English Chess Forum

The ninth and final round starts 10 am local time (about 3-4pm BST) today and will be viewable live online. Luke is on the brink of another excellent result to follow up his joint second in the World Open earlier this month. First prize in Toronto is $6,500. Note also the good performance of ex-Sussex David Cummings.

1 GM Luke McShane 2624 W44 W42 W81 W9 D7 W5 D2 W8 7.0
2 GM Eduardas Rozentalis 2631 W14 W41 W13 D4 D19 W42 D1 W18 6.5
3 IM Artiom Samsonkin 2609 W72 W70 W53 D17 L21 W50 W25 W20 6.5
4 GM Merab Gagunashvili 2596 W73 W23 W82 D2 W12 D6 D13 W31 6.5
5 GM Alexander Shabalov 2578 W74 D12 W120 W25 W179 L1 W26 W21 6.5
6 IM Nikolay Noritsyn 2536 W75 D25 W63 W26 W115 D4 W16 D7 6.5
7 GM Harikrishna Pentala 2678 W71 D21 W62 W20 D1 W41 D18 D6 6.0
8 GM Vladimir Malaniuk 2551 W28 L13 W122 W81 W113 W118 W19 L1 6.0
9 IM Tomas Krnan 2484 W149 W35 W121 L1 L50 W187 W59 W47 6.0
10 IM David Cummings 2482 D45 W76 W56 D118 D66 W51 W27 D13 6.0
11 FM John C. [Jack] Yoos 2461 L30 W52 W90 W53 W62 D31 D35 W50 6.0
12 FM Vinny Puri 2326 W257 D5 W60 W128 L4 W56 D32 W48 6.0
13 FM Aman Hambleton 2315 W50 W8 L2 W85 W206 W17 D4 D10 6.0
14 Yuri Aronov 2301 L2 W83 W124 L62 W161 W92 W94 W64 6.0
15 Ismail Ibrahim 2062 L125 W112 L48 W162 W201 W181 W118 W41 6.0

Update

Luke had a favourable final round pairing, White v a Canadian 2400 IM, but was apparently surprised when his opponent launched the Scandinavian with Qd6 (maybe he reads Andrew Martin). Luke's opening was a tad simplistic and after all four Ns were exchanged it looked drawish. But Black played passively then hung a pawn.

The game is still in progress close to the time control but Luke is a pawn up in a double rook ending and should convert for outright first prize .

Leonard Barden wrote:Update

Luke had a favourable final round pairing, White v a Canadian 2400 IM, but was apparently surprised when his opponent launched the Scandinavian with Qd6 (maybe he reads Andrew Martin). Luke's opening was a tad simplistic and after all four Ns were exchanged it looked drawish. But Black played passively then hung a pawn.

The game is still in progress close to the time control but Luke is a pawn up in a double rook ending and should convert for outright first prize .

Luke indeed won to take outright first. He outplayed his opponent from a position where he always seemed to be slightly better and his opponent sacrificed a pawn to get some activity. Luke's technique then did the rest. A fantastic performance following on from a successful World Open.