ACP Golden Classic visited by champions

by ChessBase
7/17/2014 – In the continuing throwback to the tournaments of yesteryear, with long time controls, and even adjourned positions to be resumed, young players such as Wesley So show they are not thrown off by the novelty and continues to dominate with 3.0/4 and a 2847 performance. Right behind him is Jobava Baadur with 2.5/4, with each round being started by great sports champions.

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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

Wenesday, July 16, 2014
Nepomniachtchi, Ian
1-0
Brunello, Sabino
Almasi, Zoltan
½-½
So, Wesley
Vocaturo, Daniele
0-1
Jobava, Baadur

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

Replay all games of the round

[Event "ACP Golden Classic 2014"] [Site "Bergamo ITA"] [Date "2014.07.16"] [Round "4"] [White "Nepomniachtchi, I."] [Black "Brunello, S."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B12"] [WhiteElo "2730"] [BlackElo "2568"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "2014.07.12"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 Ne7 6. O-O Bg6 7. Nbd2 Nf5 8. Nb3 Nd7 9. Bd2 Be7 10. a4 O-O 11. a5 c5 12. c3 c4 13. Nc1 b5 14. b4 cxb3 15. Nxb3 a6 16. Ne1 Rc8 17. Nd3 Nh4 18. Nf4 Bg5 19. Nxg6 fxg6 20. f4 Be7 21. Bd3 Rf7 22. g3 Nf5 23. g4 Nh4 24. Be1 Nf8 25. Ra2 Qe8 26. Rc2 Bd8 27. Bxh4 Bxh4 28. g5 h5 29. Kg2 Qd8 30. Qc1 1-0 [Event "ACP Golden Classic 2014"] [Site "Bergamo ITA"] [Date "2014.07.16"] [Round "4"] [White "Vocaturo, D."] [Black "Jobava, Ba"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A54"] [WhiteElo "2584"] [BlackElo "2713"] [PlyCount "68"] [EventDate "2014.07.12"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d6 3. Nc3 e5 4. dxe5 dxe5 5. Qxd8+ Kxd8 6. Nf3 Be6 7. b3 Nbd7 8. Ng5 Bb4 9. Nxe6+ fxe6 10. Bd2 Ke7 11. g4 Nc5 12. g5 Nfd7 13. Bg2 a5 14. Ne4 Nxe4 15. Bxe4 Nc5 16. Bc2 h6 17. gxh6 Rxh6 18. O-O-O Bxd2+ 19. Rxd2 g5 20. f3 Rah8 21. e3 Rh3 22. Rg1 Kf6 23. Rdg2 R8h5 24. Bd1 Rxh2 25. f4 exf4 26. Bxh5 Rxh5 27. exf4 gxf4 28. Rg6+ Ke5 29. Kc2 Rh2+ 30. R1g2 Rxg2+ 31. Rxg2 f3 32. Rg7 Kd4 33. Rxc7 f2 34. Rf7 Ke3 0-1 [Event "ACP Golden Classic 2014"] [Site "Bergamo ITA"] [Date "2014.07.16"] [Round "4"] [White "Almasi, Z."] [Black "So, W."] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A07"] [WhiteElo "2693"] [BlackElo "2744"] [PlyCount "42"] [EventDate "2014.07.12"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. O-O e5 5. d3 Ne7 6. e4 O-O 7. exd5 Nxd5 8. Re1 Nc6 9. Nbd2 h6 10. Nc4 Re8 11. Bd2 g5 12. c3 Bf5 13. h4 g4 14. Nh2 Qd7 15. Bxd5 Qxd5 16. Ne3 Qxd3 17. Nxf5 Qxf5 18. Qxg4 Qxg4 19. Nxg4 h5 20. Ne3 Rad8 21. Rad1 Bh6 1/2-1/2

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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


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