Chess stars on the Isle of Man

by Johannes Fischer
10/7/2015 – PokerStars is one of the biggest internet platforms for poker. But they also support chess and organise the PokerStars Isle of Man Tournament, a nine round swiss open with attractive prizes, a strong field, and a lot of chess stars. Four players can boast of a rating of 2700+, 13 players of 2600+. After four rounds seven players share the lead with 3.5/4 each.

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The PokerStars tournament on the Isle of Man is an inviting tournament that attract many, and many strong players. Maybe they are lured by the pictures of Alina l'Ami, maybe by the landscape of the island or maybe by the prizefund of the tournament. This year, the winner will receive 10,000 Pounds.

The harbour of Douglas, the capitol of the Isle of Man where the tournament takes place.

The Villa Marina, the venue of the tournament

The 10th year is a good reason to celebrate

Yuri Garrett checks Sabino Brunello for forbidden devices.

But Sabino had only too much money with him and had to get rid of his small change.

The Masters

The first move - let the fun begin! Michael Adams (left) is the top seed of the tournament.

The Isle of Man is close to England and a huge number of English top players made the journey across the sea: Michael Adams, Nigel Short, Gawain Jones, Dawid Howell, Niclas Pert, Simon Williams, Daniel Gormally, Mark Hebden, and a number of others. A lot of international top players such as Laurent Fressinet, Jan Timman, Sergei Tiviakov, Sergei Movsesian, Gabriel Sargissian, or Julio Granda Zuniga also decided that the Isle of Man is worth a visit.

Laurent Fressinet

Jan Timman

Michael Adams

Dronavalli Harika

Pentala Harikrishna

Gabriel Sargissian

Gawain Jones

Yuriy Kozubov

Nigel Short

Julio Granda Zuniga

Daimante Daulyte

David Howell

Standings after round 4

Rank Name Score Fed. Rating
1 GM Harikrishna, P. 3.5 IND 2737
2 GM Fressinet, Laurent 3.5 FRA 2702
3 GM Naiditsch, Arkadij 3.5 AZE 2682
4 GM Sargissian, Gabriel 3.5 ARM 2679
5 GM Granda Zuniga, Julio E 3.5 PER 2667
6 GM Movsesian, Sergei 3.5 ARM 2658
7 GM Melkumyan, Hrant 3.5 ARM 2622
8 GM Howell, David W L 3.0 ENG 2705
9 GM Short, Nigel D 3.0 ENG 2678
10 GM Grandelius, Nils 3.0 SWE 2647
11 GM Kuzubov, Yuriy 3.0 UKR 2641
12 GM Tiviakov, Sergei 3.0 NED 2612
13 GM Sengupta, Deep 3.0 IND 2580
14 GM Donchenko, Alexander 3.0 GER 2577
15 GM Brunello, Sabino 3.0 ITA 2553
16 GM Hillarp Persson, Tiger 3.0 SWE 2546
17 GM Greenfeld, Alon 3.0 ISR 2534
18 GM Vishnu Prasanna. V 3.0 IND 2503
19 GM Sundararajan, Kidambi 3.0 IND 2497
20 IM Lampert, Jonas 3.0 GER 2461
21 IM Zumsande, Martin 3.0 GER 2422
22 FM Koop, Thorben 3.0 GER 2407
23 FM Merry, Alan B 3.0 ENG 2335
24 GM Adams, Michael 2.5 ENG 2742
25 GM Jones, Gawain C B 2.5 ENG 2623
26 GM L'Ami, Erwin 2.5 NED 2619
27 IM Van Foreest, Jorden 2.5 NED 2548
28 IM Rambaldi, Francesco 2.5 ITA 2547
29 GM Boruchovsky, Avital 2.5 ISR 2536
30 IM Illingworth, Max 2.5 AUS 2517
31 GM Harika, Dronavalli 2.5 IND 2516
32 GM Vaisser, Anatoly 2.5 FRA 2515
33 GM Hebden, Mark L 2.5 ENG 2490
34 GM Neelotpal, Das 2.5 IND 2465
35 IM Pert, Richard G 2.5 ENG 2450
36 IM Paehtz, Elisabeth 2.5 GER 2447
37 IM Swayams, Mishra 2.5 IND 2444
38 GM Williams, Simon K 2.5 ENG 2429
39 FM Basso, Pier Luigi 2.5 ITA 2428
40 IM Houska, Jovanka 2.5 ENG 2372
41 FM Berry, Neil 2.5 SCO 2355
42 IM Afek, Yochanan 2.5 ISR 2252
43 GM Fridman, Daniel 2.0 GER 2649
44 GM Timman, Jan H 2.0 NED 2562
45 GM Arkell, Keith C 2.0 ENG 2505
46 GM Gormally, Daniel W 2.0 ENG 2500
47 GM Tarjan, James E 2.0 USA 2479
48 IM Tan, Justin 2.0 AUS 2445
49 IM Hamitevici, Vladimir 2.0 MDA 2439
50 IM Kobo, Ori 2.0 ISR 2427

Games

 

Photos: Alina l'Ami

Links

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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.
 
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Topics: Isle of Man, Pokerstars
Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".
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Rational Rational 10/8/2015 10:20
Are the organisers using detectors on all the players like in the 3rd and fourth picture ?
Very interesting night development, do any other tournaments do this?
eleuthero eleuthero 10/8/2015 07:52
Why run an article about a strong chess tournament and then have ZERO games from that tournament? Good Lord this site mystifies me at times.
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