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A small gala dinner was hosted after the first round. The players had the chance to relax in a friendly atmosphere after a tough (or maybe not so tough) first encounter. Some players on the other hand decided to skip the event to relax.
If there is any tournament that tries hard to please the players, it is the Tradewise Gibraltar Festival
Venezuelan GM Eduardo Iturrizaga and his girlfriend Gabriela Gonzalez
Former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova and Mariya Muzychuk
Pia Cramling and her daughter, Anna
The Chinese, as usual, sending a strong delegation that travels in a pack
Kimiya Sajjadi and Kimia Moradi from Norway
Elizabeth Paethz, Jovana Vojinovic and her significant other, Richard Rapport
Youngster Kayden Troff always travels with his mother, Kim
When there are duels between grandmasters, anything can happen. Even a "big" rating difference of 300 points is irrelevant when the players are of such strong caliber. However there were still relatively few upsets in today's round, though some top GMs got nicked for a draw.
Topalov was unable to keep his perfect score
Devashis Das took care of that with a draw, which was simply wild
[Event "Gibraltar Masters 2015"] [Site "Caleta ENG"] [Date "2015.01.28"] [Round "2.1"] [White "Debashis, Das"] [Black "Topalov, Veselin"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "E59"] [WhiteElo "2503"] [BlackElo "2800"] [PlyCount "91"] [EventDate "2015.01.27"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 c5 6. Nf3 d5 7. O-O dxc4 8. Bxc4 Nc6 9. a3 Bxc3 10. bxc3 Qc7 11. h3 e5 12. a4 Bf5 {This tabiya of the Rubinstein Variation in the Nimzo-Indian always promises interesting games.} 13. Ba3 b6 14. Bb5 e4 15. Nd2 Na5 16. Qe2 Rfd8 17. Rfc1 Be6 18. Rab1 Rd5 $5 { Topalov is always looking for aggressive chances. Here he is planning to swing his rook over to the kingside, with some serious threats.} 19. Qf1 Rg5 20. Kh1 Rd8 21. Be2 {White's kingside is holding, but he doesn't seem to be making any progress of his own.} Rg6 22. f4 {Even though it is hard to come up with an alternative, this seems to weaken White's position too much.} exf3 23. Bxf3 Qd7 (23... Rh6 $5 {Was stronger to play first. The idea is actually quick simple; rip the game apart with g5-g4.} 24. Qf2 g5 25. e4 g4 26. Be2 gxh3 27. g3 Nc4 $3 $17 {sctacular, but not the only move} 28. Bxc4 Bxc4 {and the piece is taboo because of} 29. Nxc4 Nxe4 30. Qe3 Nxg3+ 31. Kg1 h2+ 32. Kg2 Rg6 $19) 24. Ra1 Nd5 25. Qf2 Bxh3 $1 26. c4 (26. gxh3 Qxh3+ 27. Qh2 Qe6 $19 {leaves White's king too vulnerable to the attacks on the h and g files.}) 26... Nf6 27. gxh3 cxd4 (27... Qxh3+ 28. Qh2 Qe6 {was still very strong.}) 28. e4 Nb3 $1 {A nice distraction tactic.} 29. Bg2 (29. Nxb3 Qxh3+ 30. Qh2 Qxf3+ {and mate}) 29... Nxa1 30. Rxa1 Re8 $6 {From here on Topalov seems to lose the thread of the game a little.} (30... Qc7 {was stronger, with the idea of relocating the f6 knight to a more powerful square, either e5, c5 or h5.}) 31. Bb2 Nh5 32. Ra3 d3 $2 (32... Rf6 $15) 33. e5 {Now White is fully back in the game. Black is not coordinated enough to push his d-pawn.} Rg3 34. Kh2 Qc7 35. Ne4 {Suddenly that rook on g3 is in serious problems.} d2 36. Rxg3 d1=Q 37. Nf6+ Kh8 38. Nxe8 {A crazy position! Black has two queens and a knight against a queen, a rook, and three pieces. Black must exchange queens or he will get mated very soon.} Qc5 39. Qxc5 bxc5 40. e6 fxe6 (40... f6 $1) 41. Bxg7+ (41. Rg4 $1 {and then taking on g7 with the knight instead, kept some winning chances.}) 41... Nxg7 42. Nxg7 Qxa4 43. Nxe6 Qxc4 44. Ng5 a5 45. Ne4 a4 46. Rc3 {Oddly enough the game fizzled into a draw. In this position some computers might claim that this is better for Black, but that is clearly not the case. As soon as White takes the pawn on c5 and sacrifices something for the a-pawn the position cannot be won, even if White sacrifices the rook!} 1/2-1/2
Peter Svidler was also held to a draw by Dennis Wagner
Daniel Naroditsky started 2-0 with a victory over....
Lilit Mrktchian
Guo Qi vs. Salgado was a fighting draw
Hikaru Nakamura convincingly outplayed Harika Dronavalli
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 64 | GM | Debashis Das | 2503 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Topalov Veselin | 2800 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | 2776 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | GM | Harika Dronavalli | 2496 | 66 |
| 3 | 65 | IM | Wagner Dennis | 2501 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Svidler Peter | 2739 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | 2735 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | IM | Raznikov Danny | 2494 | 68 |
| 5 | 67 | IM | Svane Rasmus | 2496 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Jakovenko Dmitry | 2733 | 5 |
| 6 | 6 | GM | Yu Yangyi | 2724 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | GM | Shyam Sundar M. | 2489 | 70 |
| 7 | 71 | IM | Ducarmon Quinten | 2488 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Harikrishna P. | 2723 | 7 |
| 8 | 8 | GM | Rapport Richard | 2716 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | IM | Tari Aryan | 2487 | 72 |
| 9 | 73 | IM | Javakhishvili Lela | 2486 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | 2695 | 9 |
| 10 | 10 | GM | Cheparinov Ivan | 2681 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | IM | Smith Axel | 2483 | 74 |
| 11 | 75 | GM | Zhukova Natalia | 2482 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Rodshtein Maxim | 2680 | 11 |
| 12 | 12 | GM | Wei Yi | 2675 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | IM | Pichot Alan | 2480 | 76 |
| 13 | 77 | IM | Das Arghyadip | 2476 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Hou Yifan | 2673 | 13 |
| 14 | 14 | GM | Jones Gawain C B | 2671 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | IM | Melia Salome | 2473 | 78 |
| 15 | 79 | IM | Trent Lawrence | 2470 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Howell David W L | 2670 | 15 |
| 16 | 83 | GM | Krush Irina | 2467 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo | 2649 | 17 |
| 17 | 18 | GM | Edouard Romain | 2638 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | IM | Adla Diego | 2469 | 80 |
| 18 | 85 | GM | Vishnu Prasanna. V | 2463 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | GM | Sutovsky Emil | 2637 | 19 |
| 19 | 20 | GM | Bartel Mateusz | 2631 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | IM | Kjartansson Gudmundur | 2468 | 82 |
| 20 | 87 | IM | Docx Stefan | 2450 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Adhiban B. | 2630 | 21 |
Some other important results involve the Chinese. Hou Yifan beat her opponent with good play. For the first time since 1989 (!) Judit Polgar does not top the live rating list.
| Name | Classical | +/- | Age | ||
| 1 | Hou Yifan | China | 2675.2 | +2.2 | 20 |
| 2 | Polgar J | Hungary | 2675.0 | 0.0 | 38 |
| 3 | Koneru | India | 2581.0 | 0.0 | 27 |
| 4 | Dzagnidze | Georgia | 2570.0 | 0.0 | 28 |
| 5 | Ju Wenjun | China | 2547.8 | +0.8 | 24 |
| 6 | Muzychuk A | Ukraine | 2543.5 | -0.5 | 24 |
| 7 | Cmilyte | Lithuania | 2530.2 | +5.2 | 31 |
| 8 | Lagno | Russian Federation | 2530.0 | 0.0 | 25 |
| 9 | Kosteniuk | Russian Federation | 2529.0 | 0.0 | 30 |
| 10 | Gunina | Russian Federation | 2527.8 | -10.2 | 25 |
| 11 | Zhao Xue | China | 2527.1 | +13.1 | 29 |
| 12 | Muzychuk M | Ukraine | 2524.0 | +4.0 | 22 |
| 13 | Khotenashvili | Georgia | 2521.2 | -4.8 | 26 |
| 14 | Cramling | Sweden | 2517.8 | -0.2 | 51 |
| 15 | Stefanova | Bulgaria | 2513.7 | -1.3 | 36 |
Taken from 2700chess
Currently the reigning World Champion and the retired Judit Polgar are tied at 2675 as FIDE rounds down when doing calculations.
Also close to breaking records is Wei Yi. The youngster defeated the reigning u-16 World Champion, Alan Pichot, very convincingly. He sits at only one victory away from crossing the 2700 barrier. If he does so in this tournament, he becomes the youngest player ever to do so - even younger than Magnus Carlsen himself.
Tomorrow's round promises some interesting games:
Select games from the dropdown menu above the board
All photos by Sophie Triay from the Official Website
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