ACP Golden Classic visited by champions

The ACP Golden Classic International Chess Tournament is being held in Bergamo, Italy, from 12 to 20 July 2014, as the main event for 2014 in the agenda of the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP). The tournament is a seven-player round robin. The rate of play is 150 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 60 minutes for the next 16 moves, followed by 15 minutes to finish the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move in the last period. The ACP Golden Classic brings back the long forgotten tradition of adjourned games. If a game is not finished at the end of the first playing session (five hours), the arbiter will ask the player whose turn it is to move to adjourn the game and ‘seal’ his move. This does not apply to the last round.

Round four

The 4th round of the ACP Golden Classic was opened by living legend Giacomo Agostini, fifteen times World Champion in motorcycling, one of Bergamo's most popular citizens and a role model for the young generation of Italian racers. 

Giacomo Agostini plays the opening move for Daniele Vocatura to start the round

As of 1965, the Italian won seven successive World Championship titles in both
the 350cc category and the 500cc category. He is considered by many to be the
greatest motorcycle racer of all time.

Agostini received a silver bar with the inscription of the tournament from Oscar Olivari, representative of Mario Villa, and made the inaugural move on the board of Vocaturo and Jobava: first 1.Qd4, which he quickly corrected to 1.d4. His best wishes for the Italian player didn't help, as Vocaturo lost to Baadur Jobava in 34 moves. It was a bad day for the Italians anyway, as Sabino Brunello lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi in barely two hours.

The game between Zoltan Almasi and Wesley So ended in a draw. Today's round finished in less than three hours, which is quite unusual with a time control of 150 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 60 minutes for the next sixteen moves, followed by fifteen minutes to finish the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move in the last period. 

Zoltan Almasi and Wesley So

When the round was rolling, Agostini was interviewed by the tournament director Yuri Garrett. He explaind the importance of the ACP Golden Classis for the city of Bergamo and he shared some interesting similarites between motorcycling and chess, in terms of preparation, study the opponents.

Nepomniachtchi-Brunello was the first game to end, after just two hours. Despite having a good position after the opening, black collapsed and lost a piece after a good manoeuvre of Nepomniachtchi. After the game, Nepomniachtchi commented, "Fortunately you can make some sensible moves in the Caro-Kann. I got a familiar position and I don’t think I got into any big trouble in the opening. Anyway, before the mistake of my opponent, the position was just unclear." Sabino Brunello was understandably dejected, "Sometimes just everything goes wrong.”

The elegant stage for the players

Vocaturo showed good preparation against Jobava and obtained a small advantage after the opening. When the young Italian made a mistake with 14.Ne4 (instead of the recommended 14.0-0-0 by Emil Sutovsky),  Jobava got the initiative, and it was the Georgian's show from then on. Despite the difficult start, Vocatura shrugged it off, “When you analyse with then, you really feel their strength. It is another level, really. It is a nice experience."

Jobava Baadur and Lennart Ootes share their good fortune

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Standings after four rounds

Information provided by David Kaufmann,
photos by Lennart Ootes and David Kaufman for the official tournament site

Links Official tournament site All 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.