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 five

Emil Sutovsky against Ian Nepomniachtchi. (© Antonio Milesi)

The first game of the round to finish was between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Emil Sutovsky. The Israeli was well prepared in the opening and played quite aggressively, forcing his opponent to regroup to defend. Despite this, Sutovsky was unable to convert his advantage into something tangible, and the Russian took over the initiative. In the rook ending Sutovsky make some accurate moves, after which the draw was agreed. According to GM Axel Rombaldoni the draw was a fair result after tough fight.

The game between Jobava and Almasi started with an Italian opening. Little by little, Jobava pressed and improved his position to a winning endgame a pawn up, nevertheless after almost five hours, the game was adjourned and will be finished on Saturday the 19th.

The players adjourn the game, to be resumed on Saturday, July 19th

"I never analyzed this opening lines before. I simply played the position and went on til the end." - Baadur Jobava

The third game was between two rising Italian chess players, Sabino Brunello and Daniele Vocaturo. Vocaturo played an aggressive plan in the King's Indian, which involved a pawn sacrifice, which Brunello eventually returned, but this didn't prevent Vocaturo from improving his position. The game was adjourned in a better position for Vocaturo, who is a pawn up and has the advantage of the bishop pair in the endgame.

"Everything went badly. I took a pawn out of desperation as I had a really worse position.
I also underestimated some opportunites because the bishop pair is really strong." - Brunello

In the previous two rounds, two sport legends from Bergamo visited the ACP Golden Classic to make the inaugural move. For the fifth round, elite tennis umpire Carlos Bernardes, who lives in Bergamo, paid a visit to the chess tournament, just after arriving home from Wimbledon.

Bernardes has refereed some of the biggest tennis clashes in recent years, including games
between Nadal and Federer. The Brazilian made the first move at the board of Sabino Brunello
and Daniele Vocaturo.

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Standings after five rounds

NB: Please note that due to rest days and adjourned games, the players have not all played the same number of games.

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.