2/6/2009 – After nine rounds five GMs were tied for first. Peter Svidler beat Pentala Harikrishna and Vadim Milov beat Boris Avrukh in round ten to force a rapid chess tiebreak, which Svidler won quite convincingly to take the £15,000 first prize. Best female player was Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia. We have a pictorial report plus video footage of Peter doing something you have never seen him do before.
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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
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.
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.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
London System Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
€9.90
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