Gibraltar Rd10: Steady Final Standings

by Alejandro Ramirez
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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All photos by Sophie Triay and John Saunders from the Official Website

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Topics: Gibraltar
Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.
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Jason Rihel Jason Rihel 2/6/2015 09:47
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.
firestorm firestorm 2/6/2015 09:11
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.
ulyssesganesh ulyssesganesh 2/6/2015 03:46
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!
HarryHaller HarryHaller 2/6/2015 02:14
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.
ChiliBean ChiliBean 2/6/2015 12:50
So happy to see all these great tournaments live online with video commentary! Also, this 'Golden League' surprise!
ff2017 ff2017 2/6/2015 12:28
Ah Yifan, so close. Next Stop 2700. Congrats to David Howell, Hikaru and every player happy with their performance.
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