Gibraltar: The Magnificent Eight Ride Again

The Magnificent Eight Ride Again

Report after round three by John Saunders

Everyone remembers those classic movies The Magnificent Eight and Eight Samurai, don’t they? And those with a classical education might recall Eight Against Thebes by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. No? Neither do I. The two films and the Greek play had ‘seven’ (and not ‘eight’) in the title, presumably because seven is some sort of magic number. ‘Eight’ appears to have no magical properties or fictional resonances. I’m not sure why that is – perhaps someone can enlighten me.

When I saw that this year’s Gibraltar Masters had precisely seven 2700+ players in the line-up, I was pleased because it meant I would be able to deploy all manner of analogies on this theme. It was a bit disappointing to hear that an eighth 2700+ man had been added at the last minute. My options were either (a) to bin the planned analogy or (b) doggedly stick to my schtick. Guess which option I chose...

The Magnificent Eight are Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Adams, Wojtaszek, Vachier-Lagrave, Navara, Shirov, Le Quang Liem, perhaps with an honorary ninth member, Nigel Short, as a former world championship runner-up and three-times winner of the Gibraltar Masters. After three rounds, only three of the Magnificent Eight remain on 100%. There are a total of 15 players on 3/3, including two women competitors, and representing twelve countries.

Leaders after three rounds: Michael Adams (England), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam), Nikita Vitiugov (Russia), Yu Yangyi (China), Eduardo Iturrizaga (Venezuela), Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), Vladislav Tkachiev (France), Gawain Jones (England), Jaan Ehlvest (USA), Dariusz Swiercz (Poland), Ivan Salgado Lopez (Spain), Kaido Kulaots (Estonia), Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) and Artur Jakubiec (Poland) 3/3.

Here are the results of the third round, and here the top standings:

• Full standings of 150 players are here

Antoaneta claims a major scalp

The big story of the third round was Polish super-GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek (above right), ranked fourth in the Gibraltar line-up, being gunned down by former women’s world champion Antoaneta Stefanova.

Antoaneta has proved herself to be one of the toughest women contestants who puts in a regular appearance at Gibraltar. One year she came close to overall victory in the tournament, and last year she nearly regained her world title. Her game yesterday was a classic of its type, and I would characterise it as a long squeeze (only in the purely chess sense, I hasten to add). It was a positional game which was underpinned by a recurring tactical trick, which might have accounted for many lesser mortals. Radoslaw coped well enough with the tactics but his various attempts to free his game only made things worse. It is difficult to identify exactly where he went wrong – the sign of very fine play by the opponent.

There'll always be an England

England’s three leading competitors in the field, Mickey Adams, Gawain Jones (above) and Nigel Short, were very patriotic. They all played 1 c4 – the English Opening – and all three of them won.

Mickey (above) was a tad lucky as his opponent, Estonian grandmaster Meelis Kanep, missed at least one easy chance to wrap up a draw.

Knowing me, knowing Yu

Yu Yangyi, from China, is only 18 years old and already has a rating of 2688. He is not yet as well known as other top Chinese players such as Wang Hao and Bu Xiangzhi, as he has been playing mainly in Asia and in various opens, but it is already clear that he is a prodigious talent. Former US women’s champion Anna Zatonskih found him too tough to handle in this brisk encounter.

Nigel's test

You’ll remember that I left you with the following position to solve, with White to play. Note that Nigel didn’t give any indication as to what result we have to aim for. In real-life chess nobody tells you which result you are playing for the simple reason that it is cheating. Nigel gave the impression of preferring studies to problems because they are more relevant or educational than problems, which tend to be rather artificial.

So the first question is: win or draw? The answer soon dawns that the best White can do is draw. The first instinct is to make a dash to the assistance of the b6 pawn and maybe, on a good day, win the b7 pawn. So White makes five king moves to get to c7. Unfortunately, Black makes five king moves to get to a6, and we’re left with one of those ‘deadly embrace’ positions where the player to move is in zugzwang. Here it is White’s turn: he must move the king and leave the b6 pawn to be taken.

I gave up all thought of winning at this point and correctly realised I was trying for a draw. I started looking at a dash across to, say, b1 or b2, in the hope of allow the black king to take my b6 pawn and getting the opposition for a draw. I hit on the idea of playing Kb2 the move after he had taken on b6, and when he plays Kb5, I play Kb3.

This was my first answer to Nigel and the cause of his glee. “b6!”, he exclaimed and it then struck me that answers based on gaining the opposition would never work because Black could always gain the opposition with this insidious pawn move.

Hmm. Back to the drawing board... except that, with me in charge, it had actually been a losing board so far. Eventually enlightenment dawned. The only way to reach a draw is to start with 1 Kg3! and head for e1 in the first instance, in a face-off with the black king. Ultimately Black’s only try is to head for the b6 pawn but White can pursue him closely and answer ...Kxb6 with Kb4! and he gets the draw.

A deceptively simple study, isn’t it? Nigel thinks it is by Grigoriev.

ChessBase editorial note

Actually the position arises in the following study by Nikalai Dmitrievich Grigoriev, a Russian chess player and a composer of endgame studies, born in 1895 in Moscow, where he died in 1938.

Top results and standings after round 4 (January 25, 2013)

• Full results of round four

• Full standings after four rounds

The sun always shines on the festival

This year has seen a mixture of rain and sun in the tournament so far. But it is fair to say the weather has been kind to us with a little bit of rain on some days and glorious sunshine on others. Temperatures have averaged 16 degrees Celsius. Good enough weather then to venture onto Catalan Bay, the village and beach just below the Caleta Hotel, or take a trip to the top of the Rock to visit the apes or visit the Southernmost point at Europa Point.

Tournament Director Stuart Conquest took time out to play some chess on the beach at
Catalan Bay together with players Jovana Vojinovic (Serbia) and Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine)

Catalan Bay is the second biggest sandy beach in Gibraltar

He also introduced Valentina Gunina (Russia) to the stunning views from Europa Point where Europe and Africa meet. Situated in the area is the Lighthouse built in 1841 still the only lighthouse administered by Trinity House outside of the UK. But Europa Point houses not just a Lighthouse but a Mosque and the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe, a building date back to 1309, as well as Hardings Battery built in 1844. – Photos by Zelka Malobabic.

Video report, of which there are hours and hours to be found here.

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