Gibraltar Chess Festival: Hou Yifan leads with a 2900 performance

The 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is taking place from Tuesday, 24th January to Thursday, 2nd February 2012 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The event is the tenth in the series held on the Rock, the second to be sponsored by Tradewise Insurance with technical support by Gibtelecom. The rate of play: 40 moves in 100 minutes plus 20 moves in 50 minutes plus 15 minutes for all remaining moves with 30 seconds per move added from the start.

Born in 1985, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is currently ranked number fourteen in the world with an Elo rating of 2747. In 2003 he won the World Junior Chess Championship. He repeated his victory in 2005 (thereby becoming the only two-time champion), achieving an incredible 2953 performance rating after eight rounds. This gained him an invitation to the Essent Tournament 2006 in Hoogeveen, and by winning this one and also the 2007 edition, Shakhriyar achieved world fame.In 2010, he tied for first place with Vladimir Kramnik and Gata Kamsky in the President's Cup in Baku, followed by joint first place in the Mikhail Tal Memorial. In May 2011, Mamedyarov was tournament organisers' nominee, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012 but he lost to finalist Boris Gelfand in the quarterfinal.

"There isn’t time in the commentary room, Reuben writes, "to look at all the jewels on display. Should we ask the players to slow down so that we can keep up?"

Judith is by far the strongest female chess player of all time. On the January 2012 FIDE list her rating has risen to 2710. Judith excels at tactics and is known for an aggressive playing style, striving to maximise the initiative and actively pursuing complications. She has spoken about the psychological aspect of chess. In her 2002 victory over Kasparov, she deliberately chose a line he used against Kramnik, employing the strategy of forcing him to "play against himself". In September 2011 Judith took part in the the FIDE World Cup at Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia reaching the quarter finals before losing to Peter Svidler.

The following game Judit Polgar 2710 (HUN) vs Vyacheslav Ikonnikov 2531 (RUS) from round two in Gibraltar exploded into tactics in a manner we have grown accustomed to for the great Hungarian woman. She took time to annotate it in the press room:

Judit also conducted an indepth interview with tournament organiser Stewart Conquest. You can find many video reports on each round here. They are produced by freelance mediamaker Macauley Peterson, and some are up to two hours long! Here is one with Nigel Short which we found particularly entertaining:

"It' was a good day, actually," says Nigel, whose worst result in Gibraltar was a second place. He went on to play the following jewel against one of the top seeds in the tournament. You can replay the game on our JavaScript board.

The hero of the first four rounds is a 17-year-old girl from China, who is leading the field with 3.5/4 point and a performance of 2900. It is, you might have guessed, Women’s World Chess Champion Hou Yifan, who scored an elegant victory over Super-GM Zoltan Almasi in round three. Watch Yifan chip away at the foundations of the "Berlin Wall" defence, which is regarded as virtually impregnable, in this elegant little game.

Yifan with the Barbary Macaque monkeys which are a tourist attraction in Gibraltar

Gibraltar is home to around 230 Barbary Macaque or "rock apes", descended from North African populations. They occupy the area of the Upper Rock and live apparently on tourist gifts. They are considered Gibraltar's unofficial national animal, and a photo op with the macaques is a must for the chess tournament participants.

Photos: Zeljka Malobabic © Tradewise Insurance Ltd.

Top standings after four rounds

Links Official tournament site Download games from all groups 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.