Zurich 2016 : Nakamura does it again!

5th Zurich Chess Challenge 2016

Photos by Frederic Friedel for ChessBase

From 12 to 15 February 2016 the world chess elite will arrive again in Zurich for the fifth edition of the Zurich Chess Challenge at the Hotel Savoy Baur en Ville.

The oldest chess club in the world and its honorable member Oleg Skvortsov have suggested a most important innovation for the future of new classical chess: a new time control of 40 minutes per game with additional 10 seconds for each move.

Round Five

The two draws of the fifth round were somewhat similar: White obtained a small edge in both Anand-Kramnik and Giri-Shirov but it was nothing too significant. In both cases the game quickly turned into an endgame after rapid trades. With these results, the door was open for Nakamura to catch Anand, and that he did.

Anand was unable to really press against Kramnik

Aronian played one of his pet variations, but somehow things went very wrong for him:

An extremely important result for the tournament

With this the final tally of the rapid was:

With the rapid portion counting for double of what the blitz does, the tournament really had only three heavy favorites, with Nakamura's prowess on blitz (he is, after all, the second highest rated player in blitz in the World), giving him perhaps an edge.

Blitz

Round One

With the tournament on the line, the leaders came out with smoking guns. Anand, Kramnik and Nakamura all won their games!

A forgettable tournament for Giri didn't start well in the blitz either

Kramnik outplayed Shirov from an equal position, and the Latvian decided to sacrifice a pawn for compensation. He got into even deeper trouble as his pieces were tangled up and he ended up losing one of them.

Nakamura meanwhile keeps showing just how tenacious he is, while Giri kept showing how bad his form was in Zurich:

Meanwhile Aronian was unable to save a worse position against Anand

Round Two

Nakamura was probably close to lost against Shirov in their blitz game, but the Latvian did not find a way to convert and the American escaped with a draw.

Kramnik defeated Aronian with black. In this game the Armenian decided to sacrifice an exchange but it was only good for a perpetual. He did not find how to force the draw and Kramnik emerged up material. After a series of mutual mistakes the Russian player was able to reach an endgame and converted his win.

Giri was able to neutralize Anand with the black pieces in a Najdorf and the game ended in a draw.

With these results, even though Kramnik took the lead in the blitz, he still remained behind in the overall score.

Round Three

Kramnik and Nakamura drew in an uneventful 25 move game, which suited them both. Anand took advantage of this and struck out against Shirov:

Giri was a pawn up against Aronian for most of the game, but the Armenian's counterplay was too strong and he saved a draw after 69 moves.

Round Four

Giri pushed against Kramnik but was unable to create any real winning attempts. This game also finished in a draw. In the game between two players not quite in title contention anymore, Aronian tricked Shirov:

The most important game of the round, however, was a save by Nakamura, yet again!

Round Five

In the decisive round Anand was putting strong pressure on Kramnik, but he was simply unable to find a way through. Kramnik defended passively but tenaciously and the game ended in a draw.

A quiet draw in the rapid and in the blitz: Anand-Kramnik

Giri beat Shirov in an exciting game, but it was relatively irrelevant as everything hinged on Nakamura vs. Aronian:

The re-match from the morning was again in favor for the American

With this victory Nakamura tied the overall score with Anand, but due to better tiebreaks he was able to win the tournament! What was the tiebreak, you may ask? Well, according to the official website:

1. Total points
2. Sonneborn-Berger
3. Number of wins
4. Number of wins with black
5. Result of the direct encounters
6. Ranking in Blitz

Oh, do you remember the unimportant Shirov-Giri we just casually mentioned? Marc Lang explains how that affected the final standings:

"Meanwhile, Giri mated Shirov - a seemingly unimportant result, as they both were at the bottom of the table. However, as Nakamura had won against Giri and drawn with Shirov, while Anand had scored opposite, a win against Giri was now worth 2 points more than a win against Shirov! Therefore, if Nakamura scored a full point versus Aronian, he would be the winner of the competition!"

Who knew that both this, and their blitz counterpart
game, would have such an effect in the final standings!

And so it was! Nakamura crowns himself as the winner of Zurich again!

We will bring you the impressions from the closing ceremony in a separate report, but for now checkout the videos at the official website.

Final Combined Standings

Blitz Standings

New Classical Standings

Note: Rapid results count for double (two for a win, one for a draw, none for a loss).

Opening Blitz Standings

Note: Opening Blitz standings only count towards determining who has more whites than blacks

Replay Today's New Classical Games

Replay Today's Blitz Games

Schedule

Round 1 - Sat, February 13th, 3:00 pm

Round 2 - Sat, February 13th, 6:00 pm

Round 3 - Sun, February 14th, 3:00 pm

Round 4 - Sun, February 14th, 6:00 pm

Round 5 - Mon, February 15th, 3:00 pm

Links Official tournament site Opening Blitz in PGN New Classical Games in PGN Blitz Games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.