FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019 - Isle of Man

[Tim Harding]

I'm not sure that's 100% foolproof as it's White that has to organise the exchange. I'll predict a draw anyway, but very happy to be shown otherwise!

An instructive ending certainly; it seems that after Luke missed 61 Rg3 it was probably a draw, as GM Ramirez told the commentators, though I haven't checked this with FinalGen yet. The mistakes at moves 57, 58 and 59 had already made it much harder, but Luke was very short of time to reach move 60.

Ian's reasoning was tempting but fallacious as Thomas, hints.
For example, there are two obvious routes to exchange the b-pawns after Black's 61st move.
Either 62 Re5 Bxb3 63 Rb5 Be6 64 Rxb4 or 62 Rd3 Kf5 63 Rd4 Bxb3 64 Rxb4 but the tablebase says both those are drawn.

Likewise, to eliminate the kingside pawns, Luke would only have had to play 62 h4 gxh4+ 63 Kxh4 but that leaves a drawn ending too, as I'm sure he realised.

The position he actually got after 77 Rxb4 would have been a win if it had been his move (or Black to move but White's K on c2). That's how close it was.

[NickFaulks]

I wonder whether Gawain and his opponent are aware that they have been following the game Short - Timman from the 1993 Candidates final for almost two hours.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I wonder whether Gawain and his opponent are aware that they have been following the game Short - Timman from the 1993 Candidates final for almost two hours.

Interesting:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124574

They followed that game up to move 13 (13...Na4) and then Gawain diverged with 14.h3 and his opponent replied 14...Bh5. The moves 15.Bf4 Qd7 have been played in the Jones-Saduakassova game, and were also played 26 years earlier. Short continued with Qd3.

[Mick Norris]

Going into the rest day, we have:

5 - Caruana, Wang Hao
4.5 - Carlsen, Grischuk, Maghsoodloo, Aronian, Vitiugov, Alekseenko, Anton Guijarro

[Chris Rice]

Round 7 pairings. The two leaders have already played so the top matches are:

Grishuk (4.5) v Caruana (5)
Aronian (4.5) v Wang Hao (5)
Alekseenko (4.5) v Carlsen (4.5)
Anton (4.5) v Vitiugov (4.5)
Yu (4) v Maghsoodloo (4.5)
Luke is in the pack on 4/6 and gets White v Kovalev who narrowly failed to beat Carlsen in Round 4.

I'm wondering if Elisabeth Paehtz may be ill again as she has a 0 point bye.

[Chris Rice]

Not sure how Aronian won that but it puts him in the joint lead with Caruana.

[Mick Norris]

5.5 Caruana, Aronian
5 Carlsen, Wang Hao, Grischuk, Alekseenko, Vitiugov, Maghsoodloo, Anton Guijarro

[JustinHorton]

So what do we think gets you into the Candidates here. Plus four with a strong tiebreak?

[Keith Arkell]

This tournament is surreal. Today I was sitting opposite Sergei Movsesian (who has been ranked 10 in the world), and next to Daniil Dubov, current World Rapidplay Champion. And what score were we on? 2/6!

[Mick Norris]

Hope you are enjoying it; good result yesterday; good luck against Stefanova today

round 8 pairings

[Alex Holowczak]

This tournament is surreal.

Although it still has some familiar features for me as an arbiter, such as you being the last to finish after grinding out an ending.

[David Shepherd]

This tournament is surreal.

Seems to be true today on boards 7 and 8 - currently not only an interesting position on both boards at move 19, but also the same position.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Carlsen drew. McShane looks unlikely to win. Jones being held by Clarke. I wonder how many of those playing in the Isle of Man have the stamina for an 11-round Swiss with only one rest day.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

David Antón Guijarro right in the mix now with his demolition of Grischuk.

[JustinHorton]

This tournament is surreal.

Seems to be true today on boards 7 and 8 - currently not only an interesting position on both boards at move 19, but also the same position.

Karjakin