Gibraltar: Loving life on the Rock

by Jan Werle
2/6/2019 – One more look back at the Gibraltar Chess Festival with one of the players, GM JAN WERLE, who takes a tour of the highlights from this year's tournament, including a selection of games from the winners — Vladislav Artemiev, Karthikeyan Murali and Tan Zhongyi — plus the best game prize-winner: Gawain Jones vs Alejandro Ramirez. You'll also find video from GM Simon Williams and IM Lawrence Trent and interviews with Vassily Ivanchuk, Levon Aronian and D. Gukesh — one of the young stars of the festival. | Photo: Niki Riga

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Sample the Gibraltar experience

“Radio Gibrallltaaaaahh…Live in the studio with us is Stuart Conquest, tournament director of one of the strongest chess events of the world (..)”; each day driving to the playing venue we could enjoy in the preternaturally flamboyant organiser Stuart Conquest answering the questions of the reporter concerning the tournament. The small British Overseas Territory is the proud host of one of the main sports event of the year. Many ministers of Gibraltar’s government were regularly paying a visit to the playing venue, seeing the top players in action.

Gibraltar consists of a rock (aka ‘the Rock’), on and around which approximately 35,000 inhabitants are living crowded together. Gibraltar is typically English in that sense that there are red double-decker buses, there are English red phone boxes on every corner of the street and the police officers were wearing the long English hats. The southern location of this English peninsula is ‘betrayed’ by the warm temperatures, which could rise up to 25 degrees, not to mention palm trees.

Phone and bus

Left: Phone booth at Botanic Gardens | Photo: Ralph CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Right: Gibraltar Calypso Citibus | Photo: megabus13601 CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr

One of its main attractions is to climb the Rock in search for the famous monkeys, who are living there abundantly. The tourists are being warned to keep their belongings close, as after a quick grasp and a couple of agile leaps, the monkey disappears with a camera or cell phone onto the rocks. In order to reach the Rock and Gibraltar, one cannot avoid the airstrip. Plenty of chess players were staying throughout the tournament in Spain, and had first to cross through customs and the airstrip, to finally reach Gibraltar. As a consequence, the players had to keep a close eye on the timetable regarding the departing and arriving flights before the start of the rounds, lest the road be blocked.

Players on tour

Players on a tour of the Rock | Photo: Niki Riga

The Gibraltar International Chess Festival has been held for the 17th time and took place in the Caleta hotel. The ‘little brother’ event is the junior festival in Gibraltar which took place in August, including total prize money of 15,000 pounds. The tournament is vying with the open in Isle of Man for the strongest open in the world. As far as I am concerned, it’s a highly stimulating experience to play with elite players such as Nakamura, Aronian, MVL and Yu Yanghi in the same hall. In one open group, countless chess nations were represented: players from Nigeria to America and from Vietnam to Norway were battling for the prizes, the top three being GBP £25,000, £20,000 and £15,000.

Many side events took place during the event, including "masterclasses" from Hikaru Nakamura, Sarasadat Khademalsharieh and Adhiban Baskaran. A Question & Answer panel evening featured Nigel Short, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fiona Steil-Antoni and Irene Sukandar (Alejandro Ramirez joins in minute 49):

The battle of sexes was opened by a splendid (air) guitar solo from the tournament director. Stuart is a fervent Beatle-fan and he clutched his moment of fame considering himself Paul McCartney. After ‘he struck the gong’, the ladies won the first game against the gentlemen. Nonetheless, the men proved to be resilient and brought back the tension in the game to 1-1. In the last and final round the men went unfortunately down by a ‘small’ tactical oversight.

Stuart Conquest

Stuart Conquest on the guitar | Photo: Niki Riga

 
Women vs Men
White to move

The game ended 26.♘h2 ♛h4 27.♖xg6 ♜ad8 28.♖f1 ♛h5 29.♖g3 ♜d7 30.♘g4 ♚h7 31.♘xh6 ♜e6 32.♘f5 ♜g6 33.♖xg6 fxg6 34.♘xg7 ♜xg7 35.♕xc5 a5 36.♕xa5 1-0

The commentators of the tournament Simon Williams and Jovanka Houska awarded the beauty price for the game between Gawain Jones and Alejandro Ramirez, which ended in a sharp, albeit short draw. 

 
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1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.g3 b6 8.Bb5+ Bd7 9.a4 a6 10.Be2 Bc6 11.0-0 Nd7 12.Bc4 Be7 13.d5! exd5 14.Nd4!? 14.Bxd5 14...Bb7 15.Nf5 dxc4 16.Nxg7+ Kf8 17.Bh6 Kg8 18.Re1 18.Ne6 fxe6 19.Qg4+ Kf7 20.Qh5+ 20.Qg7+ Ke8 21.Qxh8+ Bf8 20...Kg8 21.Qg4+= 18...Bf8 19.Re8 19.Qg4 Nf6 20.Qg5 Nd5 21.Qg4 Qf6 22.Nf5+ Qg6-+ 19...Qf6 20.Qxd7 Rxe8 21.Nxe8 Qxh6 22.Qg4+ Qg6 22...Bg7! a move which is not easy to play. 23.Rd1 Qg6 24.Rd8 Bxb2 25.Nf6+? 25.Qxc4 Bc6 26.Qb3 Be5 27.Qe3 is still pretty unclear to me. According to the computer black is much better. 25...Kg7 26.Nh5+ Kh6-+ 23.Nf6+ Kg7 24.Ne8+ Kg8 25.Nf6+ Kg7 26.Ne8+ Kg8 27.Nf6+ Kg7 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Jones,G2691Ramirez Alvarez,A2567½–½2019C10Gibraltar Masters4.13

Ramirez and Jones

Alejandro Ramirez and Gawain Jones receive their joint Best Game prize from Hon. Steven Linares, MP, Minister for Culture, Media, Youth and Sport | Photo: Niki Riga 

The women in the open tournament were eligible for both special prizes and the main open prizes. The world's leading female players, among them Anna and Mariya Muzychuk and Ju Wenjun, were all competing for the fifteen prizes ranging from GBP £500 up to £15,000 pounds. In the playing hall is a large picture depicting the portraits of the previous women’s prize winners, under the title: “Gibraltar, home of women’s chess”. As far as I could assess, all the top women have paid a visit to Gibraltar at least once in the tournament's history. 

Tan Zhongyi from China was the best woman with a respectable score of 7 out of 10 and a tournament performance of 2585. In the following game against her Greek rival IM Tsolakidou Stavroula, her technical skills come vividly to light in the endgame as her king takes the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compestella, ending up on the winning square a2.

The second best was no one less than the former Women's World Chess Champion (from April 2015 to March 2016) from Ukraine GM Mariya Muzychuk, who scored 6½ out of 10 with a performance rating of 2718.

 
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43.g4+? The Greek prodigy plays a logical looking move, driving the black king away. However, black can now take the white g4-pawn under siege. After 43.Be3! Bf8 44.Bd2 Ba3 45.Be3 Bf8 46.Bd2 b4 47.Kc4 Ke4 48.f3+ Ke5 white acquired a fortress. 43...Kg6 44.Ke4 f5+! 45.Ke5 45.gxf5+ Kh5! 46.Bf4 Kh4-+ 45...b4 46.Kd4 b3 47.Kd3 Bc5 48.f3 Bd4 49.Bf4 49.Kxd4 b2-+ 49...Kf6 50.Bh6 Ke6 51.Bd2 Be5 52.Be3 f4 53.Bf2 from here on the black king takes the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. Kd5 54.Be1 Kc5 55.h4 Kb5 56.Bd2 Ka4 57.g5 Ka3 58.Bc1+ Ka2 59.Ke4 Bd6 60.Kd4 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Tsolakidou,S2414Tan,Z25020–12019C42Gibraltar Masters8.46
Muzychuk,M2540Melkumyan,H26601–02019B33Gibraltar Masters 20196.17

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Tan Zhongyi

Tan Zhongyi at the closing ceremony | Photo: John Saunders

Ivanchuk was present again this year and, as one of the greatest chess geniuses of all time, he still draws a lot of attention from the audience. His mind-boggling thoughts, ideas as plans, created on ‘Planet Ivanchuk’, are spectacular to watch. A spectator observed him in deep concentration, staring at the ceiling, with just a minute left on the clock. Their eyes met and after a few seconds, Ivanchuk, as if in shock, returned to mother earth and, realising the precariousness of his clock, he rapidly made his last three moves to reach the safe haven of move 40.

 
Ivanchuk vs Guichard, Round 1
White to move

38.♘xh6+ ♝xh6 39.gxh6 ♜b3 40.♖xd2 ♞cxd5 41.♗g5 1-0

After the tournament, he noted that he played "too many women — five from ten it's too much...I have no complaint, but OK, it's a little bit unusual, some kind of record".

"I'm not first, but I'm here and as usual...it's a big pleasure to be here."

Looking at the calibre of player one would assume that one of the established world elite would win the tournament, but one couldn’t be more wrong. It was the quickly-rising stars Vladislav Artemiev (2709) and Karthikeyan Murali (2570) who finished first and second place, respectively. Artemiev reached the outlandish score of 8½ out of 10 with a performance rating of 2941!

Here are a few of Artemiev's highlights:

 
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30...g5? gives up the square f5, which is gratefully used by Artemiev. 31.Bxd4 Rxd4 32.fxe5 fxe5 33.Rc5 Re8 34.Rf5 Rd7 35.Rcxe5 Rxe5 36.Rxe5 g4 37.h4 Be3 38.Be2 Kg6 39.Bxg4 Rxd3 40.Bh5+ Kf6 41.Rf5+ Ke6 42.Be2 Rd2 43.Kf3 Bd4 44.a4 Be5 45.Rh5 Rd7 46.Rh6+ Bf6 47.Kf4 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Artemiev,V2709Gallego Alcaraz,A25021–02019A16Gibraltar Masters2.9
Artemiev,V2709Vaibhav,S25901–02019C13Gibraltar Masters4.10
Artemiev,V2709Navara,D27381–02019A05Gibraltar Masters9.1

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Yu Artemiev

Artemiev defeated Yu Yangyi in the last round with Black | Photo: John Saunders

The Indian GM Karthikeyan Murali was the biggest revelation. Only 19-years old and rated 2570, he scored a phenomenal 8 out of 10. His tournament performance rating was no less than 2749. In the final round, he beat Vachier-Lagrave. Below is a small selection of his games from throughout the tournament:

 
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36.Nxd5! Rc2+ 37.Kxa3 37.Kxa3 Rxe1 38.Nf6+ Kh8 39.Rf8# 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Karthikeyan,M2570Libiszewski,F24811–02019B33Gibraltar Masters7.24
Cornette,D2448Karthikeyan,M25700–12019A31Gibraltar Masters4.35
Larino Nieto,D2432Karthikeyan,M25700–12019A49Gibraltar Masters6.34

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Karthikeyan

A happy Karthikeyan after Round 10 | Photo: David Llada

Unfortunately, you can’t have winners without losers during a tournament. The last year’s winner Aronian lost the last round against the English GM David Howell by blundering a piece. During the closing ceremony, I caught Aronian off-guard. Aronian, always a gentleman and notwithstanding the terrible loss, he openly admitted that he blundered rather than made a speculative sacrifice. Apparently, fate strikes at all levels, which is kind of a relieve for us mortals.

 
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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Qc7 6.h3 g6 7.Qc2 f6 8.Ne2 e5 9.0-0 Nge7 10.dxe5 fxe5 11.c4? e4 12.Bxe4 12.Qc3 exd3 13.Qxh8 dxe2 12...dxe4 13.Nbc3 Bg7 14.Nd5 Qd6 15.Bf4 Be5 16.Rad1 Bxf4 17.Ndxf4 Qe5 18.b4 Nxb4 19.Qb3 Nbc6 20.c5 Qxc5 21.Nc3 Qb4 22.Qc2 0-0 23.Ncd5 Nxd5 24.Nxd5 Qa3 25.Rfe1 Bf5 26.Re3 Qa5 27.Qc4 Rf7 28.Nf6+ Kg7 29.Rd5 Be6 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Aronian,L2767Howell,D26850–12019B13Gibraltar Masters10.3

Aronian's feature interview is not to be missed:

"You have to try to be fresh...to prepare creatively...be more open to new ideas in the openings."

Chess can be a cruel game, though every chess-lover would do well to sample the Gibraltar experience!

Text: Jan Werle


More Gibraltar highlights

GM Simon Williams was one of the live commentators in Gibraltar, and shared his favourite moments in this week's Simon Says:

IM Lawrence Trent also dropped by Gib for the tail end of the tournament and made that the focus of his Weekly Show:


Stars of tomorrow

Karthikeyan Murali beat two 2700+ rated opponents in rounds 8 and 9. Let's have a look at his favourite game from the event against Rauf Mamedov. Showing great self-confidence, Karthikeyan played a new idea in the Caro-Kann Defence and scored his first upset win with the black pieces.

 
Mamedov vs Karthikeyan, Round 8
Position after 6...f6!?

Do you think this new idea ...f6 in the Caro-Kann will find support after this game?

 
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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.dxc5 e6 5.Nf3 Bxc5 6.a3 f6!? This was Karthikeyan's novelty. There was one more game that had seen this new idea being played at the Sunway Sitges 2017, but it seems that Karthikeyan was not aware of that game. 7.b4 Be7 8.Bb2 Nd7 8...a5!? might also be possible. 9.b5 Nd7 10.c4 Nxe5 11.Nxe5 fxe5 12.Bxe5 Nf6 13.Nc3 0-0 14.Be2 b6 15.cxd5 exd5 16.0-0 Be6 17.Bf3 Kh8 18.Re1 Rc8 19.Ne2 Bc5 20.Nd4 Bd7 21.Qd3 Qe7 22.Bg3 Qf7 23.Nb3 Ne4 24.Nxc5 Rxc5 25.a4 Rc3 26.Qd4 Rxf3 27.gxf3 Ng5 28.Ra3 Nxf3+ 29.Rxf3 Qxf3 30.Re7 Rf7 31.Rxf7 Qxf7 32.Qxb6 h6 33.Qc7 Qf5 34.b6 Bc8 35.h4 d4 36.Qf4 Qh3 37.Qxd4 Bb7 38.Qd8+ Kh7 39.Qd3+ g6 0-1 (39) Seyb,A (2411)-Kumar,N (2271) Sitges 2017 9.c4 Nxe5 10.Nxe5 fxe5 11.cxd5 Nf6 12.Bxe5 12.dxe6 Qxd1+ 13.Kxd1 0-0 12...exd5 13.Nc3 0-0 14.Be2 The position should be around even. a5 15.b5 Be6 16.0-0 Bd6 17.Qd4 Rc8 18.Na4 Bxe5 19.Qxe5 Re8 20.Qd4 Bf5 21.Bd3 Bxd3 22.Qxd3 Qd6 23.g3 Ng4 24.Rad1 Rcd8 25.Qb3 Qh6 26.h4 Qd6 27.Rfe1 Rf8 28.Re2 Kh8 29.Rd4 h5 30.Kg2 Rd7 31.f3? This was the crucial mistake of the game. 31.Nc3= 31...Nh6! The knight is suddenly coming to f5 and White's entire position is in trouble. 32.f4 Nf5 33.Rdd2 Re7 34.Rxe7 Qxe7 35.Qf3 35.Rxd5 Qe2+ 36.Kh3 Qf1+ 37.Kh2 Qf2+ 38.Kh3 38.Kh1 Re8-+ 38...Re8-+ 35...Ne3+ 36.Kf2 Ng4+ 37.Kg2 Re8 38.Rxd5 Ne3+ 39.Kf2 Ng4+ 40.Kg2 Ne3+ 41.Kg1 Nxd5 42.Qxh5+ Kg8 43.Qxd5+ Qf7 44.Qxf7+ Kxf7 This endgame is materially balanced. But the queenside pawns are terribly weak and Karthikeyan goes on to win this with ease. 45.Kf2 Rc8 46.Ke3 Rc4 47.Nb6 Rc3+ 48.Kd2 Rxa3 49.Nc4 Rb3 50.Nxa5 Rxb5 51.Nc4 Ke6 52.Ne3 Rc5 53.g4 b5 54.f5+ Kf7 55.Nc2 Kf6 56.Nd4 Ke5 57.Ne6 Rc8 58.Nxg7 b4 59.f6 b3 60.f7 b2 61.f8Q Rxf8 62.Kc2 Rf2+ 63.Kb1 Kd4 64.Nf5+ Kc3 65.Ne3 Kb3 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Mamedov,R2703Karthikeyan,M25700–12019C02Gibraltar Masters 20198.9

Kathikeyan reveals his 'secret' 2019 goals to ChessBase India at the Rilton Cup 2018-19

Nigel Short had to deal with another of the dreaded young Indian players. Abhimanyu Puranik is already 19 years old with an Elo 2536, but probably underrated. In round two he had already taken a half point off of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Short was warned and was better after the opening. Then he entered the black position with his rook.

 
Short vs Puranik
Position after 29.Re1

Here, Black puts the question to the e7-rook with 29...♚f8. Unfortunately for Short, there is not much choice in the matter. After 30.♗a7 ♛b8 the end came quickly for this wayward rook. The Englishman fought for a long time with his remaining troops, but in vain.

Finally, the world's current youngest grandmaster, D. Gukesh, finished in a respectable 27th place with 6½/10. In Round 7, he scored a nice upset of Venezuela's Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli:

 
Iturrizaga vs Gukesh, Round 7
Position after 29.e5

Black was much better after 29...♜xd1 30.♕xd1 ♝g7 31.♕d4 c5! and went on to win on move 40.

It is now well-known that Gukesh loves to play chess. That explains why he didn't opt to take a break after becoming a GM and instead left for Gibraltar Masters just a couple of days after the Delhi GM International earlier in January. One would have imagined the youngster to have been burnt out or feel some bit of tiredness. Nope! 

"The most important quality is to enjoy chess, be confident and never give up."

Sagar Shah of ChessBase India contributed to this story


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Jan is a professional chess Grandmaster, trainer, coach and author. In 2008 he became EU-champion in Liverpool and reached his peak rating of 2607. Hereafter finished his law studies obtaining two master law degrees (civil and commercial law) before he commenced with his job as a lawyer. But now he's back in chess.

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