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The traditional Gibraltar Chess Congress has begun! The 12th edition of this event is under way, but the main attraction - the Masters Section, will begin tomorrow. The Masters section entries are closed and the pairings are ready for the tournament to begin.
The traditional Blitz Pairs event at the 2014 Tradewise Chess Festival took place at the Caleta Hotel on Sunday night. Once again this very popular six round contest drew in the players. There were 38 teams competing of two players each.
The rules are simple. Each member of the team plays one move, and then the other team member plays when its their turn, and they keep alternating moves! This can create absolute chaos on the board as one player might not understand what his partner is trying to achieve!
One of the commentators of the event, GM Irina Krush (left), tried her hand at the event
in the bakground players figuring out the handshake ritual!
Five Grand Masters and eight International masters and other titled players participated in the event. As always the team names were inventive and varied - Pancakes for breakfast, the Swedish fox, 9ja Riders, Sons of Bishops, Antwerp Giants, King Crusher, Revuelto de gambas and Bolb. And it was strong competition with three teams ruling the night and finding themselves in a three-way tie at the end. The teams were: Captain Blunder and Crew with Noel Studer and Jan Rindliseacher, 9ja with John Oyeyemi Fawole and Kolawole Akinyemi Ladokin, and Sons of Bishops with Aryan Tari and Sebastian Mihajlov.
Once again, host for the evening, tournament director Stuart Conquest who also participated in the event, said it was another challenging and entertaining night. “It so great everyone can relax in such an event and make new acquaintances. The Blitz Pairs was halfway through this year’s tournament and it always helps to ease the way into the second week of competition which will increase in intensity as the final rounds get closer,” he said. The prizes were presented to the winners by Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo who visited the festival today.
Stuart Conquest teamed up with Anna Cramling Bellon
Reports by John Saunders, photos by Sophie Triay
A few draws in the top boards paves the way for Hurricane Ivanchuk to regain his momentum and he now sits at the top of the leaderboard with 5.5/6 after an important demolition of Chinese grandmaster Li Chao. Adams, Kamsky, Dreev, Hansen, Ganguly and Wei Yi importantly join the chasing pack of players with 5.0/6. With four more rounds to go everything is up in the air in Gibraltar.
| Bo. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | ||
| 1 | GM | Harikrishna P. | 2706 | 4½ | ½ - ½ | 4½ | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | 2745 |
| 2 | GM | Ivanchuk Vassily | 2739 | 4½ | 1 - 0 | 4½ | GM | Li Chao B | 2680 |
| 3 | GM | Rapport Richard | 2691 | 4½ | ½ - ½ | 4½ | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | 2737 |
| 4 | GM | Rodshtein Maxim | 2682 | 4½ | ½ - ½ | 4 | GM | Navara David | 2702 |
| 5 | GM | Adams Michael | 2754 | 4 | 1 - 0 | 4 | GM | Mareco Sandro | 2582 |
| 6 | GM | Kamsky Gata | 2709 | 4 | 1 - 0 | 4 | IM | Dvirnyy Danyyil | 2574 |
| 7 | GM | Dreev Aleksey | 2673 | 4 | 1 - 0 | 4 | GM | Mekhitarian Krikor Sevag | 2566 |
| 8 | GM | Cheparinov Ivan | 2672 | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | GM | Lenderman Aleksandr | 2562 |
| 9 | GM | Hansen Eric | 2559 | 4 | 1 - 0 | 4 | GM | Agdestein Simen | 2627 |
| 10 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2619 | 4 | 1 - 0 | 4 | GM | Maze Sebastien | 2536 |
| 11 | GM | Debashis Das | 2494 | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | GM | Dubov Daniil | 2614 |
| 12 | IM | Nakar Eylon | 2398 | 4 | 0 - 1 | 4 | GM | Wei Yi | 2607 |
| 13 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | 2733 | 3½ | ½ - ½ | 3½ | GM | Oparin Grigoriy | 2517 |
| 14 | GM | Spraggett Kevin | 2544 | 3½ | 0 - 1 | 3½ | GM | Tomashevsky Evgeny | 2715 |
| 15 | GM | Libiszewski Fabien | 2533 | 3½ | ½ - ½ | 3½ | GM | Movsesian Sergei | 2677 |
Zhukova's draw against Salgado Lopez was good
she will face Zhao Xue tomorrow in an important women's match
Ivanchuk on form
Georgian WGM Nino Maisuradze who now plays for France
Sarah Hoolt had a big upset by beating GM Marie Sebag
Pogonina will host the 3rd Master Class with Li Chao
Vitiugov is very close to Ivanchuk, but he will not face him in round 7
All Photos by John Saunders
LinksThe games will be 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. |
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