Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

[Mick Norris]

Yes, interesting choice from Vlad

[Jonathan Rogers]

Stockfish has already moved from the standard computer assessment of Benko positions (ie, almost won for White) to slightly better for Black, even though still a pawn down. Harika's last move was 16 Bf1-d3, and SF reckons that her best move next will be 17 Bxc4 ...

[Paul Cooksey]

I believe the lines with Qa5 before d6 have made the Benko a bit more popular.. But if you'd given me 10 guesses I still would not have picked it for Kramnik.

Gawain looks to be on the wrong end of Fabi's opening prep.

I think Praganandhaa has a few more tiers to climb before we can be sure he will be a challenger. But clearly he is improving rapidly, seems to be well above 2600 already

[LawrenceCooper]

I'm not sure if the three minutes that Vidit spent recapturing on e8 were spent considering a draw offer or if he was away from the board. Board 3 concluded without any excitement.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Carlsen's "just sit down with White and play anything" not working so well so far today.

[Keith Arkell]

. I see that today's byes include Boris Gelfand and Keith Arkell. Finding all these players taking byes in this round and previous rounds very new and a bit odd. I normally associate them with amateur players not pros like these guys.

All players have the option of one half point bye in rounds 1 to 8.

I've played pretty much non-stop for the last 2 or 3 months - the South Wales International, the Dundee GM all-play-all, the Midlands Open, The British Championship, 41 games of various time controls in Qatar, Paignton Premier and now the Isle of Man. That's probably far more than any other GM on the planet during the same period.

I figured that taking a rest now before, hopefully, playing 2 strong GMs in the last 2 rounds ( ending up with a white) made a lot of sense.

[LawrenceCooper]

Carlsen's "just sit down with White and play anything" not working so well so far today.

Now drawn in 31 moves so he remains half clear but with the likelihood of there being quite a few players in second place.

[Paul Cooksey]

Fabi-Magnus possible tomorrow.

[Jonathan Rogers]

in which 1...Nc6 would probably be unlikely ...

[Roger de Coverly]

Fabi-Magnus possible tomorrow.

They had the same colour today, but perhaps no-one on Fabi's score group will win with Black.

[LawrenceCooper]

Fabi-Magnus possible tomorrow.

They had the same colour today, but perhaps no-one on Fabi's score group will win with Black.

1 3 GM Caruana Fabiano 2799 5½ 6 GM Carlsen Magnus 2827 1
2 5 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2781 5½ 5½ GM Sutovsky Emil 2683 16
3 12 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2702 5½ 5½ GM Eljanov Pavel 2734 8
4 26 GM Fressinet Laurent 2657 5 5 GM Anand Viswanathan 2794 4
5 28 GM Grandelius Nils 2653 5 5 GM Adams Michael 2738 6
6 34 GM L'ami Erwin 2611 5 5 GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2676 18
7 35 GM Sokolov Ivan 2603 5 5 GM Rapport Richard 2675 19
8 37 GM Bindrich Falko 2598 5 5 GM Movsesian Sergei 2671 20
9 22 GM Hou Yifan 2670 5 5 GM Bogner Sebastian 2599 36
10 25 GM Akobian Varuzhan 2662 5 5 GM Lenderman Aleksandr 2565 46
11 55 GM Swapnil S. Dhopade 2532 5 4½ GM Short Nigel D 2698 14
12 2 GM Kramnik Vladimir 2803 4½ 4½ GM Sethuraman S.P. 2617 33
13 9 GM Vallejo Pons Francisco 2716 4½ 4½ GM Tari Aryan 2588 41
14 13 GM Howell David W L 2701 4½ 4½ GM Timman Jan H 2573 44
15 15 GM Rodshtein Maxim 2695 4½ 4½ GM Wagner Dennis 2564 48
16 17 GM Leko Peter 2679 4½ 4½ GM Pichot Alan 2565 47
17 23 GM Jones Gawain C B 2668 4½ 4½ IM Batsiashvili Nino 2472 68

[Matt Mackenzie]

Harika Dronavalli has white against Kramnik I see; Vlad hasn't won with black for 6 games

He has now.

[Roger de Coverly]

1 3 GM Caruana Fabiano 2799 5½ 6 GM Carlsen Magnus 2827

FIDE pairing rules, so highest rated floats in the absence of anything else.

[Chris Rice]

Chess.com report on round 7 and as you can see Gawain ran straight into some deep prep from Caruana and basically didn't stand a chance.

Nino Batsiashvili who I mentioned yesterday was doing well lost an ending to Eljanov that she probably should have drawn, Nevertheless "she looks primed to be the 36th women in history to become a grandmaster, and the fifth from Georgia." In a stat researched by Mike Klein, the Chess.com reporter "and told many times, it's also the fountain of youth - no woman who has ever earned the title has died."

Seems Hou Yifan is now doing great since she's had the bye. Its becoming clear that the reason she prefers to play men is that they are easier to beat.

65 year old James Tarjan has a TPR of 2654. Unbelievable.

Praggnanandhaa lost to Akobian and looks like he will need 2/2 for that GM norm. He's black in Rd 8 v a 2384 so he could win that and be in with a shot.

[LawrenceCooper]

Chess.com report on round 7 and as you can see Gawain ran straight into some deep prep from Caruana and basically didn't stand a chance.

Caruana-Carlsen followed Caruana-Jones before black varied with 14....Re8. White punted 15 g4 and black has sunk into thought.