Gibraltar Rd10: Steady Final Standings
2/5/2015 – Hikaru Nakamura emerged as the clear winner in Gibraltar since the three draws on the top boards did not change the standings much. This did allow, however, a good group of people to tie for third with 7.5/10, while David Howell took second at the last possible minute - Hou Yifan blundered in a winning position against the Englishman and a win would have given her clear second.
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Round Ten
| Bo. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | . |
| 1 | Nakamura Hikaru | 2776 | 8 | ½ - ½ | 7 | Harikrishna P. | 2723 | 7 |
| 2 | Hou Yifan | 2673 | 7 | ½ - ½ | 7½ | Howell David W L | 2670 | 15 |
| 3 | Vitiugov Nikita | 2735 | 7 | ½ - ½ | 7 | Bachmann Axel | 2629 | 22 |
| 4 | Bartel Mateusz | 2631 | 6½ | 0 - 1 | 6½ | Topalov Veselin | 2800 | 1 |
| 5 | Svidler Peter | 2739 | 6½ | ½ - ½ | 6½ | Sutovsky Emil | 2637 | 19 |
| 6 | Naroditsky Daniel | 2622 | 6½ | ½ - ½ | 6½ | Jakovenko Dmitry | 2733 | 5 |
| 7 | Bok Benjamin | 2572 | 6½ | ½ - ½ | 6½ | Yu Yangyi | 2724 | 6 |
| 8 | Kuipers Stefan | 2390 | 6½ | 0 - 1 | 6½ | Matlakov Maxim | 2695 | 9 |
| 9 | Cheparinov Ivan | 2681 | 6½ | 0 - 1 | 6½ | Adhiban B. | 2630 | 21 |
| 10 | Wei Yi | 2675 | 6½ | 1 - 0 | 6½ | Felgaer Ruben | 2575 | 37 |
| 11 | Wagner Dennis | 2501 | 6½ | 1 - 0 | 6½ | Iturrizaga Eduardo | 2649 | 17 |
| 12 | Rapport Richard | 2716 | 6 | 1 - 0 | 6½ | Nakar Eylon | 2419 | 92 |
| 13 | Xu Jun | 2523 | 6 | ½ - ½ | 6 | Rodshtein Maxim | 2680 | 11 |
| 14 | Rasmussen Allan Stig | 2526 | 6 | ½ - ½ | 6 | Salgado Lopez Ivan | 2628 | 23 |
| 15 | Padmini Rout | 2388 | 6 | ½ - ½ | 6 | Anton Guijarro David | 2617 | 27 |
| 16 | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2595 | 6 | 0 - 1 | 6 | Sengupta Deep | 2569 | 43 |
| 17 | Popilski Gil | 2522 | 6 | ½ - ½ | 6 | Mareco Sandro | 2583 | 35 |
| 18 | Muzychuk Mariya | 2520 | 6 | 0 - 1 | 6 | Nabaty Tamir | 2579 | 36 |
| 19 | Hansen Eric | 2574 | 6 | ½ - ½ | 6 | Troff Kayden W | 2541 | 49 |
| 20 | Al-Sayed Mohammed | 2516 | 6 | 0 - 1 | 6 | Sandipan Chanda | 2574 | 39 |
Hikaru Nakamura (USA) has won the 13th Tradewise Gibraltar Masters, which concluded at the Caleta Hotel on Thursday 5 February 2015. Nakamura drew his last round game with Pentala Harikrishna (India), which took him to 8½/10. Even though Nakamura's opening choice was somewhat quiet (the pawn sacrifice is known to reach a relatively equal endgame), he managed to find some winning chances by winning a pawn, that being said Harikirshna was never in any real danger.
David Howell, playing Black against Hou Yifan, could have reached 8½ had he won but, in trying to do so, overreached and was lost at one stage, luckily for him Hou Yifan missed her best chance and the game was eventually drawn.
[Event "Gibraltar Masters 2015"] [Site "Caleta ENG"] [Date "2015.02.05"] [Round "10.2"] [White "Hou, Yifan"] [Black "Howell, David W L"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C48"] [WhiteElo "2673"] [BlackElo "2670"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "3rR3/1b1P1p2/p2k4/1p3B2/1P4P1/8/5K2/8 b - - 0 44"] [PlyCount "5"] [EventDate "2015.01.27"] 44... Kc7 45. g5 $4 {A heartbreaker for Hou Yifan!} (45. Ke3 $1 {Was absolutely crushing. Black runs out of moves:} Bc6 46. Re7 f6 (46... Rf8 47. Kd4 Kd8 48. Re5 $1 {And the pawn is still untouchable while the King slowly waddles in.}) 47. Rf7 Bxd7 48. Ke4 Kc8 49. Bxd7+ Rxd7 50. Rxf6 {with a winning rook endgame.}) 45... Bc6 $1 46. Re7 Rg8 $1 {Hou Yifan must have missed this counterattackin move. Once the g-pawn disappeares there is nothing left to play for.} 1/2-1/2
Despite this the World Womne's Champion won a pile of money, as she claims the tie for third and the best Women's Prize (15,000 pounds).
Benjamin Bok, from The Netherlands, reached 7.0/10
Despite her last minute blunder Hou Yifan should be quite happy with her performance. The World Women's Champion will be unable to defend her title in Sochi as she had a prior engagement with the Hawaii Chess Festival.
Sharing second through fifth women's prizes were Rout Padmini (India), Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), Ju Wenjun (China) and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) 6½.
Dennis Wagner, only 17, finished tied for third after concluding
a breathtaking run by defeating Eduardo Iturrizaga
Baskaran Adhiban also finished with a bang by beating Ivan Cheparinov
Indeed their were a fair amount of people that won their last round games to finish with 7.5/10. Besides Wagner and Adhiban, Topalov defeated Bartel, Wei Yi defeated Felgaer, and Matlakov beat Kuipers.
Wei Yi went from 2641 in October to 2706 after Gibraltar
Argentinean Ruben Felgaer was Wei Yi's last victim
Svidler could only draw Sutovsky and did not tie for third
Yu Yangyi also was out of the big tie beccause of his last round draw with Bok
The winner, without question, with a fabulous performance. Hikaru Nakamura shows the World where exactly he belongs. It is refreshing to see this talented and ambitious player breaking his personal best, regaining his standing as the best American and winning a superbly strong event.
Round Ten Standings
| Rk. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 |
| 1 | Nakamura Hikaru | USA | 2776 | 8.5 | 2919 |
| 2 | Howell David W L | ENG | 2670 | 8.0 | 2818 |
| 3 | Hou Yifan | CHN | 2673 | 7.5 | 2772 |
| 4 | Vitiugov Nikita | RUS | 2735 | 7.5 | 2770 |
| 5 | Topalov Veselin | BUL | 2800 | 7.5 | 2767 |
| 6 | Wagner Dennis | GER | 2501 | 7.5 | 2759 |
| 7 | Wei Yi | CHN | 2675 | 7.5 | 2754 |
| 8 | Adhiban B. | IND | 2630 | 7.5 | 2750 |
| 9 | Harikrishna P. | IND | 2723 | 7.5 | 2748 |
| 10 | Bachmann Axel | PAR | 2629 | 7.5 | 2722 |
| 11 | Matlakov Maxim | RUS | 2695 | 7.5 | 2667 |
| 12 | Svidler Peter | RUS | 2739 | 7.0 | 2719 |
| 13 | Yu Yangyi | CHN | 2724 | 7.0 | 2707 |
| 14 | Jakovenko Dmitry | RUS | 2733 | 7.0 | 2700 |
| 15 | Naroditsky Daniel | USA | 2622 | 7.0 | 2698 |
| 16 | Rapport Richard | HUN | 2716 | 7.0 | 2677 |
| 17 | Nabaty Tamir | ISR | 2579 | 7.0 | 2615 |
| 18 | Sutovsky Emil | ISR | 2637 | 7.0 | 2605 |
| 19 | Bok Benjamin | NED | 2572 | 7.0 | 2582 |
| 20 | Sengupta Deep | IND | 2569 | 7.0 | 2574 |
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Discussion and Feedback
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Once Hou Yifan works out some calculating bugs/jitters/late game fatigue and converts the many strong positions she has been getting (like this one against Howell), she is going to rocket to the very top levels. She's been playing well against 2650+ players, but time and again seem to be letting them slip off the hook.
Congrats to David Howell on his second place, excellent result.
Puzzled why the women's world ch would be scheduled at a time when Hou Yifan won't be able to play. She must have already had the Hawaii chess festival in her calendar, so couldn't Sochi have been scheduled to take this into consideration? Don't know the details, but surely Hou Yifan would have checked about dates for world ch before committing to events.
Puzzled why the women's world ch would be scheduled at a time when Hou Yifan won't be able to play. She must have already had the Hawaii chess festival in her calendar, so couldn't Sochi have been scheduled to take this into consideration? Don't know the details, but surely Hou Yifan would have checked about dates for world ch before committing to events.
three indians in the top 20 ; hari's draw with hikaru : padmini raut's tie for 2nd in the women's section ' well, it's ok for india!
Congratulations to Hikaru Nakamura! It's great to see one of the most creative and sharp players today winning this tournament. It is a pity, however, that the clear, overall first prize winner cannot win the largest prize.
So happy to see all these great tournaments live online with video commentary! Also, this 'Golden League' surprise!
Ah Yifan, so close. Next Stop 2700. Congrats to David Howell, Hikaru and every player happy with their performance.
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