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Lela Javakhishvili and Bela Khotenashvili from Georgia
Hikaru Nakamura and his fiancee Mariagrazia De Rosa are both participating in the event
While the ceremony was happening, some players preferred to warm up!
Ivan Cheparinov heading an important analysis session. With wine, of course.
Veselin Topalov's team: Silvio Danaliov, the man himself, and Ivan Cheparinov
Anna comes back to her tournament!
Odin Blikra Vea, Tania Sachdev, Lawrence Trent
And they say chess players are not social creatures...
Miss Gibraltar, Shyanne Azzopardi, was there to help with the opening ceremony.
She is a teaching assistant and zumba instructor as well.
Topalov drew the White king, so all odd number players will have white in the first round
Shyanne Azzopardi and Hou Yifan, fresh from Wijk aan Zee
Can't pass the opportunity for a picture, after all
Round one under way
As usual, most of the top players took the full point in the first round. There were, however, some interesting moments.
| Bo. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | ||
| 1 | GM | Topalov Veselin | 2800 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | FM | Sanchez Jerez Emilio Miguel | 2282 |
| 2 | WGM | Vojinovic Jovana | 2301 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | 2776 |
| 3 | GM | Svidler Peter | 2739 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | WIM | Frisk Ellinor | 2266 |
| 4 | WIM | Olsarova Tereza | 2288 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | 2735 |
| 5 | GM | Jakovenko Dmitry | 2733 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | Rydstrom Tom | 2292 | |
| 6 | FM | Nuri Kambez | 2305 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Yu Yangyi | 2724 |
| 7 | GM | Harikrishna P. | 2723 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | FM | De Haan Eric | 2299 |
| 8 | FM | Tate Alan | 2297 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Rapport Richard | 2716 |
| 9 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | 2695 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | Lombaers Peter | 2291 | |
| 10 | FM | Buchal Stephan | 2273 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Cheparinov Ivan | 2681 |
| 11 | GM | Rodshtein Maxim | 2680 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | FM | Viana Dirceu | 2268 |
| 12 | IM | Prosviriakov Vladimir | 2257 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Wei Yi | 2675 |
| 13 | GM | Hou Yifan | 2673 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | FM | Cordes Hans-Joerg Dr. | 2262 |
| 14 | Semprun Martinez Fernando | 2253 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Jones Gawain C B | 2671 | |
| 15 | GM | Howell David W L | 2670 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | FM | Menna Barreto Felipe Kubiaki | 2247 |
| 16 | Galmandakh Badrakh | 2240 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | GM | Motylev Alexander | 2665 | |
| 17 | GM | Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo | 2649 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | FM | Scharrer Patrick | 2231 |
| 18 | Spence David J | 2231 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Edouard Romain | 2638 | |
| 19 | GM | Sutovsky Emil | 2637 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | Hommerson Paul | 2229 | |
| 20 | Barrenechea Bahamonde Gustavo | 2223 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Bartel Mateusz | 2631 |
Nakamura's opening was unusual to say the least:
he moved his queen six times in the first eight moves!
[Event "Gibraltar Masters 2015"] [Site "Caleta ENG"] [Date "2015.01.27"] [Round "1.2"] [White "Vojinovic, Jovana"] [Black "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A80"] [PlyCount "66"] [EventDate "2015.01.27"] 1. d4 f5 2. Bg5 c6 3. e3 Qb6 4. Nd2 Qxb2 5. Rb1 Qc3 6. g4 Qa5 7. gxf5 Qxf5 8. h4 Qa5 9. Nh3 g6 10. Bd3 d6 11. Qf3 Nd7 12. h5 Ndf6 13. hxg6 hxg6 14. Bxg6+ Kd8 15. Bf4 Kc7 16. Ng5 Rxh1+ 17. Qxh1 Bh6 18. Qh4 Bd7 19. Bd3 Nd5 20. Ne6+ Bxe6 21. Bxh6 Nc3 22. Ra1 Qb4 23. Kf1 Nxa2 24. Rd1 Nc3 25. Re1 Nxh6 26. Qxh6 Bd7 27. f3 a5 28. Kf2 a4 29. Qg5 Rh8 30. Qg3 Nd5 31. Rd1 c5 32. Bc4 Nc3 33. Re1 b5 0-1
And why did he do it?
It's likely that Jovana Vojinovic had good chances for an advantage in this game,
but it proved to be too complicated for her
Hou Yifan also saw herself in a little bit of a complicated position, but her opponent duly collapsed under time pressure:
[Event "Gibraltar Masters 2015"] [Site "Caleta ENG"] [Date "2015.01.27"] [Round "1.13"] [White "Hou, Yifan"] [Black "Cordes, Hans-Joerg"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C11"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "b3r3/p5kp/6p1/PPQ1p3/3p1qB1/2P4P/6P1/4R1K1 w - - 0 35"] [PlyCount "9"] [EventDate "2015.01.27"] 35. cxd4 {This tense French has come down to this. White is up material and a7 will hang with check, but Black still has some resources thanks to the weakness of White's king.} h5 $1 36. Qxa7+ Kh6 {Suddenly, the bishop cannot retreat!} 37. dxe5 {The best decision, even if it costs White her bishop.} (37. Bd1 Qd2 $19) (37. Be2 Qe3+ 38. Kh2 h4 $19) (37. Bd7 Qd2 $19) 37... hxg4 38. Qe3 Kg5 $4 (38... Qxe3+ 39. Rxe3 {is a difficult to evaluate engame. Clearly only White can win as her passed pawns are quite dangerous, but that doesn't mean that the endgame is lost for Black. With accurate defense it should somehow be drawn.}) 39. h4+ {Oops, now Black cannot keep his queen protected.} (39. h4+ Kf5 40. Rf1 $18) 1-0
The only major surprise at the top boards was Alexander Motylev's loss on board 16. He was simply outplayed by Badrakh Galmandakh from Mongolia.
Sunil Weeramantry is a famous coach in the US and Nakamura's stepdad
Tereza Olsarova started with a loss against the much higher rated Nikita Vitiugov
Yu Yangyi will face GM Shyam Sundar tomorrow
Tomorrow's round promises to be very interesting - some of the highlights include of course the top boards with Debashis vs. Topalov and Nakamura vs. Dronavalli, but of special note is board 12. Wei Yi, the prodigy, will be facing... the World u-16 Champion! Alan Pichot, from Argentina, has been making strides in his chess and it will be interesting to see how he does against clearly the World's #1 u-16 player.
Select games from the dropdown menu above the board
All photos by Sophie Triay from the Official Website
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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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