English Chess Forum

Tim Harding wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 27, 2018 7:38 pm

The joint leaders Naiditsch and Wojtaszek (both 6.5/8) must play tomorrow, I think, assuming Xiong doesn't win.

Currently on 6: MVL, Wang Hao, Jones with one of Kramnik or Xiong to join them.

A correct assumption, drawn.

At least Nigel didn't lose.

Kramnik and Xiong drew.

Keymar 1-0 Gelfand a remarkable result. I think that will qualify him as a gm just before his 14th birthday. Another great talent

Gelfand losing on board 24 in a swiss !!

(Reasons not to play chess professionally)

Jonathan Rogers wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 27, 2018 3:36 pm

I am curious to see Justin's reference to 5....Bb4. It seems playable, but I have not see this before, nor has it occurred to me

I'm sure I came across it first in a book I got out of Stevenage Central Library that was mostly about traps and blunders in the opening, but I have no idea what that book was. This would probably be at the end of the Seventies.

Paul Cooksey wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 27, 2018 8:22 pm

Keymar 1-0 Gelfand a remarkable result. I think that will qualify him as a gm just before his 14th birthday. Another great talent

Keymer isn't quite there yet. His TPR is 2615 after 8 rounds, which means he needs to draw tomorrow as Black against Emil Sutovsky for a 9-round 2600+ performance which would be his third and final norm and also take his rating over 2500.

If he does it, he will become at 13 years 11 months and 13 days the eleventh youngest GM of all time, BUT the second youngest ever from Western Europe after Magnus Carlsen. All the others ahead of him are from Eastern Europe, Asia or the US.

It seems that because the pairings MVL-Jones and Wang Hao-Xiong have already happened, it wasn't possible to pair the 6-pointers as a group.
As a result there are two floaters which could well favour Gawain:

Naiditsch (6.5) v Wojtaszek (6.5)
Xiong-Jones (both on 6)
Grischuk (5.5) v MVL (6)
Wang Hao (6) v Vishy (5.5)

If the top board is drawn and Gawain wins, he can maybe win the whole thing?

Can an expert in such matters tell us how, if there is a tiebreak for first, will the fact that that both Naiditsch and Wojtaszek took half-point byes affect the way it plays out? You would think it ought to disadvantage them?

NB: round 9 starts at 1pm GMT.

Prize money is split

There would be a playoff for the trophy

The tie break is the results between the players involved in the tie (which won't apply as they are all unbeaten) then sum of progressive scores. Assuming I've worked these out correctly it favours the players in this order:

Naiditsch
Wang
Xiong
MVL
Wojtaszek
Jones

So Jones can't possibly reach the play off.

There should IMHO be a rule to exclude, in such situations, any player who takes a day off.

Peter Shaw wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 27, 2018 11:13 pm

The tie break is the results between the players involved in the tie (which won't apply as they are all unbeaten) then sum of progressive scores. Assuming I've worked these out correctly it favours the players in this order:

Naiditsch
Wang
Xiong
MVL
Wojtaszek
Jones

So Jones can't possibly reach the play off.

If Jones beats Xiong, and Wojtaszek, Wang and MVL all lose, then the playoff is Naiditsch (7.5) v Jones (7). Arithmetically possible, however remote in practice.

Surely not: Naiditsch would have half a point more than Jones in that case, so why would there be a play-off?

If Naiditsch or Wojtasek win there is no need for a playoff

Yep, I'm wrong.

In the U2100 section yesterday the clear leader Sunil Weeramantry lost in just 5 moves! With his knight en prise he picked up his king, then offered his 15 year old opponent a draw! "A draw?!?! - no i don't"