Fifteen GMs battle for the finals

After the very exciting ACP Inaugural (78 participants, 54 GMs, 22 rated over 2600) and the first Women's Internet Tournament, the ACP is staging a third Internet tournament for its members. It is sponsored by ChinaCom and will be hosted on the Playchess.com server from May 31 to June 5th.

Round three report

Group 3, Wednesday, 02nd June, 16.00 CEST (GMT +2)
Tournament Director: Andrea Natoli

The surprise was great when a special guest was admitted to this 3rd ACP Preliminary Round played here on playchess,we are speaking about GM Sergey Karjakin ,2580 Elo FIDE,from Ukraine, the wonder boy of chess. But many others GMs were present for this 3rd Round:

• Krishnan Sasikiran, GM, 2659, India's second strongest player, winner of the last Canarias en Red Internet Chess Festival

• Christian Bauer, GM, 2595, French Champion in 1996

• Robert Fontaine, born 1980, Few times French champion under 20

• Smbat Lputian, 2634, who amongst many titles won the bronze medal at the Olympiad in 1992 and 2002; bronze medallist at the World Team Champion 1997, 2001

• Bartlomiej Macieja, 2633, European Champion 2002; qualified as one of the best 16 players in the World Championship in New Delhi 2000; defeated Judit Polgar 5-3 in a match in 2002

• Lev Psakhis, 2545, well-know Russian GM living in Israel

• Elisabeth Paehtz, 2385, WGM, Junior World -youth champion girls under 18 in 2002

• Tatiana Grabuzova, 2348, WGM, winner of the Russian Cup, Russian Blitz Cup and German Championship

• Tatiana Vasilevich, WGM, played the last Women’s world championship

• Petr Kiriakov, 2568, GM, great fan of the playchess.com server .

The thriller in the first round for the disconnection of Sasikiran, one of the favourites. Fortunately he was able to continue the game and the tournament. A tough game was the one between Robert Fontaine and Smbat Lputian , who in the end won it in 105 moves (Q vs R ending!).

The second round was characterized by the game Karjakin vs Fontaine, Ruy Lopez, which became the battlefield of a spectacular fight. Black won after 65 exciting moves. At the end of the third round Christian Bauer was leading the field with a perfect 3/3. Christian won again in Round 4, beating Sasikiran in a Queen’s Gambit Accepted.

Round 5 brought another great game for Karjakin, a French against Kiriakov. Christian Bauer remained in the lead. In the next round the 14-year-old defeated Elisabeth Paehtz in 60 moves. Grabuzova drew against Bauer, putting an end to his killing spree. Bauer lost to Fontaine in round eight, giving the lead to Karjakin. In round nine we saw the interesting encounter Karjakin vs Sasikiran, where a sacrifice by the Indian player on 30 was refuted by the Ukraine.

At half-time after 11 rounds the standings were Sergey Karjakin 8,5, Christain Bauer 8.0, Lputian 7.0, Sasikiran and Macieja 6.0, Fontaine 5.0, Lizzy Paehtz 4.5, Lev Psakhis 4.0, Petr Kiriakov 3.0, Grabuzova 2.0, Vasilevich 1.0.

After a five-minute coffee break the tournament continued. Unfortunately Petr Kiriakov dropped out with connection problems. It was not a problem since every player got one point from the game that should have been played against Kiriakov.

In round 13 WGM Tatiana Grabuzova beat WGM Elli Paehtz, who in turn beat GM Macieja in the next round. In round 17 Elli fought hard to hold leader Karjakin to a draw. Round 20 was the round of draws: e.g. Bauer vs Luptian in 5 moves. More interesting was the top game Sasikiran vs Karjakin , a tough battle which took the players to a draw in 57 moves. Psakhis vs Paehtz was the longest game of the tournament, with a total of 121 moves.

Round 21 saw a diplomatic draw between Bauer and Karjakin, who were sure of qualifying for the final. The battle for the crucial third pass remained heavily contested until the end. Lputian was on 12.0 and Maceija on 11.5 with only one game to play. So in round 22 the game Macieja vs Lputian was the culmination of this exciting afternoon in chess. It ended in a win by Macieja, who thus secured a place in the final.

This is the final standing in the third qualifier

• Here are all the games played in the third round

Tonight at 20:00h CET (= Berlin, Paris; = 19:00h London; 2 p.m. New York; 22:00h Moscow) the last two qualifiers will be held. Here are the registered players.

Group 4, Thursday, 03rd June, 20.00 CEST (GMT +2)
Tournament Director: Stefan Dieckerhoff

Group 5, Thursday, 03rd June, 20.00 CEST (GMT +2)
Tournament Director: David Llada

Links

• Round one report
• Round two report
• ACP Tournament home page
• Playchess.com information and client download
• ChinaCom home page