Isle of Man Round three
By Manuel Weeks
Photos by Harry Gielen
What does a spectator do when watching a tournament from home, does he only look at the top games? Does he look for games of the most interesting players? Does he look for the most interesting games as they happen? A question for the readers: do you prefer to watch the super round robin where a draw is always considered an acceptable result or an open event where the super GM has to take a few more risks in order to win against his lower rated opponent? A bit like watching two top Champions league teams playing a tight 0-0 or an open game that the result could easily be 3-3. The 3-3 game may have many more errors but it is much more enjoyable to watch!
Sitting at home, watching the 3rd round of the Isle of Man tournament one can see that the first real GM to GM clashes are appearing even though often there is still a sizable rating difference between opponents. The general rule is that the really top players don’t mind drawing but few take huge risks in order to win. Hikaru Nakamura is an obvious exception having won many open tournaments as much through his huge will to win as his excellent chess.
Here are some examples and some of the thrills one can experience following this competitive chess bazaar on Playchess.
On board three was Women's World Champion Hou Yifan who was white versus the young Israeli GM Maxim Rodshtein. After four moves it reached this:
Hou Yifan - Maxim Rodshtein

Position after 4.Qb3
News does indeed travel fast since this was also the beginning of Peter Svidler versus Li Chao from the game in the Tal Memorial the previous day.

Hou Yifan showed how on top of her preparation she was, as she used an idea by Svidler, played the previous day
One can only assume Hou Yifan had been suitably impressed with the way Svidler played it although the amicable GM himself said he had thought for a while before entering the line. The reason, as Svidler explained, was that although this position resembled a Blumenfeld with an extra tempo for Black, he wasn’t sure what the tempo was good for!

Compare the previous position with the normal Blumenfeld above
If you were looking for original play as you scrolled down the long list of games you cannot help but stop at the name of Julio Granda Zuniga, the Peruvian GM, famous for his original play. It is said that he is rarely theoretical and simply seems to have his own theory with his own ideas. In round three he was black versus American IM Keaton Kiewra and the game looked like a retrograde puzzle. How did they reach that position with White to move?

Julio Granda Zuniga is a legend in South American chess, and nearly broke 2700 for the first time in his career earlier this year when he hit 2699. At the green age of 49!
Keaton Kiewra - Julio Granda Zuniga

1.e4 | 1,184,215 | 54% | 2421 | --- |
1.d4 | 958,932 | 55% | 2434 | --- |
1.Nf3 | 286,327 | 56% | 2441 | --- |
1.c4 | 184,722 | 56% | 2443 | --- |
1.g3 | 19,884 | 56% | 2427 | --- |
1.b3 | 14,598 | 54% | 2428 | --- |
1.f4 | 5,953 | 48% | 2377 | --- |
1.Nc3 | 3,906 | 50% | 2384 | --- |
1.b4 | 1,790 | 48% | 2378 | --- |
1.a3 | 1,250 | 54% | 2406 | --- |
1.e3 | 1,081 | 49% | 2409 | --- |
1.d3 | 969 | 50% | 2378 | --- |
1.g4 | 670 | 46% | 2361 | --- |
1.h4 | 466 | 54% | 2382 | --- |
1.c3 | 439 | 51% | 2425 | --- |
1.h3 | 289 | 56% | 2420 | --- |
1.a4 | 118 | 60% | 2461 | --- |
1.f3 | 100 | 47% | 2427 | --- |
1.Nh3 | 92 | 67% | 2511 | --- |
1.Na3 | 47 | 62% | 2476 | --- |
Please, wait...
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c6 3.Nd2 Qb6 4.Nb3 a5 5.a4 d6 6.Nf3 Ne4 7.Be3 Nd7 8.g3 Ndf6 9.Nfd2 Nxd2 10.Bxd2 Be6 11.Ra3 11.e3 11...Bc4 12.Bg2 e5 13.Bc3 d5! 14.dxe5 Bxa3 15.exf6 Bb4 16.fxg7 Bxc3+ 17.bxc3 Rg8 18.Nd4 c5 19.Nf3 Qb2 20.0-0 Qxc3 21.Qb1 b5 22.axb5 Rxg7 23.Nh4 Kf8 24.b6 Rb8 25.Nf5 Rg6 26.b7 Bxe2 27.Rc1 d4 28.Qb3 Re6 29.Qxc3 dxc3 30.Ra1 Bb5 31.Ne3 a4 32.Ra3 Ra6 33.Be4 Ke7 34.Nd5+ Kd6 35.Nxc3 Bc6 36.Bxh7 Rxb7 37.h4 c4 38.g4 Re7 39.Ra1 Kc5 40.Kf1 Kb4 41.Nd1 a3 42.Rb1+ Kc5 43.h5 Bf3 44.Ne3 a2 45.Ra1 Rb7 46.c3 Rab6 0–1
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Kiewra,K | - | Granda Zuniga,J | - | 0–1 | 2016 | A45 | chess.com IoM Masters | 3.14 |
Please, wait...
Still, what was happening on board one? Fabio Caruana versus Swedish GM Nils Grandelius looked a normal Sicilian, everything normal, and seen thousands of times.
Fabio Caruana - Nils Grandelius

Position after eight moves...
Then one move can change the “feel” of the game, 9.g4 gives the position a feeling of excitement as some small bridges are burnt! Caruana spent 12 minutes on this move, not really analysing it but to make sure he was ready for what happens afterwards. To play such a position requires a certain amount of energy, and if you are a top player you know you have to be ready for a tiring calculating game.

Neither Nils Grandelius nor Fabiano Caruana backed away from a game they both knew would be tough
Fabio Caruana - Nils Grandelius

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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.Be2 Be7 8.f4 Nc6 9.g4 Nd7 10.g5 g6 11.Bc4 Nxd4 12.Qxd4 e5 13.Qd5 0-0 14.Bb3 exf4 15.Bxf4 Ne5 16.h4 Nf3+ 17.Kf2 Ne5 18.Rad1 Bg4 - Start an analysis engine:
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Caruana,F | - | Grandelius,N | - | ½–½ | 2016 | B84 | chess.com IoM Masters | 3.1 |
Caruana,F | - | Grandelius,N | - | ½–½ | 2016 | B84 | chess.com IoM Masters | 3.1 |
Please, wait...
On board four you could see the battle of the young guns Vidit Santosh Gujrathi from India and Benjamin Bok from the Netherlands:

The game starts out as a Grunfeld with an early h4, and it was clear this was not going to be a quiet game either

Both Vidit Gujrathi and Benjamin Bok had good results in the Baku Olympiad
Vidit Gujrathi - Benjamin Bok

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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.h4 dxc4 6.e4 c5 7.d5 b5 8.h5 0-0 9.hxg6 fxg6 10.e5 Ng4 11.d6 e6 - Start an analysis engine:
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Vidit,S | - | Bok,B | - | 1–0 | 2016 | D90 | chess.com IoM Masters | 3.4 |
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What of the top seeded Americans who were the heroes of the Baku Olympiad?

Wesley So was impressive in a positional crushing game against FM Alan Merry
It was instructive from the viewpoint that the idea of doubling the c-pawns for the fianchettoed bishop is a well known idea but So returned the favour (dark squared bishop) and came out with a large positional plus.
Wesley So - Alan Merry

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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 a6 6.Be3 Nfd7 7.Qd2 c5 8.d5 Qa5 9.Bh6 Bxc3 10.bxc3 Ne5 11.Bg7 Rg8 12.Bxe5 dxe5 13.h4 Nd7 14.Bd3 Nb6 15.Ne2 h5 16.Rb1 Nd7 17.Kf2 Qc7 18.Rb2 b6 19.Bc2 Nf6 20.Nc1 Kf8 21.Nd3 Qd6 22.Rhb1 Rb8 23.Qe3 Nd7 24.Qh6+ Ke8 25.Ba4 f6 26.Qh7 Kf8 27.Bc6 Rg7 28.Qh6 Kf7 29.Rb3 b5 30.Nb2 Nb6 31.a4 b4 32.a5 Nd7 33.Nd3 Qc7 34.Qe3 bxc3 35.Bxd7 Rxb3 36.Be6+ Bxe6 37.dxe6+ Kxe6 38.Rxb3 f5 39.exf5+ gxf5 40.Rb6+ 1–0
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So,W | - | Merry,A | - | 1–0 | 2016 | E80 | chess.com IoM Masters | 3.8 |
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Hikaru Nakamura did what super GMs do in open tournaments, look for a small advantage as white, give the opponent an isolated pawn, win bishop pair and then win the isolated pawn. Sounds easy doesn’t it but often when you lose a pawn you tend to get a little initiative for it. Jorden van Foreest definitely got something for his pawn and later on headed for a queen and bishops of opposite colours ending. Most people know of the drawing powers of bishops of opposite colours but with major pieces on the board (rooks and queens) it can also feel like you are attacking with an extra piece. The young Dutchman defended excellently but when he finally managed to trade queens he found himself two pawns down. Most bookmakers would have bet against him here when playing against the relentless Nakamura but after a quick analysis I still have not found a clear win, something to be left to the “endgame experts” who enjoy this sort of thing!

17-year-old Jorden van Foreest held a tough game against Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura - Jorden van Foreest

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1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.Be2 0-0 7.0-0 e6 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.b3 b6 10.a4 Bb7 11.Ba3 Re8 12.cxd5 exd5 13.a5 c5 14.a6 Bc6 - Start an analysis engine:
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Nakamura,H | - | Van Foreest,J | - | ½–½ | 2016 | D94 | chess.com IoM Masters | 3.2 |
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The other major upset of the day was Wang Hao losing as white in a moment of chess blindness against Lucas van Foreest. Hao played a line where he gives up a pawn for compensation and had various opportunities to take a repetition but took the risk to keep playing in a sharp position to be rewarded with a winning position only to blunder it way with the win in sight.

Wang Hao was unwilling to draw against his much lower-rated opponent, Lucas van Foreest, Jorden's younger brother
Play through the game to see whether you would also play the fatal error. It is hard to describe how Hao must be feeling, knock back the draw, play on, reach the winning position and then throw it all away and then you have to eat dinner, talk to your friends but all the time you are still trying to understand how you can play the losing move! Wang Hao is a very likable Chinese GM who has many fans around the world who will hope that he can quickly get over such a traumatic loss!
Wang Hao - Lucas van Foreest

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1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.e5 d4 6.exf6 dxc3 7.Bb5+ c6 8.Qe2+ Be6 9.Bc4 cxd2+ 10.Bxd2 Qxf6 11.Nf3 Be7 12.0-0 Bxc4 13.Qxc4 0-0 14.Rfe1 Bd6 15.Bc3 Qh6 16.Re4 Nd7 17.Rg4 Nf6 18.Bd2 Qh5 19.Rg5 Qh6 20.Qc2 20.Rg3 Qh5 21.Rg5 Qh6 20...Rad8 21.h3 Rfe8 22.Rf5 Re2 23.Kf1 Rde8 24.Qd1 24.Qc1 Rxd2 25.Qxd2 Qg6 26.g4 Nxg4 27.hxg4 Qxg4 24...Qg6 25.Nh4 Rxf2+ 26.Rxf2 Qd3+ 27.Re2 Nh5 - Start an analysis engine:
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Wang,H | - | Van Foreest,L | - | 0–1 | 2016 | A18 | chess.com IoM Masters | 3.24 |
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Going into the fourth round there are only two players with a perfect score, the young Indian Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Alexey Shirov who would like to show that he was also pretty good at sacrificing a few pieces himself!

Alexei Shirov is only second to Tal as the Latvian who sacrifices the most
It is one problem of the large open that you cannot look at every game, there are so many to choose from, you look a day later to find a hidden gem on the lower boards. Ok, they may not be as “correct” as the Super GM games but there are not many Berlin defences to analyse either and for that we should be thankful!

A view of the top boards in the fantastic open
Top pairings and results of Round 3 (October 3, 2016)
Full results of all 68 games
Top standings after three rounds
Click for complete standings
Pairings of round 4 (October 4, 2016)

Watch it live on Playchess!
Links
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