Gibraltar Rd3: The Chinese advance

by Alejandro Ramirez
1/29/2015 – Three Chinese players have a perfect score in Gibraltar: Ju Wenjun (who upset Richard Rapport), Wei Yi and Hou Yifan. The 15-year old prodigy is the youngest player in history to break 2700. Several people still have 3.0/3, but the matches are becoming tougher and tougher. Today's round was specially graced by the presence of the governor of Gibraltar, Sir James Dutton.

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Round Three

Another action packed round in Gibraltar. The difference in rating of the first boards was still significant, but it would have been hard to predict all of today's results.

Bo.   Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg
1 GM Nabaty Tamir 2579 2 0 - 1 2 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2776
2 GM Stefansson Hannes 2573 2 ½ - ½ 2 GM Vitiugov Nikita 2735
3 GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2733 2 ½ - ½ 2 GM Mikhalevski Victor 2571
4 GM Oparin Grigoriy 2551 2 ½ - ½ 2 GM Yu Yangyi 2724
5 GM Harikrishna P. 2723 2 1 - 0 2 GM Chirila Ioan-Cristian 2548
6 GM Ju Wenjun 2547 2 1 - 0 2 GM Rapport Richard 2716
7 GM Lalith Babu M.R. 2537 2 1 - 0 2 GM Cheparinov Ivan 2681
8 GM Rodshtein Maxim 2680 2 1 - 0 2 GM Rasmussen Allan Stig 2526
9 GM Khotenashvili Bela 2526 2 0 - 1 2 GM Wei Yi 2675
10 GM Hou Yifan 2673 2 1 - 0 2 GM Al-Sayed Mohammed 2516
11 GM Blomqvist Erik 2520 2 ½ - ½ 2 GM Jones Gawain C B 2671
12 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2515 2 1 - 0 2 GM Edouard Romain 2638
13 GM Adhiban B. 2630 2 1 - 0 2 IM Donchenko Alexander 2511
14 IM Kjartansson Gudmundur 2468 2 1 - 0 2 GM Bachmann Axel 2629
15 GM Vishnu Prasanna. V 2463 2 ½ - ½ 2 GM Naroditsky Daniel 2622
16 GM Grandelius Nils 2602 2 1 - 0 2 GM Bellon Lopez Juan Manuel 2370
17 GM Venkatesh M.R. 2460 2 ½ - ½ 2 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2595
18 GM Roiz Michael 2592 2 1 - 0 2 WGM Soumya Swaminathan 2346
19 IM Houska Jovanka 2388 2 0 - 1 2 GM Vazquez Igarza Renier 2592
20 GM Topalov Veselin 2800 1½ 1 - 0 2 FM Guerrero Vargas Andres 2320

The Governor of Gibraltar, Sir James Dutton, visited the event

Perhaps he is worried that none of the local players have 3.0/3 in the top section

Hikaru Nakamura holds on to board one as he defeated Tamir Nabaty after a very long struggle. Nikita Vitiugov, Dmitry Jakovenko and Yu Yangyi were all nicked for draws by grandmasters that were about 150 points lower rated: Hannes Stefansson, Victor Mikhalevski and Grigoriy Oparin.

Stefansson vs. Vitiugov ended in a draw on board two

Victor Mikhalevski's rating has been as high as 2638 and as low as 2516 in a span of five years

Several people, however, did manage to go 3.0/3, including Pentala Harikrishna

[Event "Gibraltar Masters 2015"] [Site "Caleta ENG"] [Date "2015.01.29"] [Round "3.5"] [White "Harikrishna, Pentala"] [Black "Chirila, Ioan-Cristian"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C65"] [WhiteElo "2723"] [BlackElo "2548"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "2015.01.27"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. O-O Nd4 6. Nxd4 Bxd4 7. Nd2 O-O { Harikrishna actually had used this against Leko last month in the World Mind Games. His opponent must have p repared against this, but perhaps he confused his ideas.} 8. c3 (8. Nf3 Bb6 9. Nxe5 d5 10. Bg5 c6 $44 {Harikrishna-Leko, 2014.}) 8... Bc5 $2 {This is already a serious mistake. Black cannot afford to lose this much time.} (8... Bb6 {was necessary so the bishop would not be attacked at the end.} 9. d4 d6 $11) 9. d4 $1 exd4 {Black has no choice but to take on d4 now.} 10. e5 dxc3 (10... Ne8 11. Nb3 Be7 12. cxd4 d6 {is passive and a little better for White, but better than what happened in the game.}) 11. exf6 cxd2 12. fxg7 Kxg7 (12... Re8 13. Bxd2 {was almost as bad.}) 13. Bxd2 d6 14. Bc3+ {It's true that Black is up a pawn, but that is the only thing going for him in this position. His pieces are not developed and his king is going to come under serious pressure.} f6 15. Qh5 Qe7 16. Bd3 Kg8 17. Rae1 Qf7 {So far one would think Black is holding, but the addition of the rook to the attack will be lethal.} 18. Qh4 h5 19. Re3 $1 {White only needs one rook to crash through! The e3 kamikaze might as well be taken.} Bxe3 20. fxe3 {Now there is too much pressure on f6; also h5 is weak, there are idea of Bc4+ and rook lifts.} Qg7 21. Qxh5 c6 22. Rf4 Bd7 23. Bf5 $1 {Removing an important defender.} Bxf5 24. Qxf5 Qh6 25. Rg4+ Kh8 26. Rg5 {Rh5 next move is crushing. A swift punishment of a strange opening} 1-0

Richard Rapport, however, was not able to go 3.0/3, he fell to one of the best female players in the World, Ju Wenjun.

Swaminathan Soumya defeated GM Kayden Troff in
round two but was stopped by GM Michael Roiz today

Other players in the Chinese delegation also had a great day. Hou Yifan beat Mohammed Al-Sayed in a very strange game while Wei Yi took care of Bela Khotenashvili. With this the reigning Women's World Champion consolidates herself as the top female player in the World according to the live rating lists, while Wei Yi crosses 2700!

Some notable upsets were the victories of grandmasters Antoaneta Stefanova and Lalith Babu over the higher rated Romain Edouard and Ivan Cheparinov.

Lalith Babu beat Ivan Cheparinov and moves to 3.0/3

The commentary team of Simon Williams and Elisabeth Paehtz hard at work

Round Four Pairings

Bo.   Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg
1 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2776 3   3 GM Grandelius Nils 2602
2 GM Roiz Michael 2592 3   3 GM Harikrishna P. 2723
3 GM Vazquez Igarza Renier 2592 3   3 GM Rodshtein Maxim 2680
4 GM Wei Yi 2675 3   3 GM Ju Wenjun 2547
5 GM Hou Yifan 2673 3   3 GM Lalith Babu M.R. 2537
6 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2515 3   3 GM Adhiban B. 2630
7 GM Svidler Peter 2739 2½   3 IM Kjartansson Gudmundur 2468
8 GM Topalov Veselin 2800 2½   2½ GM Stefansson Hannes 2573
9 GM Vitiugov Nikita 2735 2½   2½ GM Bok Benjamin 2572
10 GM Bogner Sebastian 2565 2½   2½ GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2733
11 GM Yu Yangyi 2724 2½   2½ GM Sengupta Deep 2569
12 GM Jones Gawain C B 2671 2½   2½ GM Oparin Grigoriy 2551
13 GM Mikhalevski Victor 2571 2½   2½ GM Howell David W L 2670
14 GM Muzychuk Anna 2544 2½   2½ GM Salgado Lopez Ivan 2628
15 GM Naroditsky Daniel 2622 2½   2½ GM Spraggett Kevin 2538
16 GM Popilski Gil 2522 2½   2½ GM Anton Guijarro David 2617
17 GM Lenderman Aleksandr 2614 2½   2½ GM Boruchovsky Avital 2517
18 GM Tarjan James E 2518 2½   2½ GM Bologan Viktor 2608
19 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2603 2½   2½ GM Blomqvist Erik 2520
20 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2595 2½   2½ GM Vishnu Prasanna. V 2463

The tension is building in Gibraltar as only a handful of people remain with a perfect score, and there is a battalion trailing them by half a point. Wei Yi and Ju Wenjun play a Chinese derby to determine who keeps their perfect performance. Peter Svidler will try to catch the leaders against Gudmundur Kjartansson, who has defeated two 2600s back to back.

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All photos by Sophie Triay from the Official Website

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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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