Isle of Man Rd 6 - Pavel Eljanov leads with 5.5/6

by Johannes Fischer
10/7/2016 – Alexey Shirov started the Isle of Man tournament with 4.0/4 but in round five surprisingly decided to use the option of a "bye". He did not play the round and took a rest which brought - or cost, according to perspective - him half a point. In round six Shirov was back at the board but all his fire seemed gone. He played with Black against Pavel Eljanov and found no recipe against Eljanov's cool and creative positional play and was convincingly outplayed. After six rounds Eljanov is now sole leader with 5.5/6.

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Isle of Man Round six

Photos by Lennart Ootes

The playing hall

Pavel Eljanov showed that sometimes a retreat is the best form of attack

 

Alexey Shirov

With this smooth win against Eljanov took the sole lead with 5.5/6. Half a point behind follow three players with 5.0/6 each. One of them is Fabiano Caruana who won in round six with Black against Women's World Champion Hou Yifan. An interesting game in which both sides tried to seize the initiative by willingly giving material.

 

Fabiano Caruana

Hou Yifan

The Isle of Man tournament is an extremely strong open and every round a lot of interesting games are played. In the following game the young Indian Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram had a chance to play a nice positional queen sacrifice.

 

Top pairings and results of Round 6 (October 6, 2016)

Bo. No.   Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg No.
1 5 GM Eljanov Pavel 2741 4½ 1 - 0 4½ GM Shirov Alexei 2679 11
2 17 GM Hou Yifan 2649 4 0 - 1 4 GM Caruana Fabiano 2813 1
3 26 GM Bok Benjamin 2594 4 ½ - ½ 4 GM So Wesley 2794 2
4 8 GM Rodshtein Maxim 2687 4 1 - 0 4 GM Van Foreest Jorden 2615 24
5 46 GM Illingworth Max 2465 4 0 - 1 4 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2686 9
6 4 GM Adams Michael 2745 3½ 1 - 0 3½ GM Gupta Abhijeet 2626 23
7 10 GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2684 3½ 1 - 0 3½ GM L'ami Erwin 2605 25
8 12 GM Movsesian Sergei 2677 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ GM Svane Rasmus 2552 34
9 31 GM Brunello Sabino 2566 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ GM Fressinet Laurent 2676 13
10 14 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2670 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ GM Harika Dronavalli 2528 36
11 35 GM Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan 2536 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ GM Melkumyan Hrant 2653 15
12 16 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2650 3½ 1 - 0 3½ IM Batsiashvili Nino 2480 44
13 55 GM Sundararajan Kidambi 2429 3½ 0 - 1 3½ GM Howell David W L 2644 21
14 45 IM Puranik Abhimanyu 2471 3½ 0 - 1 3½ GM Grandelius Nils 2642 22
15 49 IM Paehtz Elisabeth 2459 3 0 - 1 3 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2787 3
16 6 GM Leko Peter 2709 3 1 - 0 3 IM Lou Yiping 2458 50
17 60 IM Karavade Eesha 2421 3 ½ - ½ 3 GM Meier Georg 2648 19
18 20 GM Bachmann Axel 2645 3 1 - 0 3 IM Gaponenko Inna 2421 59
19 51 GM Romanishin Oleg M 2456 3 ½ - ½ 3 GM Lenderman Aleksandr 2593 27
20 28 GM Lalith Babu M R 2586 3 0 - 1 3 IM Wallace John Paul 2355 74
21 29 GM Donchenko Alexander 2581 3 1 - 0 3 GM Tarjan James E 2420 61
22 71   Hemant Sharma (del) 2371 3 1 - 0 3 GM Marin Mihail 2569 30
23 83 IM Mannion Stephen R 2313 3 0 - 1 3 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. 2564 32
24 33 GM Shyam Sundar M. 2552 3 ½ - ½ 3 IM Kojima Shinya 2399 65
25 38 GM Schroeder Jan-Christian 2514 3 ½ - ½ 3 WIM Shvayger Yuliya 2405 63

Full results of all 68 games

Top standings after six rounds

Rk. SNo   Name FED Rtg  TB1  Rp
1 5 GM Eljanov Pavel UKR 2741 5,5 2929
2 1 GM Caruana Fabiano USA 2813 5,0 2863
  8 GM Rodshtein Maxim ISR 2687 5,0 2868
  9 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2686 5,0 2797
5 2 GM So Wesley USA 2794 4,5 2731
  4 GM Adams Michael ENG 2745 4,5 2749
  10 GM Naiditsch Arkadij AZE 2684 4,5 2799
  11 GM Shirov Alexei LAT 2679 4,5 2798
  16 GM Salem A.R. Saleh UAE 2650 4,5 2669
  21 GM Howell David W L ENG 2644 4,5 2681
  22 GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2642 4,5 2780
  26 GM Bok Benjamin NED 2594 4,5 2759
13 3 GM Nakamura Hikaru USA 2787 4,0 2660
  6 GM Leko Peter HUN 2709 4,0 2580
  12 GM Movsesian Sergei ARM 2677 4,0 2693
  13 GM Fressinet Laurent FRA 2676 4,0 2624
  14 GM Sargissian Gabriel ARM 2670 4,0 2624
  15 GM Melkumyan Hrant ARM 2653 4,0 2528
  17 GM Hou Yifan CHN 2649 4,0 2687
  20 GM Bachmann Axel PAR 2645 4,0 2551
  24 GM Van Foreest Jorden NED 2615 4,0 2716
  29 GM Donchenko Alexander GER 2581 4,0 2508
  31 GM Brunello Sabino ITA 2566 4,0 2560
  32 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. IND 2564 4,0 2469
  34 GM Svane Rasmus GER 2552 4,0 2513
  35 GM Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan IND 2536 4,0 2636
  36 GM Harika Dronavalli IND 2528 4,0 2646
  46 GM Illingworth Max AUS 2465 4,0 2567
  47 IM Trent Lawrence ENG 2463 4,0 2511
  71   Hemant Sharma (del) IND 2371 4,0 2537
  74 IM Wallace John Paul AUS 2355 4,0 2630
  76   Balint Vilmos HUN 2334 4,0 2534
33 18 GM Granda Zuniga Julio E PER 2648 3,5 2528

Click for complete standings

Games of rounds 1 to 6

 

Top Pairings of round 7

Bo. No.   Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg No.
1 9 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2686 5   5½ GM Eljanov Pavel 2741 5
2 1 GM Caruana Fabiano 2813 5   5 GM Rodshtein Maxim 2687 8
3 2 GM So Wesley 2794 4½   4½ GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2650 16
4 21 GM Howell David W L 2644 4½   4½ GM Adams Michael 2745 4
5 22 GM Grandelius Nils 2642 4½   4½ GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2684 10
6 26 GM Bok Benjamin 2594 4½   4½ GM Shirov Alexei 2679 11
7 3 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2787 4   4 GM Brunello Sabino 2566 31
8 32 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. 2564 4   4 GM Leko Peter 2709 6
9 35 GM Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan 2536 4   4 GM Movsesian Sergei 2677 12
10 13 GM Fressinet Laurent 2676 4   4 GM Illingworth Max 2465 46
11 34 GM Svane Rasmus 2552 4   4 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2670 14
12 15 GM Melkumyan Hrant 2653 4   4 IM Trent Lawrence 2463 47
13 36 GM Harika Dronavalli 2528 4   4 GM Hou Yifan 2649 17
14 74 IM Wallace John Paul 2355 4   4 GM Bachmann Axel 2645 20
15 24 GM Van Foreest Jorden 2615 4   4   Hemant Sharma (del) 2371 71
16 76   Balint Vilmos 2334 4   4 GM Donchenko Alexander 2581 29
17 18 GM Granda Zuniga Julio E 2648 3½   3½ GM Romanishin Oleg M 2456 51
18 19 GM Meier Georg 2648 3½   3½ IM Visakh N R 2456 52
19 23 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2626 3½   3½ IM Praggnanandhaa R 2442 54
20 25 GM L'ami Erwin 2605 3½   3½ GM Sundararajan Kidambi 2429 55
21 27 GM Lenderman Aleksandr 2593 3½   3½ IM Tania Sachdev 2414 62
22 48 GM Ushenina Anna 2459 3½   3½ GM Shyam Sundar M. 2552 33
23 53 IM Kiewra Keaton F 2454 3½   3½ GM Vishnu Prasanna. V 2522 37
24 65 IM Kojima Shinya 2399 3½   3½ GM Schroeder Jan-Christian 2514 38
25 63 WIM Shvayger Yuliya 2405 3½   3½ GM Hillarp Persson Tiger 2513 39

 

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Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".