Medias Kings Rd3: Nisipeanu hero of the day

ROMGAZ and the Chess Club Society "Elisabeta Polihroniade” of Bucharest are staging a double round robin tournament with six top GMs: the world's second highest ranked player, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who at the age of 20 has an Elo rating of 2815. Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk, currently the world's number five, rated 2776; Sergey Karjakin, former child prodigy and youngest GM of all time, now playing for Russia, rated 2776; top US grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, clear winner of this year's Wijk aan Zee tournament; Teimour Radjabov, at 2744 one of Azerbaijan's top GMs, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, the best Romanian player, currently rated 2659. The competition is taking place from June 11th to 22nd 2011 in Medias, Romania.

Round three results

It seems as if none of the players is destined to finish without at least one win, since after blundering away a drawn position to Nakamura, allowing the latter to bounce back from his loss to Carlsen, Nisipeanu extracted his pound of flesh from Ivanchuk in round three.

The arrival of the hero of the day, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, with his second

Sergey Karjakin and his second, Alexander Motylev

Magnus Carlsen and his father, OJ and raisin bearer Henrik

Karjakin-Nakamura had all the promise of an exciting game with a sharp Najdorf played by the American. Even though neither player flinched at playing the continuations they felt best, no breakthroughs took place, and eventually the position just stalled.

GM Șubă (pronounce Shubah) makes the first move in Karjakin-Nakamura

Karjakin,Sergey (2776) - Nakamura,Hi (2774) [B90]
5th Kings Tournament Medias ROU (3), 13.06.2011
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Ng4 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Bg7 10.h3 Ne5 11.f3 Nbc6 12.Bf2 Be6 13.Qd2 Rc8 14.Nd5 Nxd4 15.Bxd4 Bxd5 16.exd5 Qc7 17.c3 Qa5 18.Be3 Nc4 19.Bxc4 Rxc4 20.0-0 Be5 21.Qd3 Qb5 22.Rac1 Ra4 23.Qxb5+ axb5 24.a3 Kd7 25.Kf2 Rc8 26.Rcd1 f5 27.Ke2 Rg8 28.Kd3 h5 29.Rde1 h4 30.Bf2 Bf6 31.Rh1 Rh8 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]

Carlsen repeated his choice of the QGD, this time against Radjabov, and was clearly willing to play out a simplified middlegame where he might outsmart his opponent. It didn’t quite work out though, and despite an initial structural advantage, it was the Azeri GM who threatened to take the edge while Magnus had to play with some precision. Still, he was never in any genuine danger, and the game drew after 37 moves.

Carlsen,M (2815) - Radjabov,T (2744) [D37]
5th Kings Tournament Medias ROU (3), 13.06.2011
1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 Nbd7 7.a3 c5 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.Nxd5 exd5 10.dxc5 Nxc5 11.Be5 Bf6 12.Bxf6 Qxf6 13.Qd4 Qe7 14.Qf4 Qe4 15.Qxe4 dxe4 16.Nd4 Be6 17.Be2 Rfd8 18.0-0 Nb3 19.Nxe6 fxe6 20.Rad1 Kf7 21.f4 Kf6 22.Kf2 Nd2 23.Rfe1 Rac8 24.Rc1 Nb3 25.Rc4 Rxc4 26.Bxc4 Nc5 27.Ke2 b5 28.Ba2 Nd3 29.Rd1 Rc8 30.Bb1 Nxb2 31.Rd7 Na4 32.Bxe4 Nc5 33.Rd4 Nxe4 34.Rxe4 Rc2+ 35.Kf3 Ra2 36.Rb4 a6 37.Rb3 Ke7 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]

Nisipieanu faced the fashionable Berlin against Ivanchuk, but this time the wall was destined to fall as he played an inspired game never giving the Ukrainian much respite. The Romanian obtained a significant advantage which seemed to peter out more than once, but never quite and little by little he edged his way in and converted. It will be interesting to see GM analysis of this endgame.

Nisipeanu,LD (2659) - Ivanchuk,V (2776) [C67]
5th Kings Tournament Medias ROU (3), 13.06.2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Ne7 10.Ne4 Ng6 11.b3 Ke8 12.Bb2 c5 13.Nfd2 h5 14.Nc4 b6 15.f4 Ne7 16.Ne3 Nf5 17.Nd5 Bb7 18.Rfd1 Bxd5 19.Rxd5 a5 20.Re1 Rd8 21.Nf6+ Ke7 22.e6 Rxd5 23.Nxd5+ Kd6 24.exf7 Kxd5 25.Re5+ Kd6 26.Rxf5 Ke6 27.Rg5 Kxf7 28.Be5 c4 29.Bxc7 Bc5+ 30.Kf1 Rc8 31.Be5 g6 32.f5 gxf5 33.Rxh5 Rd8 34.Bc3 cxb3 35.cxb3 Kg6 36.Rh8 Rd3 37.Rh3 Be3 38.Be1 f4 39.Ke2 Rd8 40.g3 Rc8 41.gxf4 Bxf4 42.Rc3 Re8+ 43.Kd1 Rd8+ 44.Kc2 Re8 45.Bg3 Be3 46.Kd3 Bc5 47.Kc4 a4 48.Kb5 axb3 49.axb3 Re2 50.Bc7 Re6 51.b4 Be7 52.Rc4 Kf5 53.Bxb6 Bd6 54.Bc7 1-0. [Click to replay]

The only winner in round three: Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu

Standings after three rounds

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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