Hastings International Chess 29 Dec 2014 - 6 January 2015

[Graham Borrowdale]

Some interesting games today.
In Sengupta-Zhao on top board white's h4, h5 against the fianchetto was calmly ignored, black later sacrificing two pieces for a rook but gaining lots of extra pawns; Zhao now has 5/5.
In Hawkins-Edouard black seemed to see even further than his opponent in the middlegame complications and emerged a piece ahead, although I have no idea what any engine might think.
Further down, Hebden played a nice Marshall counter-attack against Bellin, forcing resignation with his opponent completely tied up.
Arkell-Constantinou looks like a typical endgame grind by white; the position at around move 22 looks even, but white's queen is slightly more active and he has the Catalan bishop, which eventually proved enough.
Lots to play for and hopefully there will be lots more interesting games still to come

[Chris Rice]

Hebden's win over Bellin was made even more impressive by the fact that he took just 20 minutes for the whole game. Think a word for the women wouldn't be out of order here with Tereza Olsarova beating Danny Gormally and further down the card Rasa Norinviciute beating Marusenko. The Board 6 pairings are up and if the Board 1 clash has a winner then that could well decide the tournament. English hopes now depend on Hebden and Arkell as per.

1 GM Zhao, Jun 5.0 CHN 2585 GM Edouard, Romain 4.5 FRA 2659
2 GM Arkell, Keith C 4.0 ENG 2489 GM Mista, Aleksander 4.0 POL 2614
3 GM Fier, Alexandr 4.0 BRA 2592 IM Kjartansson, Gudmundur 4.0 ISL 2451
4 WIM Olsarova, Tereza w 4.0 CZE 2302 GM Bogner, Sebastian 4.0 SUI 2586
5 IM Gledura, Benjamin 4.0 HUN 2450 GM Lagarde, Maxime 4.0 FRA 2576
6 GM Hebden, Mark L 4.0 ENG 2523 IM Galyas, Miklos 4.0 HUN 2428
7 FM Sowray, Peter J 3.5 ENG 2365 GM Rodshtein, Maxim 3.5 ISR 2676
8 GM Flear, Glenn C 3.5 ENG 2460 GM Sengupta, Deep 3.5 IND 2566
9 FM Wallner, Joachim 3.5 AUT 2340 GM Hawkins, Jonathan 3.5 ENG 2552
10 FM Jackson, James P 3.5 ENG 2356 GM Vakhidov, Jahongir 3.5 UZB 2502
11 Ternault, Mathieu 3.0 FRA 2225 IM Hunt, Adam C 3.5 ENG 2437

Round 6 live games link http://www.hastingschess.com/live-games-1415-vi/

[Chris Rice]

Something is wrong here. This is the 6th page of this thread and the number 6 seed Jun Zhao won again in Round 6 to lead on 6/6. Chess 24 report here with a few games and some pictures from Brendan O'Gorman. http://www.chess.com/news/zhao-jun-on-6 ... tings-3933 With the pairings for round 7 now up the only player standing in the way of a runaway Chinese victory is Mark Hebden who looks to be in great form at the moment and has the White bits.

1 GM Hebden, Mark L 5.0 ENG 2523 GM Zhao, Jun 6.0 CHN 2585
2 GM Rodshtein, Maxim 4.5 ISR 2676 GM Arkell, Keith C 4.5 ENG 2489
3 GM Edouard, Romain 4.5 FRA 2659 IM Gledura, Benjamin 4.5 HUN 2450
4 GM Mista, Aleksander 4.5 POL 2614 IM Kjartansson, Gudmundur 4.5 ISL 2451
5 GM Sengupta, Deep 4.5 IND 2566 GM Fier, Alexandr 4.5 BRA 2592
6 GM Bogner, Sebastian 4.5 SUI 2586 IM Hunt, Adam C 4.5 ENG 2437
7 GM Lagarde, Maxime 4.5 FRA 2576 WIM Olsarova, Tereza w 4.5 CZE 2302
8 GM Vakhidov, Jahongir 4.5 UZB 2502 FM Wallner, Joachim 4.0 AUT 2340
9 GM Hawkins, Jonathan 4.0 ENG 2552 FM Kirk, Ezra 4.0 ENG 2308
10 Liang, Jake Z 4.0 ENG 1953 GM Gormally, Daniel W 4.0 ENG 2499
11 IM Galyas, Miklos 4.0 HUN 2428 FM Constantinou, Peter 4.0 ENG 2276
12 Kheit, Wahbi 4.0 ISR 2223 FM Webb, Laurence E 3.5 ENG 2272

Live game link for Round 7 http://www.hastingschess.com/live-games-1415-vii/

[John Moore]

Live games don't seem to be working as yet unless it's me.

[Barry Sandercock]

They are working on ChessBomb website.

[John Moore]

Thanks Barry.

[Alex McFarlane]

It would appear to be a problem with the website rather than here at the venue.

DC is trying to have it rectified.

Sorry to all

[LawrenceCooper]

They are working on ChessBomb website.

Keith Arkell playing under the alias of Martin Adell, Jordi on Chessbomb

[John Moore]

Excellent - now working on the Congress website. Thanks Alex and, of course, to Dave.

[John Moore]

Mark will be happy with his position apart from the time advantage. He has previous experience in this line - christened the Tarzan Attack by Artur Kogan.

I only know this because I bought the relevant volume of Secrets of Opening Surprises at the British in Great Yarmouth and, whilst sharing dinner that evening with the rest of the Essex contingent, I was able to point out the chapter to Andrew Lewis who had just lost horribly to Mark in this line in about twenty moves. Needless to say, Andrew was less than impressed.

[Barry Sandercock]

Yes. Mark has a nice position (move 13 ). This line is also known as The Barry Attack. Zhao is playing very slowly, maybe he hasn't seen it before.

[JustinHadi]

I can't see how ever side can possibly win this game (board 1, move 16) except with some time trouble blunders.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I can't see how ever side can possibly win this game (board 1, move 16) except with some time trouble blunders.

Really? There seems to be plenty of play in it to me.

[JustinHadi]

Really, but perhaps the grades of those commenting and playing should be taken into account.

[John Moore]

That's rather rude, Justin.