The 7th edition of Gibraltar's Gibtelecom Chess Festival was held from Tuesday January 27 to Thursday February 5, 2009 at the Caleta Hotel, one of Gibraltar's best hotels.
One round before the end there was a huge pile-up, with five players, Peter Svidler, Vugar Gashimov, Pentala Harikrishna, Vadim Milov, and Hikaru Nakamura, in the joint lead with 7.0/9 points. Actually eight players could theoretically tie for first place at the end of ten rounds - if results went the right way for them and the wrong way for their opponents. However, there can be no joint winners in Gibraltar. In the event of a tie the players have to take part in a rapid play play-off for the £15,000 first prize. However, the play-off was limited to four players so that if more than four tied for first, only the four with the highest Tournament Performance Rating would take part in the play-off
In the final (tenth) round Hikaru Nakamura spoilt a promising position against Vugar Gashimov (He played 30.Qxg5? instead of 30.e5!+–) and drew in 37 moves. Both finished at 7.5/10. Peter Svidler defeated co-leader Pentala Harikrishna in 50 moves to score 8.0/10 and put "Hari" out of contention. And Vadim Milov beat Boris Avrukh with the black pieces in 40 moves to tie with Svidler for first place. .
Round 10 top boards: Nakamura-Gashimov ½-½ , Svidler-Harikrishna
1-0
Vadim Milov in a crucial tenth round game against Boris Avrukh
Best female player: GM Nana Dzagnidze, GEO, with a 2675 performance
And so the tiebreak was on.
Peter Svidler vs Vadim Milov in the first tiebreak game in Gibraltar
Milov,V (2669) - Svidler,P (2723) [A28]
7th Gibtelecom Masters Playoff Caleta ENG (1), 06.02.2009
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.e3 Nc6 4.a3 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.d3 d5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bd2
0-0 9.Be2 a5 10.0-0 Be6 11.Rc1 Nxc3 12.Bxc3 a4 13.Nd2 Na5 14.f4 Nb3 15.Nxb3
Bxb3 16.Qe1 Re8 17.Qg3 exf4 18.Qxf4 Qe7 19.Bxg7 Kxg7 20.Bd1 Bxd1 21.Rxc7 Qxe3+
22.Qxe3 Rxe3 23.Rxd1 b5 24.Rd2 Rd8 25.d4 Rd5 26.h3 h5 27.Rb7 Re4 28.Kf2 Rf5+
29.Kg1 h4 30.Kh2 Re1 31.g3 hxg3+ 32.Kxg3 Re3+ 33.Kg2 Rg5+ 34.Kh2 Rh5
35.d5? White is on the defensive – 35.Kg1 or 35.Kg2 is required if he is to have any chances of survival. 35...Rexh3+ 36.Kg1 Rh1+ 37.Kf2 R1h2+ and because of 38.Ke1 Rxd2 39.Kxd2 Rxd5+ White is lost. 0-1.
Svidler,P (2723) - Milov,V (2669) [C72]
7th Gibtelecom Masters Playoff Caleta ENG (2), 06.02.2009
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.0-0 Bd7 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4 b5 8.Nxc6
Bxc6 9.Bb3 Nf6 10.Re1 Be7 11.c4 0-0 12.Nc3 Nd7 13.Nd5 Re8 14.Be3 Bb7 15.Rc1
c6 16.Nxe7+ Qxe7 17.f3 c5 18.Qd2 Ne5 19.Red1
19...Rad8? (why not simply 19...bxc4?) 20.cxb5 h6 (instead of 20...axb5) 21.bxa6 Bxa6 22.Rc3 c4 23.Ba4 Rf8 24.b4 f5 25.Bb6 Nd3 26.b5 d5 27.bxa6 dxe4 28.fxe4 fxe4
It is of course all over, but Milov has set a nice little trap: 29.Bxd8? Qc5+ 30.Kh1 Nf2+ and although this would not necessarily save him (31.Qxf2 Qxf2 32.Rcc1+–) it would at least disconcert his opponent. 29.Qe3. Naturally Svidler has seen it. 29...Rd6 30.Bb5 Nb2 31.Rxd6 Qxd6 32.Bd4 Nd1 33.Bxc4+ Kh8 34.Qd2 1-0.
The tournament bulletin tells us that Peter Svidler was following the cricket test match between England and the West Indies, and was actually getting updates of the score during his games. We know this from Peter, but had never seen him wield a cricket bat before.
An heroic image: Peter Svidler actually playing cricket!
Thankfully his foray onto the cricket field was filmed and placed on YouTube by Zeljka Malobabic of MonRoi.
In this video you see Manuel Weeks of Australia bowling to Peter Svidler, who aquits himself fairly with the bat. His own attempts at bowling are not so successful – that's throwing or chucking, Peter, and would get you a "no ball" from any umpire. The best part is when Irina Krush dons the pads and tries her hand at batting. What a feisty gal!
Just as heroic: Irina Krush on the cricket pitch
If your are in the mood you can watch a lot of chess videos posted by Zeljka on YouTube.
| # | Player | Pts. | Nat. | Gen. | Rtng | Perf | W-We |
| 1 | GM Svidler, Peter | 8.0 | RUS | M | 2723 | 2829 | +1.28 |
| 2 | GM Milov, Vadim | 8.0 | SUI | M | 2669 | 2769 | +1.26 |
| 3 | GM Gashimov, Vugar | 7.5 | AZE | M | 2723 | 2764 | +0.68 |
| 4 | GM Nakamura, Hikaru | 7.5 | USA | M | 2699 | 2700 | +0.18 |
| 5 | GM Berg, Emanuel | 7.5 | SWE | M | 2606 | 2648 | +0.60 |
| 6 | GM Akobian, Varuzhan | 7.5 | USA | M | 2619 | 2640 | +0.40 |
| 7 | GM Harikrishna, Pentala | 7.0 | IND | M | 2673 | 2694 | +0.38 |
| 8 | GM Dzagnidze, Nana | 7.0 | GEO | F | 2518 | 2675 | +2.21 |
| 9 | GM Sokolov, Ivan | 7.0 | NED | M | 2657 | 2626 | -0.27 |
| 10 | GM Stefanova, Antoaneta | 7.0 | BUL | F | 2557 | 2612 | +0.79 |
| 11 | GM Cramling, Pia | 7.0 | SWE | F | 2548 | 2511 | -0.23 |
| 12 | GM Socko, Bartosz | 6.5 | POL | M | 2631 | 2671 | +0.61 |
| 13 | GM Ganguly, Surya Shekhar | 6.5 | IND | M | 2614 | 2660 | +0.70 |
| 14 | GM Golod, Vitali | 6.5 | ISR | M | 2575 | 2653 | +1.20 |
| 15 | GM Avrukh, Boris | 6.5 | ISR | M | 2645 | 2652 | +0.16 |
| 16 | GM Beliavsky, Alexander G | 6.5 | SLO | M | 2646 | 2651 | +0.15 |
| 17 | GM Roiz, Michael | 6.5 | ISR | M | 2647 | 2610 | -0.37 |
| 18 | GM Gurevich, Mikhail | 6.5 | TUR | M | 2624 | 2603 | -0.19 |
| 19 | GM Berkes, Ferenc | 6.5 | HUN | M | 2651 | 2588 | -0.74 |
| 20 | GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 6.5 | FRA | M | 2696 | 2587 | -1.19 |
| 21 | GM Lopez Martinez, Josep M | 6.5 | ESP | M | 2540 | 2583 | +0.71 |
| 22 | IM Papp, Gabor | 6.5 | HUN | M | 2517 | 2558 | +0.71 |
| 23 | IM Gordon, Stephen J | 6.5 | ENG | M | 2524 | 2551 | +0.50 |
| 24 | IM Al Sayed, Mohamad N. | 6.5 | QAT | M | 2488 | 2536 | +0.75 |
| 25 | GM Berczes, David | 6.5 | HUN | M | 2513 | 2521 | +0.27 |
| 26 | IM Szabo, Krisztian | 6.5 | HUN | M | 2508 | 2513 | +0.25 |
| 27 | IM Krush, Irina | 6.5 | USA | F | 2457 | 2496 | +0.69 |
| 28 | GM Speelman, Jon S | 6.5 | ENG | M | 2536 | 2487 | -0.43 |
| 29 | IM Kozlov, Oleg | 6.5 | RUS | M | 2187 | 2481 | +3.65 |
| 30 | GM Pavlovic, Milos | 6.5 | SRB | M | 2520 | 2467 | -0.49 |
| 31 | IM Zatonskih, Anna | 6.5 | USA | F | 2462 | 2463 | +0.20 |
| 32 | IM Cmilyte, Viktorija | 6.5 | LTU | F | 2497 | 2458 | -0.24 |
| 33 | GM Bellon Lopez, Juan M | 6.5 | ESP | M | 2440 | 2453 | +0.40 |
| 34 | IM Maryasin, Boris | 6.5 | ISR | M | 2340 | 2445 | +1.37 |
| 35 | IM D'Costa, Lorin A R | 6.5 | ENG | M | 2445 | 2438 | +0.15 |
| 36 | IM Nezad, Husein Aziz | 6.5 | QAT | M | 2403 | 2405 | +0.34 |
| 37 | GM Kotronias, Vasilios | 6.0 | GRE | M | 2603 | 2613 | +0.32 |
| 38 | GM Hauchard, Arnaud | 6.0 | FRA | M | 2497 | 2586 | +1.15 |
| 39 | FM Nithander, Victor | 6.0 | SWE | M | 2369 | 2518 | +2.06 |
| 40 | IM Hammer, Jon Ludvig | 6.0 | NOR | M | 2532 | 2517 | -0.10 |
| 41 | GM Del Rio De Angelis, Salvad | 6.0 | ESP | M | 2532 | 2509 | -0.08 |
| 42 | GM Sandipan, Chanda | 6.0 | IND | M | 2568 | 2477 | -0.98 |
| 43 | IM Nemeth, Miklos | 6.0 | HUN | M | 2472 | 2463 | -0.02 |
| 44 | IM Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan | 6.0 | SCO | F | 2500 | 2449 | -0.47 |
| 45 | FM Hommeles, Theo | 6.0 | NED | M | 2410 | 2435 | +0.41 |
| 46 | IM Kiik, Kalle | 6.0 | EST | M | 2466 | 2430 | -0.30 |
| 47 | IM Karim, Ismael | 6.0 | MAR | M | 2407 | 2404 | +0.11 |
| 48 | IM Capo Vidal, Uriel | 6.0 | MEX | M | 2336 | 2381 | +0.66 |
| 49 | FM Perez Ponsa, Federico | 6.0 | ARG | M | 2390 | 2378 | -0.07 |
| 50 | GM Socko, Monika | 6.0 | POL | F | 2449 | 2362 | -0.91 |
| 51 | IM Sachdev, Tania | 6.0 | IND | F | 2435 | 2343 | -1.03 |
| 52 | IM Bruno, Fabio | 6.0 | ITA | M | 2460 | 2326 | -1.51 |
| 53 | Carlhammar, Magnus | 6.0 | SWE | M | 2351 | 2312 | -0.33 |
| 54 | FM Leniart, Arkadiusz | 6.0 | POL | M | 2360 | 2308 | -0.58 |
| 55 | De Groote, Ewoud | 6.0 | NED | M | 2203 | 2275 | +1.00 |
| 56 | Bravetti, Antonio | 6.0 | ITA | M | 2205 | 2237 | +0.47 |
GM Nana Dzagnidze, Georgia, and IM Tania Sachdev, India
1.c4 – what kind of a move is that? Anna, daughter of GMs Pia Cramling
and Juan Manuel Bellon
A big generation gap – but Anna knows here English Opening!
Another budding talent with GM parents: Weronica, daughter of GMs Bartosz and
Monika Socko
Sunset in Gibraltar
