Gibraltar 09: Eight players share lead

by André Schulz
2/4/2016 – The two top encounters of the ninth round of the Gibraltar Open ended in a draw. E. Bacrot drew M. Vachier-Lagrave, P. Harikrishna shared the point with D. Anton. This allowed four players to catch up and now eight players share the lead with 7.0/9 before the tenth and final round. If no sole leader emerges, a play-off will decide the winner.
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Play in the tenth and final round starts at 11.00 local time (GMT+1).

 

Watch it live on Playchess!

 

Pictures: John Saunders, Sophie Triay (Tournament page)

The French duel between...

...Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (left, with White) and Etienne Bacrot

David Guijarro Anton vs Pentala Harikrishna

One of the players who now share the lead is top seed Hikaru Nakamura, winner of the Tradewise Gibraltar Festival 2015. In a topical line of the Grünfeld with 3.f3 he won with White against Abhijeet Gupta.

 

Hikaru Nakamura

The Indian grandmaster Sethuraman also scored a full point to catch up to the leaders. He won against Polish grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek, long-time second of Vishy Anand. Wojtaszek easily equalized with Black but then lost the thread.

 

The other pursuers who won were Li Chao (against Luka Lenic) and Sebastian Mazé (against Ni Hua).

The young German talent Dimitrij Kollars lost his game but might have been happy anyway. He was paired against Vishy Anand, and how many chances does a young player have to play against such a chess legend? Anand is not in form in Gibraltar, but Kollars still showed a lot of respect and Anand scored a smooth victory.

The best women-player after eight rounds was Women's World Champion Mariya Muzychuk. In round nine she drew against Gata Kamsky. Anna Muzychuk trailed her sister by half a point before the round but won against Padmini Rout and caught up with Mariya.

Mariya Muzychuk

Anna Muzychuk

Padmini Rout

Alexandra Kosteniuk vs Emil Sutovsky 0:1

Alexandra Kosteniuk

Results of round nine

Br. Nr.   Name Elo Pkt. Ergebnis Pkt.   Name Elo Nr.
1 2 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2785 6½ ½ - ½ 6½ GM Bacrot Etienne 2697 11
2 24 GM Anton Guijarro David 2639 6½ ½ - ½ 6½ GM Harikrishna P. 2755 4
3 1 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2787 6 1 - 0 6 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2613 32
4 5 GM Li Chao B 2751 6 1 - 0 6 GM Lenic Luka 2611 33
5 26 GM Grandelius Nils 2635 6 ½ - ½ 6 GM Yu Yangyi 2747 6
6 25 GM Sethuraman S.P. 2639 6 1 - 0 6 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw 2727 8
7 12 GM Ni Hua 2697 6 0 - 1 6 GM Maze Sebastien 2591 35
8 14 GM Ragger Markus 2689 6 ½ - ½ 6 GM Lalith Babu M R 2553 45
9 7 GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2732 5½ 1 - 0 5½ GM Sandipan Chanda 2583 36
10 9 GM Rapport Richard 2721 5½ ½ - ½ 5½ GM Tregubov Pavel V. 2582 37
11 39 GM Perez Ponsa Federico 2577 5½ ½ - ½ 5½ GM Almasi Zoltan 2684 16
12 18 GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro 2666 5½ ½ - ½ 5½ GM Vazquez Igarza Renier 2572 40
13 19 GM Kamsky Gata 2665 5½ ½ - ½ 5½ GM Muzychuk Mariya 2554 44
14 43 IM Tari Aryan 2556 5½ ½ - ½ 5½ GM Duda Jan-Krzysztof 2660 20
15 46 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2550 5½ 0 - 1 5½ GM Sutovsky Emil 2647 22
16 23 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2642 5½ 1 - 0 5½ IM Pichot Alan 2517 54
17 27 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2627 5½ ½ - ½ 5½ GM Libiszewski Fabien 2515 55
18 28 GM Jones Gawain C B 2625 5½ 1 - 0 5½ IM Shytaj Luca 2443 84
19 57 IM Gledura Benjamin 2515 5½ ½ - ½ 5½ GM Edouard Romain 2617 30
20 34 GM Bachmann Axel 2610 5½ 1 - 0 5½ GM Krush Irina 2458 79
21 10 GM Fressinet Laurent 2700 5 1 - 0 5½ IM Wemmers Xander 2352 130
22 72 IM Ly Moulthun 2474 5 1 - 0 5 GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2696 13
23 15 GM Howell David W L 2685 5 1 - 0 5 IM Carlstedt Jonathan 2461 76
24 17 GM Short Nigel D 2684 5 1 - 0 5 IM Galyas Miklos 2459 78
25 21 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2660 5 1 - 0 5 IM Almagro Llamas Pablo 2429 90

...

Standings after round nine

Rg. Snr   Name Land Elo Pkt.  Wtg1 
1 2 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime FRA 2785 7,0 2819
2 11 GM Bacrot Etienne FRA 2697 7,0 2808
3 25 GM Sethuraman S.P. IND 2639 7,0 2796
4 1 GM Nakamura Hikaru USA 2787 7,0 2783
5 4 GM Harikrishna P. IND 2755 7,0 2781
6 35 GM Maze Sebastien FRA 2591 7,0 2772
7 24 GM Anton Guijarro David ESP 2639 7,0 2751
8 5 GM Li Chao B CHN 2751 7,0 2723
9 14 GM Ragger Markus AUT 2689 6,5 2749
10 7 GM Jakovenko Dmitry RUS 2732 6,5 2726
11 6 GM Yu Yangyi CHN 2747 6,5 2705
12 26 GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2635 6,5 2693
13 28 GM Jones Gawain C B ENG 2625 6,5 2680
14 45 GM Lalith Babu M R IND 2553 6,5 2675
15 23 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2642 6,5 2669
16 34 GM Bachmann Axel PAR 2610 6,5 2630
17 22 GM Sutovsky Emil ISR 2647 6,5 2582

... 250 players

Top pairings on the tenth and final round

Bo. No.   Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg No.
1 1 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2787 7   7 GM Anton Guijarro David 2639 24
2 35 GM Maze Sebastien 2591 7   7 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2785 2
3 4 GM Harikrishna P. 2755 7   7 GM Li Chao B 2751 5
4 11 GM Bacrot Etienne 2697 7   7 GM Sethuraman S.P. 2639 25
5 6 GM Yu Yangyi 2747 6½   6½ GM Jones Gawain C B 2625 28
6 7 GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2732 6½   6½ GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2642 23
7 26 GM Grandelius Nils 2635 6½   6½ GM Ragger Markus 2689 14
8 22 GM Sutovsky Emil 2647 6½   6½ GM Bachmann Axel 2610 34
9 45 GM Lalith Babu M R 2553 6½   6 GM Rapport Richard 2721 9
10 8 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw 2727 6   6 IM Tari Aryan 2556 43
11 37 GM Tregubov Pavel V. 2582 6   6 GM Fressinet Laurent 2700 10
12 38 GM Grigoriants Sergey 2580 6   6 GM Ni Hua 2697 12
13 39 GM Perez Ponsa Federico 2577 6   6 GM Howell David W L 2685 15
14 16 GM Almasi Zoltan 2684 6   6 GM Gopal G.N. 2525 51
15 42 GM Oparin Grigoriy 2565 6   6 GM Short Nigel D 2684 17
16 44 GM Muzychuk Mariya 2554 6   6 GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro 2666 18
17 116 WIM Shvayger Yuliya 2381 6   6 GM Kamsky Gata 2665 19
18 20 GM Duda Jan-Krzysztof 2660 6   6 WGM Tan Zhongyi 2504 62
19 55 GM Libiszewski Fabien 2515 6   6 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2660 21
20 47 GM Muzychuk Anna 2537 6   6 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2627 27
21 30 GM Edouard Romain 2617 6   6 IM Ly Moulthun 2474 72
22 70 IM Nakar Eylon 2479 6   6 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2613 32
23 33 GM Lenic Luka 2611 6   6 IM Gledura Benjamin 2515 57
24 68 GM Blomqvist Erik 2492 5½   5½ GM Anand Viswanathan 2784 3

ChessBase author Tania Sachdev follows the tournament as anchorwoman of "The Day's Play"

Episode 10

All videos from Gibraltar...

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the 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 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.
 
André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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