Dreev and Shankland lead at Capablanca Memorial

by Johannes Fischer
5/14/2018 – The 53. Capablanca Memorial in Havanna is a six-player double-round-robin and after the first five rounds Alexey Dreev from Russia and US Champion Sam Shankland (Photo) share the lead with 3½/5 each. In round 5 both won convincingly. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Master Class Vol.4: José Raúl Capablanca Master Class Vol.4: José Raúl Capablanca

He was a child prodigy and he is surrounded by legends. In his best times he was considered to be unbeatable and by many he was reckoned to be the greatest chess talent of all time: Jose Raul Capablanca, born 1888 in Havana.

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Capablanca Memorial 2018

Results of round 5

  Title Name Country Elo Result Title Name Country Elo
1 GM Samuel L Shankland
 
2701 1 - 0 GM Yusnel Bacallao Alonso
 
2594
2 GM Alexey Dreev
 
2653 1 - 0 GM David Anton Guijarro
 
2646
3 GM Alexander Rakhmanov
 
2635 ½ - ½ GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista
 
2664

Alexey Dreev was born in 1969 and had a long and successful career. 1983 and 1984 he was World Under-16 Champion and in 1988 he became European Junior Champion. Dreev was a student of the renowned coach Mark Dvoretsky and in 1990 he qualified for the Candidates. In 2016 Dreev shared first place with Baskaran Adhiban and Eltaj Safarli at the Tata Steel Challengers Tournament which Adhiban won on tie-break.

In round 5 of the Capablanca Memorial Dreev played against David Anton Guijarro and outplayed the young Spaniard right from the opening:

A. Dreev - D. Guijarro

 

Sam Shankland was born in 1991 in California, USA, and is currently in the form of his life. In April he won the strong US Championship 2018 with 8½/11 (+6–0=5), ahead of players such as Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, and Hikaru Nakamura. With this success Shankland for the first time in his life passed the Elo 2700 mark. At the Capablanca Memorial he is top seed and in round 5 he won an energetic game against Yusnel Bacallao Alonso.

S. Shankland - A. Bacallao

 

Games

 

Standings after round 5

 

Links

Tournament page

 


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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