Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

[NickFaulks]

Lower down, Kramnik gets Lawrence Trent. Almasi is on the next board after two draws and just one win.

Lawrence played a really good game against Ivan Sokolov today, until it blew up right at the end.

[Chris Rice]

Round 5 pairings

1 Carlsen (3.5) - Granda (3.5)
2 Eljanov (3.5) - Kasimdzhanov (3.5)
3 Vidit (3.5) - Lenderman (3.5)
4 Caruana (3) - Xiong (3)
5 Anand (3) - Grandelius (3)
6 Sargissian (3) - Nakamura (3)
7 Adams (3) - Shirov (3)
8 Sethuraman (3) - Gelfand (3)
9 Short (3) - L'ami (3)
16 Gawain (3) - Swapnil (3)
19 Praggnanandhaa R (2½) - Howell (2½)
25 Timman (2½) - Jovanka Houska (2½)
32 (!) Lawrence Trent (2) - Kramnik (2)

Fressinet who could have been on Board 1 and Hou Yifan both taking byes.

[Barry Sandercock]

Why does Hou Yifan not like playing female opponents ?

[Alan Walton]

Why does Hou Yifan not like playing female opponents ?

Has she ever said this; the original issue was she believed the pairings were being manipulated for her to play female only players, this wasn't the case as we have been told, but you cannot deduce that she doesn't like playing female opponents from this

[Nick Burrows]

I don't like playing men

[Geoff Chandler]

Yifan was not happy with FIDE rules regarding the way the Female
Champion defends her title. She wanted a female candidates and
a match just like the men (quite right too) but FIDE said no.

So Yifan declined to defend her title under the FIDE system making
it clear to them if they found her a challenger she would play them.

Frederic Friedel is an interview over at Chessbase asked her:

"if you drop out of the women’s cycle you could become a kind of Judit Polgar:
you would be the strongest female on the planet, a hundred points ahead of
everyone else, but only playing in men’s tournaments?"

Yifan's reply:

" I unfortunately have no other choice than to stop participating in the cycle.
However, thinking positively, this may not be that bad. It would allow me to
focus on the top level, on the “men’s” field. I could try to become stronger, to be more
efficient, as there would be no obligation to play the women’s tournaments anymore."

So people have twisted that into: "She only wants to play men.'

[Barry Sandercock]

Thanks very much Geoff, for explaining the background to this.

[NickFaulks]

That all makes sense, but still doesn't explain the absurd outburst at Gibraltar. I'm disappointed that she never apologised to the organisers, which would have put an end to it.

[Chris Rice]

Well its going to be a race between Kramnik and Hou Yifan as to who is going to lose it first. Brilliant result for Lawrence though.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Well its going to be a race between Kramnik and Hou Yifan as to who is going to lose it first. Brilliant result for Lawrence though.

Kramnik’s goal might have been to gain sufficient rating points to qualify for the candidates but it looks like he’s going to lose enough tto qualify for the Golders Green Major.

[Chris Rice]

Another happy bunny will not be David Howell who has just lost to Praggnanandhaa. Lot of talk about him becoming the youngest GM in history but can I find any information to confirm or deny this? I confess I cannot.

[Matt Fletcher]

Karjarkin is still the youngest ever GM, at exactly 12 years 7 months.

Praggnandhaa was born on 10 August 2005 which I think means he has until 10 March next year to get there - he has the 2500 rating but my understanding is that (if he achieves it) this would be his first norm.

[EDIT for incorrect maths]

[Angus French]

Leonard Barden article on Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/ ... ter-record

[Chris Rice]

Leonard Barden article on Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/ ... ter-record

Thanks Angus, I was looking for something a bit more recent as Leonard has written about him many times. He seems to have won Vlissingen a few weeks ago but I can't tell whether he achieved a GM norm there, perhaps not. Couple of recent articles here and here about him crossing the 2500 threshold. If he has got till next March, as Matt mentions above, then he is in with a shot if he keeps playing like this.

[Leonard Barden]

Leonard Barden article on Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/ ... ter-record

Thanks Angus, I was looking for something a bit more recent as Leonard has written about him many times. He seems to have won Vlissingen a few weeks ago but I can't tell whether he achieved a GM norm there, perhaps not.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... oly-karpov