Akopian wins GibTel Masters in Gibraltar

Draws by mutual agreement in under 40 moves were not allowed in the Masters without the agreement of the arbiter. No pre-arranged or tacit agreements to draw were allowed (of any length, by repetition or otherwise). Only genuine draws by repetition or stalemate were acceptable.

Gibraltar at night

Vladimir Akopian of Armenia won the Fifth Gibtelecom Masters outright, with 7.5 out of 9. It was a splendid success for the Armenian, who started the event with a surprise loss to Irina Krush, but then dropped just half a point in his remaining 8 games. He secured first place with a decisive last-round victory over co-leader, Yuri Kuzubov, of the Ukraine.

The decider: Vladimir Akopian vs Yuri Kuzubov

Akopian,Vl (2700) - Kuzubov,Y (2554) [B31]
Gibtelecom Masters Catalan Bay ENG (9), 01.02.2007

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bg7 6.h3 b6 7.Nc3 Nh6 8.Be3 f6 9.Qd2 Nf7 10.0-0-0 e5 11.Nh2 Be6 12.f4 exf4. 12…Qe7 has been played previously, but there is nothing wrong with the text. 13.Bxf4 Qd7 14.Nf3 0-0-0 15.d4 cxd4 16.Nxd4 Kb7 17.Qe2 Qe7?

18.Nxc6 Kxc6 19.Nd5 Qe8. 19...Bxd5 leads to mate or loss of the queen after 20.exd5+ Kd7 21.Qb5+ Kc8 22.Qc6+ and mate next move. 20.Qa6 Bf8. And here too, capturing on d5 leads to a quick win for White, eg. 20 ..Bxd5 21 exd5+ Rxd5 22 Rxd5 Kxd5 23 Rd1+ , and mate soon follows. 21.Qxa7 Bc5. Or 21 ..Rb8 22 Rd3 winning. 22.b4 Qd7 23.Qa6 1-0.

Nakamura joined the second-placed group, by winning a long ending against Sulskis, whilst Areshchenko reached the same points tally, with a decisive win over Al Sayed.

Sokolov pressed for a long time against Efimenko, but could not capitalise on an extra pawn in a minor piece ending, whilst Adams likewise was unable to convert his extra pawn, in the face of opposite-coloured bishops.

Final standings (5.5 points and higher)

Norms

Aside from the main prizes, the other great interest of the day centred on title norms. Thomas Rendle needed a draw against Gurevich for his first GM norm, and made his intentions abundantly clear, when he chose 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 exd5. This opening choice must have brought back painful memories for Gurevich. One of the defining moments of his career came in the last round of the 1990 Interzonal in Manila, when he needed a draw as White against Nigel Short, to reach the Candidates Tournament. Gurevich also chose the Exchange French, but was outplayed and slowly pushed off the board by Short. Rendle had better luck, holding his powerful GM opponent, to secure the precious half point.

The other GM norm-seekers fared less well, with Sengupta, Krush and Salgado Allaria all losing. However, there were IM norms for Robin Swinkels of The Netherlands (his third and final norm) and Salgado Allaria himself, who had completed his IM norm with a round to spare.

MonRoi

A major sponsor of the GibTelecom Masters was MonRoi, who manufactur a personal chess manager – a PDA-syle wireless input device for chess games. Players in the Masters were expected to use the Monroi device rather than a traditional scoresheet. The games were automatically broadcast live on the Monroi website.

Picture gallery

Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2651) with his step-father and trainer FM Sunil Weeramantry

Michael Adams with wife Tara

GM Gregory Kaidanov, 2595, and IM Irina Krush, 2449, finished 36th and 37th

GM Ian Rogers from Australia

Viktor (The Indefatigable) Korchnoi

Former women's world champion Zhu Chen

Former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova

Top Ukrainian talent Kateryna Lahno

India's Tanya Sachdev

IMs Elisabeth Pähtz and Nana Dzagnidze