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By Sabrina Chevannes - Photos by David Llada
It’s that time of year again where chess players from all over the world head to Sin City to gamble. However, they are not necessarily gambling in the casinos here, but the fact that they have all paid a steep entrance fee (some have paid as much as $2000) to enter this Millionaire Open chess tournament. The tournament prides itself as one of the elite tournaments in the chess world, with an extremely generous prize fund, professional commentary, great playing conditions, whilst also trying to provide extra perks for the players. This year, they even added a new “Millionaire Square Prize”, where one of the players who reaches the Millionaire Monday will get a 1 in 64 chance of becoming an instant millionaire. Welcome to Vegas.
Last year’s winner, Wesley So, also came back to try his luck
at the $100,000 first prize
However, So is no longer the top seed in the event, with his Olympiad
teammates Hikaru Nakamura, world no. 2, and ...
... Fabiano Caruana looking for a piece of the action.
The tournament began with a bit of an unconventional start, with several players winning their games within 30 minutes due to opponents failing to turn up. This seemed somewhat of a bizarre occurrence that so many players would pay such a hefty entrance fee for the event and just simply not turn up. It was then discovered that the list made to use the pairings included all of the original entries, including those who had already withdrawn from the event. This led to frustration amongst many of the players and the staff, making it a rather stressful start to the tournament.
However, the online spectators were happy to see that the top three seeds were not affected by this situation and they were able to see the top three US players finish off their opponents rather easily. Most of the pairings went according to seed, but there was one big upset of the round where GM Akobian got outplayed by Vignesh Panchanathan – a young boy from India.
By the time 7pm came for the second round, many players were already exhausted. The Europeans were not used to playing 2 rounds a day and many Americans were suffering minor jet lag. However, there were still many players who managed to pick up a full point without even playing a game. Problems with the pairings, again, allowed a few players to walk away after just 30 minutes.
Probably the most dramatic news about the round was when Fabiano Caruana started to look a bit shaky against young America talent, Ruifeng Li, when he failed to cope with the Evans Gambit. Commentator Lawrence Trent, who also happens to be Fabiano’s manager was not feeling very good whilst watching the end of that game and started to get rather nervous. Luckily for Fabiano, so did young Li, so he decided to repeat the position and walk away with a draw against the world number six.
Tania Sachdev and Lawrence Trent are among the official live commentators. Trent was
understandably quite nervous when he saw Fabiano Caruana close to losing in an Evans Gambit.
After surviving the first day, the players turned up fresh for the third round. However, some players were fresher than others as they still had not played a single game of chess, but made it to 2.0/2. Once again, the excitement was amongst the top players the top players with Nakamura dropping half a point against Israeli GM Popilski, who is part of the University of Texas, Dallas chess team.
It was a sign of the surprises in an open such as this, and GM Popilski,
well over 200 Elo lower than world no.2 Nakamura, achieved a draw
Meanwhile, Wesley So was cruising to a perfect 3.0/3. Fabiano was already half a point behind and only just made the live boards. He was up against Priyadarshan Kannappan who was one of the players who won his spot in the Millionaire Open. Fabiano looked like he was doing rather well at one point and had plenty of ways to try and win, but somehow Priyadarshan got the upper hand and Fabiano suddenly found himself a piece down. The game went right down to the wire and Priyadarshan couldn’t find a way to clinch the full point, settling for a repetition.
The fourth round of the tournament was probably the most exciting so far. Wesley So looked like he was going to finish his opponent off before the live commentary even started. He was up against GM Durarbayli from Webster University, Wesley’s old school. However, things started to take a drastic turn and last year’s champion found himself in a drawn rook and pawn ending. Somehow Wesley still came out of that game with a loss.
Vasif Durarbayli found himself dead lost in the opening, but somehow
managed to fight back with such resilience that his opponent Wesley So
lost the thread in frustration and lost!
Another shocking result occurred in the Ramirez-Meinhardt game. The German IM was having a great tournament so far with a draw against GM Shimanov and a win against GM Macieja. However, Alejandro Ramirez looked comfortable and enjoying a clear advantage throughout the game but had a complicated opposite-coloured bishop ending. With this new time control of a five-second delay instead of the usual 30-second increment, anything was possible and somehow Alejandro hung what was essentially a mate in two. (Ed: the five-second delay works this way: after the clock is pressed, the opponent's time does not start for five seconds. This is not an increment, and does not accumulate each move.) It seems it is really Meinhardt’s year, although a GM norm is not possible now due to the forfeit in the first round.
This ending was just far too much for Ramirez and sadly he withdrew
from the competition.
On the other hand, Gata Kamsky was not deterred from his default in round
three and was back looking strong in round four in which he scored a clean win.
by Albert Silver
After four rounds, only four players still stood with perfect scores: Quang Liem Le, Yu Yangyi, Evgeny Bareev, and heroic defender Vasif Durarbayli. Right behind them was a pack of players at 3.5/4, including Hikaru Nakamura, Ray Robson, and Luke McShane. Even though the tournament would play out for a full nine rounds, this is not your usual tournament.
There is a break-off point at round seven, in which the top four players will qualify for Millionaire Monday, playing in a knockout phase with semifinals, and finals, for the big money. This cutoff point was not only for the Open, with its $100 thousand first prize, but also all the other sections, all with life-changing top prizes of their own.
What is life-changing? Consider that in the Open section alone there would actually be three different semifinals: the top section, then there is the 2400-2549 section with a 1st prize of $40 thousand, the Under 2400 with a 1st prize of $38 thousand.
However, it does not end there. No indeed! Each and every section had top prizes in the tens of thousands of dollars! If you won the under-1600 tournament, first prize was a cool 30 grand, and second was only 16 thousand. Even the under-1200 first prize was a whopping 20 thousand dollars!
You can imagine that with the stories of cheating that have abounded, the fears are great. Security is no less severe, correctly so, and of the standard that casinos in Las Vegas are pros at. No spectator can enter with a phone or electronic device of any kind, and metal detectors are passed over each and every participant.
By round six, it was clear there was going to be a mad fight for the qualifying spots. Quang Liem Le was the only player with 5.5/6, conceding a draw only to Hikaru Nakamura, while no fewer than eight players led by Nakamura, McShane, So, and Yu Yangyi stood at 5.0/6.
Quang Liem Le had the cleanest event, leading throughout to qualify
Ray Robson was one of those contenders, and throughout the event seemed to have a guardian angel watching over him. This isn't to say he benefitted from a moment of good fortune, rather it seemed that was the entire tale. In almost all his games he left the opening either worse, much worse, or dead lost. In his game against GM Alex Fishbein none of the commentators gave Ray a prayer of a chance, yet somehow the tide turned and Ray walked away with the full point. Finally, in round six, he had an opening all to his liking, and demolished his opponent in a spectacular attack.
Enjoying a guardian angel, Ray Robson
However, Robson's luck ended one round too early, and in the final decisive round, the one for all the marbles, he was unrecognizable and lost to Alexander Lenderman, making Lenderman one of the guaranteed qualifiers.
Also guaranteed of his spot was Quang Liem Le, who drew fairly quickly against Wesley So. By fairly quickly, we are talking about the stipulated minimum 30 moves required before a draw can be agreed upon. This takes us to the largest controversy of the key seventh round: the game between Hikaru Nakamura and Luke McShane.
Indeed by move seven they were repeating moves, and by move nine they were shaking hands. This did not go down well with the arbiters and organizers. In fact, this led to a very lengthy debate on whether it would even be allowed, a heated discussion that lasted over one and a half hours! In the end, it was conceded with the utmost reluctance, with both players claiming any deviation would lead to a worse position, which neither was willing to allow. Mind you, this did not ensure a spot in the qualifying group, but rather a spot in the playoff, though it almost bit them in the behind. In fact, David Smerdon wrote a small article on the math behind the decision and why it was a mistake.
Organizer Maurice Ashley was furious at the breach of the rules in both spirit and letter
Maurice Ashley...stylin' !
The third and final person to guarantee a spot in the final four was Yu Yangyi, who survived
the storm stirred up by Alex Rombaldani, and prevailed.
The line of players ready to fight it off in the playoff was growing, but nothing was decided yet. There was one game left where a decisive result would have closed the group of four, and left the rest out in the cold. The game between Sam Shankland and Evgeny Bareev.
Sam Shankland survived the seventh round by some miracle
Evgeny Bareev, who recently established himself in Canada, never got
over his missed chance
Admiring each others's chess tattoos
One of the numerous beautiful participants
Elvis lives!
The playoff was a wild affair. With three qualified and ten (not a typo) tied to fight over the one spot left, it promised to be a tense grueling affair. And consider who those ten lucky souls were: Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Luke McShane, Evgeny Bareev, Gata Kamsky, Sergei Azarov, Aleksandr Shimanov, Gregory Kaidanov, and Gil Popilski (the player who drew Nakamura early on).
Veteran GM and coach Gregory Kaidanov was the oldest qualifier for the playoff after he beat...
...19-year-old Ilya Nyzhnyk in the seventh round.
How does one decide on the last spot? The players were divided into two groups, one of five and one of four. Why four? Popilski found himself with the enviable choice of playing for as one of ten in the main group or, as chance would have it, one of the top spots in the 2400-2549 group (he is rated 2529 FIDE). Deciding that a one in four chance to win $40 thousand was better than a one in ten chance of only making the last four, he made his choice.
In group one, it was Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Luke McShane, Aleksandr Shimanov, and Gregory Kaidanov, while group two was Hikaru Nakamura, Gata Kamsky, Sergei Azarov, and Evgeny Bareev. Each group would play a round robin of games in 15 minutes (no increment), and the winner of the group would then play the winner of the other group in a best of three games of 15 minutes.
Group one saw Fabiano Caruana quickly crumble and the group was soon decided by Wesley So and Aleksandr Shimanov. As they both tied, they were forced to a playoff between them in five-minute blitz games which So won.
Luke McShane and Wesley So fighting in their group
Group two was dominated by Hikaru Nakamura, who nearly whitewashed his field, except for a single blot on his record when he somehow let Kamsky escape from dead lost position with a draw. Evgeny Bareev was clearly not himself, most likely distraught at his missed win over Shankland still, and lost in less than 15 moves against Nakamura, and little more resistance against Kamsky. This left the two multiple US Champions to fight for their group in a minimatch of blitz games, and there was little to be said, Nakamura was simply in another league in this time control.
When it came down to speed chess, Nakamura was in a league of his own
The final match was to be the best of three 15-minute games between Wesley So and Nakamura, and it seemed as if So was going to get the better of it as he emerged from the opening with a much better position, however, possibly due to nerves, the position lost some of its luster and he agreed to a draw much to the astonishment of the commentators. Game two was a repeat performance, and it was hard to understand why he was allowing Nakamura off with a draw so easily, but game three showed that he could not count on the same kindness, and when his position became unpleasant, the world no. 2 showed no mercy and took the game and the match.
It was a grueling playoff, but Hikaru Nakamura fought off all the other contenders to win the spot
The semifinals to be played on Millionaire Monday will face Yu Yangyi against Hikaru Nakamura, and Le Quang Liem against Alex Lenderman.
All photos by David Llada, official photographer of Millionaire Chess 2015
Links
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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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