Netanya Masters

[Nick Burrows]

Starting tomorrow, starring Luke McShane.

Participants: http://imt.chess.org.il/participants-masters/

Live games: https://chess24.com/en/embed-tournament ... sters-2019

http://chess-results.com/tnr437937.aspx ... =0&flag=30

[Ian Thompson]

starring Luke McShane.

As the 5th seed (according to the organiser's list), or the 4th seed (according to chess-results.com), I'm not sure I'd agree with that.

[Leonard Barden]

McSHANE WINS in round 1 with Black in 31 moves! Opponent Maxim Rodshtein blunders big time in a level position. Quick draws in Gelfand v Dubov and Svidler v Dominguez Perez and the other two still going, so our Brit currently leading the field.

[Leonard Barden]

Luke was the clear leader after round one since all the other four games were drawn.

He is going for it again this afternoon as White in a Catalan against Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine, sacrificing the exchange for a pawn, a pawn centre and the bishop pair. The evaluation briefly went to +1 but it's now back to level.

https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2019-ne ... anov_Pavel

I think this is Luke's first individual elite tournament outside England since the 2012 Tal Memorial where he was a wildcard chosen by public vote but was only run out of first place by Carlsen in the final round.

[Leonard Barden]

Luke wins again! It was an error-strewn game and the eventual ending should have been drawn, but Eljanov couldn't handle Luke's united passers.

McShane 2/2; Leinier Dominguez (top seed, USA) and Tamir Nabaty (Israel) 1.5.

Next up: Nabaty v McShane.

[Nick Burrows]

It was an error-strewn game and the eventual ending should have been drawn, but Eljanov couldn't handle Luke's united passers.

I was following it with a decent engine, and on the whole the game was well played by both, until the final error from Elijanov. I don't know about elsewhere but the 'house' engine on Chess24 is atrocious and regularly gives a misleading assessment.

[Leonard Barden]

Luke got crushed in round 3 in 25 moves:

https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2019-ne ... ane_Luke_J

[Nick Burrows]

Awful time management from Luke in this game.

[Paul Cooksey]

I suppose Luke must have missed the idea of g4 when he decided to grab e5. Long think, wrong think, arguably. But not a game where time trouble was relevant really.

[Nick Burrows]

But not a game where time trouble was relevant really.

He had 8 mins plus left after 14 moves played. Surely that makes holding a difficult position near impossible.

[Paul Cooksey]

The position after move 14 looks more than difficult to me, I'd guess most GMs would take the ok position the computer finds after Bg7 with 8 plus increment rather than the game line with an hour and 8. A lot of GMs are willing to get into severe time trouble in bad positions.

I suppose Luke has regrets about losing such a game. But I suspect they are that he did not find all the defensive resources, rather than that he did not play the moves he found faster.

[Roger de Coverly]

The position after move 14 looks more than difficult to me

I wouldn't be happy at move 3

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Nbd2

Either 3 .. c5 or 3 .. d5 to avoid defending a Pirc.

[Leonard Barden]

Nobody here following this since last Tuesday, but big moment right now for Luke, whose Bxh6 sac has exposed top seed and tournament leader Dominguez's king and is showing +3 on the engine.

[Mick Norris]

McShane, Luke J vs Dominguez Perez, Leinier

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. Re1 Nd6 6. Nxe5 Be7 7. Bf1 Nxe5 8. Rxe5 O-O 9. d4 Bf6 10. Re1 Re8 11. Bf4 Rxe1 12. Qxe1 Ne8 13. Nc3 Bxd4 14. Nd5 d6 15. Bg5 f6 16. Bh4 Bxb2 17. Rb1 Be5 18. f4 c6 19. fxe5 cxd5 20. exf6 Nxf6 21. Bd3 Bd7 22. Qg3 Bc6 23. Bg5 Kh8 24. Qh4 h6 25. Bxh6 gxh6 26. Qxh6+ Kg8 27. Qg6+ Kh8 28. Rb4 Ne4 29. Bxe4 dxe4 30. Rb3 e3 31. Rb4 Bd7 32. Qh6+ Kg8 33. Qg6+ Kh8 34. Qh6+ Kg8 35. Rh4 Qxh4 36. Qxh4 Re8 37. Kf1 e2+ 38. Ke1 Re6 39. Qd8+ Be8 40. g4 b5 41. h4 Kg7 42. h5 *

[Leonard Barden]

Assuming unfinished games go as the engine predicts, scores with three rounds to go will be

Dominguez 4.5/7; McShane, Smirin, Gelfand and Dubov 4.