — Adams, M. (0) 2761

live games link

[Chris Rice]

Khenkin and Ljubo doing the commentary but lack the necessary IT skills and manage to delete the analysis board. A "We need help!" cry is sent out.

[Chris Rice]

Massive shock in first round at Shamkir as So finally loses a game to Mamedyarov. 39 Qxf3?? was the blunder in an otherwise pretty equal position.The result means Shak is back in the top 10 and So falls to number 3 below Kramnik.

[Steven DuCharme]

The So stopper!

[JustinHorton]

I've only just seen that, but is it the Worst Move On The Board?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Strange. It is not as if the reply (e4) is hard to see. Was So in time trouble?

Does this make Kramnik the new favourite to be the one (if anyone can) to topple Magnus from number 1?

[Chris Rice]

Does this make Kramnik the new favourite to be the one (if anyone can) to topple Magnus from number 1?

The top 5 on the live ratings seem to be falling backwards at the moment. There once was a dream that Magnus would reach 2900 now he's down to 2832 and still dropping and anyone could emerge as the new number 1. So has only lost one game so I would think he's still the favourite to topple Carlsen but then I thought Caruana was going to do that a while ago as well and as soon as I said it he then just plummeted.

[JustinHorton]

Mind you, we should all plummet to those kind of depths.

[Chris Rice]

Mind you, we should all plummet to those kind of depths.

Indeed, if Caruana plummets to our depths, he's probably best advised to chuck it in.

[Mick Norris]

chess.com round 1 report

[Mick Norris]

Does this make Kramnik the new favourite to be the one (if anyone can) to topple Magnus from number 1?

The top 5 on the live ratings seem to be falling backwards at the moment. There once was a dream that Magnus would reach 2900 now he's down to 2832 and still dropping and anyone could emerge as the new number 1. So has only lost one game so I would think he's still the favourite to topple Carlsen but then I thought Caruana was going to do that a while ago as well and as soon as I said it he then just plummeted.

I think the top 2 (other than Magnus) on average ratings this year is the key i.e. who qualifies for the Candidates; currently close between So, Kramnik & Caruana, with MVL not far behind

spreadsheet

[Chris Rice]

Veselin Topalov's takes us briefly back to his glory days with a superb win as Black against Radek Wojtaszek in which a rook sacrifice lead to an attack against White's centralized king. However. its Pavel Eljanov who leads on 2/2.

[JustinHorton]

Topalov-Kramnik today, grudge fans.

[Joshua Gibbs]

karjakin Adams https://livestream.com/accounts/14384008/events/7225276 Dont know if stream is legal.

[Barry Sandercock]

Good win for Michael Adams against Karjakin today.