Qatar 2015 Rd1: Surprises, upsets – what a start!

Qatar Masters 2015 Opening dinner

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It was commented from the beginning that the biggest risk top players take upon playing an open such as Qatar is toward their rating. For many top opens, a 2800+ performance is synonymous of a win and reason to cheer, but for someone such as Magnus Carlsen, anything under 2830 means more ratings points lost. Imagine when he was closing in on 2900. Even the best player in the world can learn just how challenging that can be, as he drew IM Nino Batiashvili, who recently scored a GM norm, and helped the Georgian Women team to take Bronze at the ETCC.

The sensation game of the day: World Champion Magnus Carlsen, 2834, vs IM Nino Batsiashvili, 2498

The cost for drawing a sub-2500 player was around four Elo lost. Obviously a blow for his fans, but it might also serve as the wake-up call he needs to rekindle the embers and take fire.

He was hardly alone though, and while Vladimir Kramnik did win his game in the end...

...he faced some forcing draw lines against Nino’s teammate Bela Khotenashvili

Sadly for Georgian fans, who might have seen the headline “Georgian Women’s team holds Carlsen and Kramnik to a draw.”, Bela failed to find them, and the former world champion went on to outplay her.

Others were less fortunate, such as Dmitry Jakovenko who completely underestimated his 14-year-old Iranian opponent M Amin Tabatabaei, found himself in heaps of trouble and eventually drew an opposite colored bishop ending two pawns down. Still, Iran’s success did not end there, as 12-year-old Alirezja Firouzja defeated GM Pavel Tregubov. This wasn’t the only result for youth, since 11-year-old phenom NodirBek Abdusattorov had no problem holding American GM Sam Shankland to a draw.

Vassily Ivanchuk, a veteran of opens such as Gibraltar, was also held to a draw by 20-year-old IM Ma Zhoghan from China, as was Pentala Harikrishna, India’s no. 2 player, who suffered against his junior compatriot Chithambaram Aravindh and drew. A special mention for ChessBase writer IM Sagar Shah who also drew Vladimir Fedoseev, rated over 220 Elo more.

However, it the upsets did not end with merely some draws. A few notable grandmasters found themselves signing scoresheets with a zero next to their names, about as inauspicious a start as could be. Chinese super-junior Wei Yi was one such notable, as he found himself playing an incredibly inspired IM Shardul Gagare, 18 years old, from India. His win was not by virtue of some unexpected blunder, but rather play that did him credit from end to end. Nikita Vitiugov was another top Elo that fell, as he lost to the unknown IM Xu Yinglun from China, while Denis Khismatullin met a similar fate, losing to the untitled 19-year-old Yuxiang Fang, also from China.

The commentator of the day on Playchess was GM Yasser Seirawan, who did his best to cover all the most conspicuous cases, but with so many games and results, it was a tough job. Be sure to join tomorrow and pitch in the game(s) you feel deserve a closer look.

Full report by IM Sagar Shah to follow...

Pairings/Results of Round 1 on 2015/12/20 at 15:00

Schedule for Playchess Commentary

Photos by Alla Oborina for the official web site

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