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1/27/2017 – Michael Adams and Nikita Vitiugov are the only 2700+ player with a perfect score at the end of the third round of the Gibraltar Masters 2017. All the elite players who had drawn their games yesterday including Caruana, MVL and Gelfand were able to win. However, Svidler had to once again split the point and on the top board Nakamura was surprised by an excellent exchange sacrifice by G. N. Gopal. We have the full illustrated report from round four rich with analysis, pictures, videos and also information about the team blitz and Governor's visit to the event.
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The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2017 began with 12 players above 2700. After three rounds only two of them are on a 100% score with 3.0/3 – Michael Adams and Nikita Vitiugov. In the third round Mickey got the better of the talented Romanian Deac Bogdan-Daniel.
The game was heading towards a draw when the young Romanian just blundered a pawn. A costly error as Michael picked up the pawn and mopped up the game.
Hikaru Nakamura played the most aggressive system in the Najdorf, but his opponent G.N. Gopal was excellently prepared, played an interesting exchange sacrifice and the game ended in a draw
[Event "Gibraltar Masters 2017"] [Site "Caleta ENG"] [Date "2017.01.26"] [Round "3.1"] [White "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Black "Gopal, G.N."] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "B94"] [WhiteElo "2785"] [BlackElo "2579"] [Annotator "Sagar,Shah"] [PlyCount "85"] [EventDate "2017.01.24"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 Nbd7 7. Qe2 h6 8. Bxf6 Nxf6 9. g3 e5 10. Nf5 Be6 11. O-O-O g6 12. Ne3 Rc8 {This position has been reached in two top level encounters Wang-Grischuk and Motylev-Wojtaszek.} 13. Ned5 Nxd5 14. Nxd5 Rc5 15. b4 Rxd5 $5 {This is excellent preparation by Gopal who clearly understood that sacrificing and exchange will give him good chances because of the strong bishops and the safer king.} 16. exd5 Bd7 17. h4 h5 18. Kb2 Bg7 19. c3 O-O {Black is just an exchange down, but the bishop on g7 is a monster and Black's king is safe. All in all I would count this as an extremely complex position.} 20. a3 f5 21. Ka2 Qc7 22. c4 e4 23. Qd2 a5 24. b5 Qc5 25. Qe3 Qxe3 $5 {Even the exchange of queens is not such a bad news for Black.} 26. fxe3 Be5 27. Rg1 b6 28. Be2 Kf7 29. Rdf1 Ke7 30. Kb3 Rc8 31. a4 Rc7 32. Kc2 Rc8 33. Kd2 Rh8 34. Rf4 {Hikaru returns the exchange seeing that there is absolutely no way to make progress.} Bxf4 35. gxf4 Kf6 36. Kc3 Rc8 37. Kd4 Be8 38. Bd1 Bf7 39. Bb3 Rc7 40. Ba2 Rc8 41. Bb3 Rc7 42. Ba2 Rc8 43. Bb3 { An interesting duel in the Najdorf.} 1/2-1/2
Gopal explains his exchange sacrifice
Fabiano Caruana was able to beat his Mongolian opponent Tuvshitungs Batchimeg. Fabi now moves to 2.5/3.
[Event "Gibraltar Masters 2017"] [Site "Caleta ENG"] [Date "2017.01.26"] [Round "3.19"] [White "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Black "Batchimeg, Tuvshintugs"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D25"] [WhiteElo "2827"] [BlackElo "2390"] [Annotator "Sagar,Shah"] [PlyCount "79"] [EventDate "2017.01.24"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 dxc4 4. e3 a6 5. Bxc4 e6 6. O-O b5 7. Bd3 Bb7 8. a4 bxa4 9. Rxa4 c5 10. Nc3 cxd4 11. exd4 Be7 12. Qe2 O-O 13. Bg5 Bc6 14. Raa1 Nd5 15. Qe4 g6 16. Qh4 Bxg5 17. Nxg5 h5 18. Qg3 Qf6 19. Rac1 Ra7 20. Rfd1 Kg7 21. Be4 Rb7 {Fabiano's decision at this point was very interesting.} 22. Bxd5 $5 exd5 23. Rd2 Re8 24. h4 Nd7 25. Ne2 $1 {The knight comes to f4 and White kinght's start to weave their magic.} Nf8 26. Nf4 Kh8 27. Rdc2 $16 {White has beautifully co-ordinated his pieces. That's what top players do. They just get their guys on the best squares!} Ba4 28. Rc7 Rxc7 29. Rxc7 Bd7 30. Nf3 Be6 31. Ne5 Re7 32. Rc6 Qf5 33. Rxa6 Rb7 34. b3 Kg7 35. Rd6 Rc7 36. Kh2 Rb7 37. Rc6 Re7 38. b4 Rb7 39. Nfd3 Qe4 40. Nc5 1-0
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was able to win with a cute little exchange sacrifice. It wasn't decisive and perhaps his opponent had a fine position, but the French GM was able to outplay his opponent and win the game.
Boris Gelfand drew his first round, but is now back with two wins
Peter Svidler was held to another draw in the third round. It was a crazily complicated game and Nitzan Steinberg has had a great start to the tournament with draws against MVL and Svidler
Vassily Ivanchuk was in danger of losing his game against IM Venkatachalam Saravanan. The Indian IM went wrong at some point and Chucky managed to win. This was after he lost on time yesterday. So Ivanchuk is on 2.0/3.
My position objectively was completely hopeless!
On the third board Yu Yangyi drew his game against 2015 World Junior Champion Mikhail Antipov
Nikita Vitiugov is on 3.0/3 after he beat German grandmaster Alexander Donchenko
Vadim Zviaginsev, the inventor of 1.e4 c5 2.Na3!? beat Kateryna Lagno and is now on 3.0/3
David Howell played the Caro Kann for the first time in his life and suddenly found out that he had very little space to manoeuvre! He drew his game against Sergey Grigoriants.
The game between Anna Muzychuk and Hou Yifan ended in a draw
The battle of sexes between Nigel Short versus Anna Zatonskih ended in a win for Nigel!
The prodigy from America Awonder Liang managed to hold GM S.P. Sethuraman to a draw
Ju Wenjun made short work of her opponent Ori Kobo and is now on 3.0/3
The most popular couple in Gibraltar is Laurent Fressinet and Valentina Gunina!
The duel between father and daughter: Bellon Lopez and Anna Bellon Cramling ended in a draw!
Many of the strongest players, including Fabiano Caruana and Nigel Short (who met in the first round), took part in the team blitz event. The strongest team probably is 'Howell's Honeys (Fabiano Caruana, David Howell, Tania Sachdev and Dorsa Derakhshani). Two rounds have been completed and you can check the standings here.
Gibraltar's Governor Ed Davies (left) visited the tournament hall. Along with him in the picture is the organizer of the event Brian Callaghan
Interviewed live by commentator British Women’s Champion Jovanka Houska on the daily internet show streamed across the world the Governor described the tournament as a wonderful event. “What has kept this competition so progressive, so alive and made it so successful is that every year there are more people, more initiatives and different spins on the competition,” he said.
Talking about how the tournament had grown he commented on how Gibraltar was a place which had “ambition, innovation and boldness”.“This competition is just testament to these attributes because Gibraltar goes about projecting itself in that way. The natural characteristics that make these things successful is what has happened here. Brian Callaghan had an idea, he had a vision, he was bold, innovative, and it has been a great success,” he added.
The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the 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 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.
Sagar ShahSagar is an International Master from India with two GM norms. He is also a chartered accountant. He loves to cover chess tournaments, as that helps him understand and improve at the game he loves so much. He is the co-founder and CEO of ChessBase India website, the biggest chess news outlet in the country.
The Sniper is a universal opening framework which can be played against all main first white moves - 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4, 1.f4 and 1.Nf3. Black plays 1…g6, 2…Bg7 and 3…c5 against practically anything!
