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

[Peter Shaw]

20 52 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2552 0 0 GM Hou Yifan 2670 22

I hope we don't see a repeat of Gibraltar

[Chris Rice]

20 52 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2552 0 0 GM Hou Yifan 2670 22

I hope we don't see a repeat of Gibraltar

I don't think Kosteniuk plays the Grob.

[Mick Norris]

Board 2 looks unlikely?

With a random draw it's no more unlikely than any other pairing but certainly the one that catches the eye.

I imagine So will be watching with interest

[Matthew Peat]

I thought most tiebreaks are affected by having a good start to an event.

Presumably they have anticipated this in choosing to adopt this 1st round pairing system. I guess the only fair tiebreak now would be rating performance.

Judging from his games at the World Cup, Caruana probably had hoped for a couple of easier to start with in order to play himself into a bit of form.......

[Carl Hibbard]

Board 2 looks unlikely?

With a random draw it's no more unlikely than any other pairing but certainly the one that catches the eye.

That would explain it then thanks.

[Roger de Coverly]

With a random draw it's no more unlikely than any other pairing but certainly the one that catches the eye.

From round 2, it reverts to usual Swiss pairing. It remains to be seen when the rating disparities in the second and third rounds are greater than would normally be seen in a Swiss, particularly round 1. Also how top seeded players will react to playing one another in the first round. Will they fight for the full point, or agree a mutual half point bye?

[Roger de Coverly]

Another pairing that caught the eye is

34 100 IM Kavutskiy Konstantin 2390 0 0 GM Bindrich Falko 2598 37

That's in view of this story.
http://en.chessbase.com/post/cheating-s ... -phone-use

He got off eventually on a technicality, that the German Chess Federation and Bundesliga are not the same organisation.
https://www.chess.com/news/view/bindric ... 68000-3357

On current rules, at the very least he would have been guilty of having a phone in his possession whilst in play.

[Roger de Coverly]

I guess the only fair tiebreak now would be rating performance.

As far as I'm aware it's running under British conventions, so there wouldn't be any tie break for the major prizes. Rating prizes are based on performance anyway.

[Mick Norris]

Prizes:
1st £50,000; 2nd £25,000; 3rd £12,500; 4th £6,250; 5th £4,000; 6th £3,500; 7th £3,000; 8th £2,500;
9th £2,000; 10th £1,500
Best relative rating achievement:
2500 – 2599 £1,250
2400 – 2499 £1,000
2300 – 2399 £750
2200 – 2299 £500
1900 – 2199 £500
Ladies’ Awards
1st £6,000; 2nd £3,000; 3rd £1,500; 4th £1,250; 5th £1,000; 6th £500

Prizes (including the first prize) shall be shared where players have the same score.
No player can win more than one complete prize.
A player forfeits the right to a rating prize if they are absent for the last round.

Tie-break (for deciding who receives the award of a trophy):
In the event of two players tying for first place in the open (i.e. not applicable to the ladies’ awards),
the winner of the tournament (plus an extra £500 prize money) will be decided by a play-off on the
evening of 1 October, after the completion of all round-9 games. The play-off will consist of two
rapid games with a rate of play of 15 minutes plus 10 seconds a move, with colours to be
determined by the toss of a coin. If the rapid match finishes equal then the winner will be
determined by Armageddon with 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black, Black having draw
odds. A toss of a coin will determine colours.

In the event of three or more players tying for first place, the top two will be determined by tiebreak,
in the following order of priority, and will enter the play-off described above:
 The results between the players involved in the tie
 Sum of progressive score
 Sum of opponents’ scores (Buchholz)
 Sonneborn-Berger
 Number of won games

British Championship Qualifier:
The highest placed eligible player not already qualified shall qualify for the right to play in the 2017
British Championship, subject to ECF regulations.

[NickFaulks]

I don't think Kosteniuk plays the Grob.

She did play 6.g4.

[IM Jack Rudd]

First game to finish: [Event "Chess.com Isle of Man Open - Masters"]<br> [Site "Douglas (Isle of Man)"]<br> [Date "2017.09.23"]<br> [Round "1.38"]<br> [White "Ragnarsson, Dagur"]<br> [Black "Sunilduth Lyna, Narayanan"]<br> [Result "0-1"]<br> [ECO "A00"]<br> [WhiteElo "2340"]<br> [BlackElo "2568"]<br> [PlyCount "26"]<br> [EventDate "2017.09.23"]<br> <br> 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 O-O 5. e3 d5 6. Bd3 c5 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8. bxc3<br> dxc4 9. Bxc4 Qa5 10. O-O Qxc3 11. Qe2 b5 12. Bxb5 Qxa1 13. Bc4 Qb1 0-1

[Roger de Coverly]

First game to finish

Whilst there are many positions in the Nimzo where offering to sacrifice a pawn on c3 is the normal move, it would appear that this isn't one of them. So it's sensible to defend the c3 pawn with Bb2, Bd2 or Qc2.

White was a 2340 rated FM, Black a 2568 GM from India.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Feel that black-square control.

[Event "Chess.com Isle of Man Open - Masters"]<br> [Site "Douglas (Isle of Man)"]<br> [Date "2017.09.23"]<br> [Round "1.46"]<br> [White "Jonsson, Gauti Pall"]<br> [Black "Perelshteyn, Eugene"]<br> [Result "0-1"]<br> [ECO "A00"]<br> [WhiteElo "2011"]<br> [BlackElo "2524"]<br> [PlyCount "64"]<br> [EventDate "2017.09.23"]<br> <br> 1. d4 g6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Be3 Na6 7. Qd2 e5 8. d5<br> Nc5 9. f3 Nh5 10. g4 Nf4 11. Bxf4 exf4 12. h4 Be5 13. O-O-O a6 14. Nh3 b5 15.<br> Nxf4 b4 16. Nb1 Qf6 17. Nd3 Nxd3+ 18. Qxd3 Bxb2+ 19. Kd2 Be5 20. Rdg1 a5 21.<br> Ke1 a4 22. g5 Qf4 23. Qd2 Qxd2+ 24. Kxd2 Bf4+ 25. Kd3 h5 26. gxh6 Kh7 27. a3<br> Rb8 28. axb4 Rxb4 29. Nc3 Ba6 30. Nb5 Rxb5 31. cxb5 Bxb5+ 32. Kc2 Bxe2 0-1

[IM Jack Rudd]

A nice win from Gaponenko:

[Event "Chess.com Isle of Man Open - Masters"]<br> [Site "Douglas (Isle of Man)"]<br> [Date "2017.09.23"]<br> [Round "1.62"]<br> [White "Vignesh, B."]<br> [Black "Gaponenko, Inna"]<br> [Result "0-1"]<br> [ECO "A00"]<br> [WhiteElo "2260"]<br> [BlackElo "2437"]<br> [PlyCount "64"]<br> [EventDate "2017.09.23"]<br> <br> 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be2 g6 7. Be3 Bg7 8.<br> Nb3 O-O 9. g4 Be6 10. f4 d5 11. f5 Bc8 12. exd5 Nb4 13. Bf3 gxf5 14. a3 fxg4<br> 15. axb4 gxf3 16. h3 Bf5 17. Nd4 Bg6 18. Qxf3 Qd7 19. Rg1 Rfc8 20. O-O-O a5 21.<br> bxa5 Rxa5 22. Nb3 Rxc3 23. bxc3 Ra2 24. Rxg6 hxg6 25. Bd4 Qa4 26. Kb1 Qa3 27.<br> c4 Ne4 28. Qxe4 Rb2+ 29. Kc1 Bh6+ 30. Rd2 Rxb3+ 31. Kd1 Rb1+ 32. Ke2 Qc1 0-1

[IM Jack Rudd]

A middlegame zugzwang:

[Event "Chess.com Isle of Man Open - Masters"]<br> [Site "Douglas (Isle of Man)"]<br> [Date "2017.09.23"]<br> [Round "1.45"]<br> [White "Harika, Dronavalli"]<br> [Black "Oyama, Akito"]<br> [Result "1-0"]<br> [ECO "A00"]<br> [WhiteElo "2528"]<br> [BlackElo "2198"]<br> [PlyCount "87"]<br> [EventDate "2017.09.23"]<br> <br> 1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bd7 5. Nf3 Bc6 6. Bd3 Nd7 7. c3 Be7 8.<br> O-O Ngf6 9. Nxf6+ Bxf6 10. Re1 O-O 11. Bf4 b6 12. Qe2 Bd5 13. Rad1 Re8 14. Bc2<br> Nf8 15. Ba4 Re7 16. c4 Bb7 17. Ne5 Ng6 18. Bg3 Bxe5 19. dxe5 Qc8 20. h4 Nf8 21.<br> h5 c5 22. Bh4 Rc7 23. Qg4 Nd7 24. Bxd7 Rxd7 25. Bf6 g6 26. Rxd7 Qxd7 27. Rd1<br> Qe8 28. Qg5 Be4 29. f3 Bc2 30. Rd2 Ba4 31. b3 Bc6 32. h6 Kf8 33. Rd6 Rc8 34.<br> Qd2 Kg8 35. Kf2 Kf8 36. Qf4 Kg8 37. Bg5 Qf8 38. Qf6 Be8 39. a4 Bc6 40. g4 Be8<br> 41. Be3 Rb8 42. Kg3 Rc8 43. g5 Rb8 44. a5 1-0