English Chess Forum

Roger de Coverly wrote: 120 247 Tveten Per 1486 0 0 FM Thavandiran Shiyam 2367 120

In the finest traditions of British organised events, late entrants or repairing has been allowed. The results for round 1 report

120 255 Tveten Per 1486 0 0 - 1 0 FM Thavandiran Shiyam 2367 120
121 154 WIM Pratyusha Bodda 2247 0 1 - 0 0 Ramirez Leyva Freddy 1862 236
122 247 Day Christopher 1760 0 0 - 1 0 Aroven Mikael 2172 175
123 183 FM Smith Andrew Philip 2152 0 1 - 0 0 Robles Bryan 1711 249
124 251 Kuenitz Klaus 1690 0 0 - 1 0 Herzwurm Robert 2143 186
125 235 Newbry Benjamin J 1879 0 1 - 0 0 Lapusan Razvan 1525 254

I say Ivanchuk will win it

New topic created for this year's event.

David Sedgwick had a great start in Challengers A, but sadly back to 50 % now.

Anna Muzychuk was in no mood to hang around this afternoon.

[Event "Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2017 "] [Site "Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar"] [Date "2017.01.24"] [Round "1.47"] [White "Muzychuk, Anna"] [Black "Herbold, Manfred"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "2558"] [BlackElo "2198"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "2017.01.24"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 a6 8. Qd2 Be7 9. dxc5 Nxc5 10. O-O-O b5 11. Qf2 b4 12. Nxd5 exd5 13. Bxc5 Qa5 14. Bxe7 Nxe7 15. Kb1 O-O 16. Bd3 Bf5 17. Nd4 Qc5 18. Rhf1 Bxd3 19. Rxd3 Rac8 20. f5 f6 21. Rg3 fxe5 22. Rxg7+ Kxg7 23. Ne6+ Kh8 24. Nxc5 Rxf5 25. Qe2 Rxc5 26. Rxf5 Nxf5 27. Qxe5+ Ng7 28. Qb8+ 1-0

Black mixing systems a little there

JustinHorton wrote:Black mixing systems a little there

11. .. b4 is flagged by engines as a tactical error. 11. .. Nd7 and 11. .. Na4 have been played before with the usual "slightly better for White" assessment. Not that I have any experience of this type of position with either colour.

Craig Pritchett had the move 11 position as White at the 1972 Olympiad. His opponent retreated the Knight.

Abhijeet Gupta is two pawns down in a Rook endgame against Frank Buchenau - a 49 year old German rated 2274. Maybe the first shock.

There's also Lombaers - Short.

Robert Bellin has drawn with Gelfand!

At the Gibraltar opening ceremony they usually have a random draw of 2300+ players to see who will play the top four seeds and that's why in 2016 he met Hikaru (with Black). Then after an easy win in round 2 he had to play Li Chao with Black in round 3 which was tough. He withdrew soon afterwards so it's good to see him getting White against the high seed and doing well this time.

Gupta has just lost and Nigel is about to lose.
A big result (board 29) is that young Spaniard Emilio Sanchez Jerez (who beat me last year in round 2) has defeated GM Oparin (2625).
Ivanchuk may only be drawing and Yu Yangyi stands a bit worse.
Alan Tate is putting up a good fight against Ganguly (double minor piece ending).

PS: Nigel has been reprieved by a mistake at move 44 (Rb1 was correct) and is threatening mate. Engine says 0.0 but probably anything can happen depending on the clocks and opponent's nerves. It looks as if a Q ending will arise.

Tim Harding wrote: Gupta has just lost and Nigel is about to lose.

But no, Lombaers has just thrown away the win with one careless move.

Tim Harding wrote:Nigel is about to lose.

Are you sure about that?

Tim Harding wrote: Gupta has just lost and Nigel is about to lose.

Nigel's opponent has just blundered or miscalculated and will have to settle(!) for a draw.

An interesting game from the middle of the tournament:

[Event "Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2017 "] [Site "Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar"] [Date "2017.01.24"] [Round "1.62"] [White "Bendayan Claros, Aaron"] [Black "Kollars, Dmitrij"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "2128"] [BlackElo "2500"] [PlyCount "70"] [EventDate "2017.01.24"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 c5 7. Nge2 Nc6 8. d5 Ne5 9. Ng3 h5 10. Be2 h4 11. Nf1 e6 12. f4 Nxc4 13. Bxc4 b5 14. Nxb5 exd5 15. Bxd5 Nxd5 16. Qxd5 Qa5+ 17. Nc3 Rb8 18. Rc1 Rxb2 19. Bd2 Qa6 20. e5 dxe5 21. fxe5 Bb7 22. Qd6 Rb6 23. Qxc5 h3 24. Ne3 hxg2 25. Rg1 Rc8 26. Qd4 Re6 27. Ne2 Rxc1+ 28. Nxc1 Bxe5 29. Qd8+ Kg7 30. Bb4 Qb6 31. Qf8+ Kh7 32. Qxf7+ Bg7 33. Bd2 Rxe3+ 34. Bxe3 Qxe3+ 35. Ne2 Bf3 0-1

These things happen. It wouldn't surprise me if Nigel won now. After 44 Rb1 there would have been no mate threat. Now 45 Qd4 (exchanging rooks) is the main line, maybe the only move?