2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 7

With 3 rounds to play, 4 players now share the lead in the 2017 Gibraltar Masters. Two of yesterdays leaders, Hikaru Nakamura and David Anton Guijarro played a quick draw (by repetition of course) to move to 6/7. On Board 2 Maxime Vachier Lagrave ended Michael Adams unbeaten run to also reach 6. And Yangyi Yu demolished Valentin Dragnev to become the 4th member of the leading group.
However the group on 5.5 still has hopes of winning the event, especially as it includes players like Adams, Short, Gelfand and Topalov. Also in the group is Antoaneta Stefanova, who is currently the leading female player.
IM Bobby Cheng had another tough game today, against World Problem Solving Champion Kacper Piorun. The  opening was slightly bizarre (as explained by Piorun in the commentary room) before the game become highly tactical. Unfortunately for Cheng, the tactics were in Piorun's favour, leaving Cheng on 4/7. However the strength of the event is still working in Cheng's favour as hist TPR is still over 2500, and a good finish may still result in a GM norm. FM Zachary Loh also won today to get back to 50%. He plays GM Mathias Womacka tomorrow, and a win may put him in the frame for an IM norm.


Dragnev,Valentin - Yu,Yangyi [B46]
2017 Gibraltar Masters (7), 30.01.2017

2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 6

The 6th round of the 2017 Gibraltar Masters was particularly blood thirsty, with the majority of top board games ending in victory or heartbreak. Probably the highlight of the round was Nigel Short's win over Fabiano Caruana in a Caro-Kan Two Knights. Short won a pawn in the middle game, then won the exchange to head to a winning ending, but even then Caruana made him fight all the way.
IM Valentin Dragnev (AUT) also scored a momentous win, beating  Vassily Ivanchuk, and is now on 5/6 with a 2700+ PR.
Michael Adams continued his good run, beating Wenjun Ju to score 5.5/6. Hikaru Nakamura is also on the score, as is another tournament surprise packet, David Anton Guijarro. Guijarro is up against Nakamura in round 7, while Adams has to contend with Vachier-Lagrave.
IM Bobby Cheng had a good win against GM SS Ganguly. At one point Ganguly could have accepted a repetition offer from Cheng, but in refusing to do so, just left himself with a worse position. FM Zachary Loh drew with Kim Yew Chan (MAS), looking slightly worse when I had a quick look at the game. I got lucky in my game against Alistair Compton (NZL), when I grabbed a 'free' pawn, only to miss the refutation. However we both then missed a stronger version of the tactic, and as a result I ended up with 3 pawns for a piece (rather than 2), and I was able to set up a position where a draw was the logical result.

2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 5

At the halfway point off the 2017 Gibraltar Masters, 6 players share the lead on 4.5. The top board saw a quick draw by repetition between Emil Sutovsky and Wenjun Ju, but most of the other leading games were more dynamic. (NB There is a no draw offers before move 30 rule in operation, but unavoidable repetitions are exempt from this).
Michael Adams is also in the leading group, winning yet another marathon game, this time against Yifan Hou. Hikaru Nakamura made short work of Eduardo Iturrizaga, while Lagrade and Anton Guijarro are also on 4.5
After yesterdays slashing win Nigel Short was unable to overcome former Doeberl Cup winner Varuzhan Akobian, with the game ending in a draw. David Howell and Maxime Vachier Lagrave also drew, leaving them on 4 points. Further down IM Bobby Cheng won the all Australian clash against FM Zachary Loh, moving him back up the standings.
Given the compressed leader board, picking a tournament winner at this point is very difficult. Michael Adams is one player who seems to be in good form, as is Hikaru Nakamura, but one slip is all it takes to drop out of contention. It may also depend who gets to play players like Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave in the run home.

2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 4

At the end of day 4 there are only 2 players left on 100%. GM Emil Sutovsky and GM Wenjun Ju have won all their games, and will meet on Board 1 in tomorrows round. The group on 3.5 contains 14 players, including a number of the higher rated players, including Michael Adams, Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Not in that group are a couple of other big names (Caruana and Topalov), who have had a couple of draws to go with their 2 wins.
One player recovering from an early loss is Vassily Ivanchuk who won his game today. Unfortunately for Australian fans is was at the expense of IM Bobby Cheng. Cheng played a little loose in the Pirc but it took a nice exchange sacrifice by Ivanchuk to create real winning chances. Annoyingly for Cheng the swiss pairing gods have seen fit to pair him with fellow Australian FM Zachary Loh in round 5.
I've been a little quiet reporting on my own games after my round 2 loss, but I've actually recovered to 1.5/4. I won a pretty straightforward game yesterday (win a pawn, exchange pieces, win another pawn, keep exchanging), while today I had to defend a slightly worse position until a pawn grab in a heavy piece ending encouraged my opponent to force a repetition.


Ivanchuk,Vassily - Cheng,Bobby [B08]
2017 Gibraltar Masters (4), 27.01.2017

2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 3

The third round of the 2017 Gibraltar Masters saw the leading group thinning, with more top seeds being forced to concede draws to lower rated opponents. Nakamura drew with GN Gopal in a game where the only pawn exchange occurred on move 3/4 with the position being almost totally blocked by move 40. Yangyi Yu drew with Antipov, although this game saw all but one pair of pawns exchanged before a drawn rook ending was reached.
Michael Adams is not the highest seeded player on 100% after winning a double rook ending against Deac Bogdan-Daniel. Vitiugov is the only 2700+ player on 3, along with another 7 players.
Slightly further down Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave moved up to 2.5/3, although Peter Svidler scored his second draw after surviving a ferocious attack by Nitzan Steinberg (Click on this link and look for the game!) IM Bobby Cheng moved to 2/3 with a win over FM Angelo Damia, while FM Zachary Loh scored a big upset, beating GM Victor Mikhalevski and is now also on 2/3.

2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 2

Day 2 of the 2017 Gibraltar Masters saw two different blackouts, one at the venue and the other at the board. During the morning session (Challengers and Amateur) the power went out across Gibraltar, leaving the players at the venue relying on natural light to illuminate their games. The blackout also affected the DGT boards, as some boards did not restart correctly, leaving some games un broadcast. The power outage lasted an hour, although the games continued as scheduled.
The blackout at the board involved Vassily Ivanchuk, who lost on time in a winning position, against IM Ori Kobo. With one move to make the time control, Ivanchuk let his clock run down, and was surprised when his opponent claimed the win. At first it seemed his was arguing that his clock still showed time (as it moved to the next time control), and then he claimed to made played 40 moves. It turns out that he left move 24 blank on his scoresheet (writing it as move 25) and therefore only played 39 moves, even though he had written move "40" down.
The other top boards had a tough time of it as well, with Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave both drawing with IM's and the top 10 boards only "winning" 7-3 against the lower rated players.
IM Bobby Cheng had a tough opponent in the form of GM Vadim Zvjaginsev and went down. FM Zachary Loh had a nice win on the board next to mine, while I played a lot better than yesterday, until I dropped a rook in a time trouble blunder.
Despite the upsets, there are still 19 players on 2/2,but only 3 of the original top 10 seeds are in this group. Hikaru Nakamura is one of these players, and a win on top board tomorrow will put him in a good position for the next third of the tournament.

2017 Gibraltar Masters - Day 1

Day 1 of the 2017 Gibraltar Masters got underway with very few surprises. A couple of higher rated players were held to draws (Gelfand, Short, Ganguly among them) and there were a couple of GM's dropping the full point. Having said that, the very top players won in a way that showed the difference between 2700+ GM's and 2300+ players. Fabiano Caruana had a very nice win, and the commentators praised Nakamrua's play. There were a couple of quick wins on the top boards, including a 16 move win by Topalov.
I started on Board 91, and to show how strong this event is, I still ended up with a 2420 rated GM. Doing a bit of pre-grame prep, I settled on a line where I was a pawn up, but with an exposed king in the centre. Turns out my idea wasn't that great as GM Sundararajan just ripped open my position and I resigned on move 25. My next round's opponent is hardly any easier, as I get a 2260+ FM to try my best against. Nonetheless I'm finding the tournament very enjoyable, and if you are able to stay up for the start I highly recommend following the online coverage.


Topalov,Veselin - Paehtz,Thomas [A80]
2017 Gibraltar Masters (1), 19.01.2017