Grand Chess Tour events: Paris GCT and Leuven, Belgium

[Tim Harding]

All Jobava has to do now, to prove he's truly worthy, is to win one of his remaining games, that's all.

From the result, further above, I see it's job done.

I missed the actual game (v. Kramnik) in which he won.

For me it has not all been just about 1st, 2nd & 3rd, but about how Jobava would fare in the lions' den - blooded, bloody and unbowed.

Check out his huge blunder against MVL in a game Jobava should have won.

Magnus has won the tournament but MVL remains in the hunt for second.

[Chris Rice]

The nightmare never ends for Jobava. R v B and he somehow manages to trap his own rook....

Blitz Rd 17:
1 GM Giri, Anish (19) 2764 — GM So, Wesley (21½) 2789
2 GM Carlsen, M. (24) 2851 — GM Jobava, B. (3½) 2703
3 GM Ivanchuk, V. (13½) 2757 — GM Vachier-Lagr. (21) 2783
4 GM Nepomniachtc. (17) 2766 — GM Kramnik, V. (18) 2789
5 GM Aronian, L. (17) 2780 — GM Anand, V. (15½) 2775

[Tim Harding]

And now it's Carlsen v No-hope-obava

[Alex Holowczak]

Check out his huge blunder against MVL in a game Jobava should have won.

Well, it should have been a draw before MVL blundered when sacrificing the exchange 45 moves earlier.

[LawrenceCooper]

1 GM Giri, Anish (19) 2764 ½ - ½ GM So, Wesley (21½) 2789
2 GM Carlsen, M. (24) 2851 1 - 0 GM Jobava, B. (3½) 2703
3 GM Ivanchuk, V. (13½) 2757 1 - 0 GM Vachier-Lagr. (21) 2783
4 GM Nepomniachtc. (17) 2766 1 - 0 GM Kramnik, V. (18) 2789
5 GM Aronian, L. (17) 2780 1 - 0 GM Anand, V. (15½) 2775

[Chris Rice]

Last round 18 of the Blitz and its still a battle for second place whereas I'm sure Jobava will be just pleased it shortly will be all over:

1 GM Anand, V. (15½) 2775 — GM Giri, Anish (19½) 2764
2 GM Vachier-Lagr. (21) 2783 — GM Nepomniachtc. (18) 2766
3 GM So, Wesley (22) 2789 — GM Carlsen, M. (25) 2851
4 GM Jobava, B. (3½) 2703 — GM Ivanchuk, V. (14½) 2757
5 GM Kramnik, V. (18) 2789 — GM Aronian, L. (18) 2780

[LawrenceCooper]

1 GM Anand, V. (15½) 2775 ½ - ½ GM Giri, Anish (19½) 2764
2 GM Vachier-Lagr. (21) 2783 1 - 0 GM Nepomniachtc. (18) 2766
3 GM So, Wesley (22) 2789 ½ - ½ GM Carlsen, M. (25) 2851
4 GM Jobava, B. (3½) 2703 0 - 1 GM Ivanchuk, V. (14½) 2757
5 GM Kramnik, V. (18) 2789 ½ - ½ GM Aronian, L. (18) 2780

[LawrenceCooper]

1 Carlsen, Magnus 25½/36 2851
2 So, Wesley 22½/36 2789
3 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 22/36 2783
4 Giri, Anish 20/36 2764
5= Aronian, Levon 18½/36 2780
5= Kramnik, Vladimir 18½/36 2789
7 Nepomniachtchi, Ian 18/36 2766
8 Anand, Viswanathan 16/36 2775
9 Ivanchuk, Vassily 15½/36 2757
10 Jobava, Baadur 3½/36 2703

[John McKenna]

Yermo's highlights (Chessbase News)

http://en.chessbase.com/post/magnus-car ... point-lead

[Chris Rice]

Peter Doggers report on the last day. I particularly liked the exchange regarding Round 21 in the extraordinary game Carlsen-MVL.

I burnt my bridges early on so I just had to keep going," said Carlsen. With his lack of development material doesn't really matter that much. I just try to play as aggressively as possible. It was a bizarre game, and not only because of White's fourth move: 1.c4 e5 2.e3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.g4!?. Also what followed was good for bringing some popcorn.

Lawrence Trent tweet "Mrs (absolute beginner) glances at my phone after Carlsen's g4 says "I like that move, but you always tell me not to do it!"

Short: "Brilliant game. Loved every second of it!"

Carlsen himself: "It's not very similar to anything I've seen. At least there was one theme I was always playing for, this pawn on d6. Without this, there was no point in my play at all."

1. c4 e5 2. e3 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. g4 Bb4 5. g5 Bxc3 6. bxc3 Ng8 7. d4 Qxg5 8. d5 Nd8 9. d6 c6 10. Nf3 Qf5 11. Rg1 Ne6 12. e4 Qxe4+ 13. Be3 Qf5 14. Ng5 Nf4 15. Bxf4 Qxf4 16. Rg4 Qf6 17. Ne4 Qh6 18. Qf3 Nf6 19. Rxg7 Qxg7 20. Nxf6+ Kd8 21. Qf5 Re8 22. Nxe8 Kxe8 23. c5 b5 24. Bd3 f6 25. Ke2 Kf7 26. Rh1 Rb8 27. Kf1 Qg6 28. Qf3 Qh6 29. Rg1 Ba6 30. Qg4 Rd8 31. Rg3 e4 32. Qxe4 Re8 33. Qg4 Bc8 34. Kg2 Qg5 35. Qf3 Qd5 36. Qxd5+ cxd5 37. Bxh7 Re5 38. f4 Re2+ 39. Kf1 Rxh2 40. Bg8+ Kf8 41. Bxd5 Rh8 42. Kf2 Ba6 43. Ke3 Ke8 44. Kd4 Kd8 45. Rg7 Bc8 46. c6 dxc6 47. Bxc6 a5 48. Kc5 1-0

[Chris Rice]

Chess24 do their lessons learned thing again with 11 conclusions from the 2017 Leuven GCT I've summarised the headings here as its easier to navigate:

1. Magnus is still a speed chess monster
2. Wesley is Mr. Pragmatic
3. The rapid and blitz format works
4. Few would miss the delay if it was never used again
5. Vassily Ivanchuk is a world-beater on his day
6. Jobava didn’t have the best of times
7. The wild cards enhanced the events
8. Not only Baadur blunders
9. Can anyone stop Magnus?
10. The commentary was sometimes too much of a good thing!
11. We all need a rest!

[LawrenceCooper]

http://grandchesstour.org/news-press-re ... lent-saint

[Roger de Coverly]

Kasparov versus his successors. He's already proved his superiority over his still active contemporaries in last year's match up against Nigel. If Carlsen punts 1. f4, can he do better than Kramnik? But perhaps the world champion would be more respectful.

There's relatively little on record of people playing dangerous nonsense against Kasparov. Anand playing the Scandinavian being one such example, the Soviet Union trainers having "educated" all his earlier opponents not to play such rubbish. His only previous experience in facing it before Anand tried it was in simuls.

The Tromp on the other hand, he wheeled out quite often as White in simuls.

His only recorded experience against the Bird's was Romanishin in 1975.

[Kevin Thurlow]

I liked, "Once again, the U.S. is the only country with three players ranked in the top ten globally." Yes, but only because you buy them!

I would guess GK is busy practising.

[LawrenceCooper]

Kasparov versus his successors. He's already proved his superiority over his still active contemporaries in last year's match up against Nigel. If Carlsen punts 1. f4, can he do better than Kramnik? But perhaps the world champion would be more respectful.

There's relatively little on record of people playing dangerous nonsense against Kasparov. Anand playing the Scandinavian being one such example, the Soviet Union trainers having "educated" all his earlier opponents not to play such rubbish. His only previous experience in facing it before Anand tried it was in simuls.

The Tromp on the other hand, he wheeled out quite often as White in simuls.

His only recorded experience against the Bird's was Romanishin in 1975.

Carlsen, So, MVL and Grischuk are amongst those not playing in St Louis but it'll still be interesting to see how he fares against the rest.