Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
The time control in the GP tournaments is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
The Grand Prix returns to the Telegraph Building in central Moscow, which previously hosted the 2016 Candidates Tournament won by Sergey Karjakin of Russia.
The tournament, a nine round Swiss contest, is the second of four Grand Prix in 2017 and follow’s the Sharjah Grand Prix in February which was won by Alexander Grischuk, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a three way tie.
The Moscow Grand Prix is sponsored by Kaspersky Lab, PhosAgro and EG Capital Partners.
Each round starts at 2PM (GMT +3).
| Bo. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | FED | Rtg |
| 1 | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | FRA | 2795 | 0 |
½ - ½ |
0 | Adams Michael | ENG | 2747 |
| 2 | Inarkiev Ernesto | RUS | 2727 | 0 |
½ - ½ |
0 | Nakamura Hikaru | USA | 2786 |
| 3 | Giri Anish | NED | 2785 | 0 |
½ - ½ |
0 | Gelfand Boris | ISR | 2724 |
| 4 | Radjabov Teimour | AZE | 2710 | 0 |
½ - ½ |
0 | Ding Liren | CHN | 2773 |
| 5 | Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | AZE | 2772 | 0 |
½ - ½ |
0 | Vallejo Pons Francisco | ESP | 2710 |
| 6 | Tomashevsky Evgeny | RUS | 2696 | 0 |
½ - ½ |
0 | Svidler Peter | RUS | 2755 |
| 7 | Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS | 2751 | 0 |
0 - 1 |
0 | Hou Yifan | CHN | 2652 |
| 8 | Salem A.R. Saleh | UAE | 2633 | 0 |
½ - ½ |
0 | Grischuk Alexander | RUS | 2750 |
| 9 | Harikrishna P. | IND | 2750 | 0 |
½ - ½ |
0 | Hammer Jon Ludvig | NOR | 2621 |
All photos by Max Avdeev
The first move on the top board by a, for now, inexperienced player
The Moscow Grand Prix starts with a serious cloud over its head, which, for the good of chess, it needs to get rid off somehow. The Sharjah Grand Prix, the first leg on the four-tournament tour, was without a doubt one of the least interesting super-tournaments in recent memory (or perhaps the history of chess). The incredible amount of draws, especially quick and uninteresting ones, was a serious issue.
The start in Moscow is, to be frank, not the most promising. The high number of draws continues, though granted, some where more interesting than others. As ACP President Emil Sutovsky commented:
As mentioned, some of today's games were indeed quite interesting, but Sutovsky presumably is talking about the game between Salem and Grischuk:
Not the most tiring day for Alexander Grischuk
Even a 30-move rule, which is not in effect in Moscow, would not have prevented this from happenings.
Onto the more interesting games. The top seed of the event is again Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who today faced England's Mickey Adams. The Frenchman introduced the novelty 15.Be3 in a complicated Marshall Gambit of the Spanish, but it did not rattle his opponent. White's only chance of pushing for a win was the risky but complex 18.Qxc6, which was not played, after which Adams obtained an easy draw.
Nakamura seemed confident in his opening idea and obtained a razor-sharp draw
The Inarkiev-Nakamura game had a cool finish:
Giri's preparation against Gelfand's accelerated Dragon gave him a slight edge, but when it was time to push with a slight edge the Dutch player was unable to put any real pressure. Gelfand equalized in a rook endgame and secured the draw.
Fresh off a win at the Reykjavik Open, Anish Giri was unable to convert a slight edge against Boris Gelfand in a Dragon endgame
Radjabov's game against Ding Liren can be summarized by many trades leading into an almost insignificant advantage for White against an isolated queen's pawn. The game was drawn in a major piece endgame that had no life left in it.
Even though Radjabov was close to 2800 at some point, there is now an
80 point rating gap between the two Azerbaijanis (Mamedyarov on the left)
Vallejo Pons' essay of 3...a6!? in the Queen's Gambit Declined led to a fun and interesting opening, but almost all of the sudden all the pieces got traded and a drawn rook endgame emerged. The GP Virus?!
Tomashevsky-Svidler was another one of those games that was a draw but could have been more interesting. The position reached maximum craziness here:
Tomashevsky walks around the playing hall while Giri attempts to remember his preparation
The only decisive game came at the hands of Hou Yifan, who soundly defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi:
Early leader in Moscow: Hou Yifan was the only full point of the day
Last, but certainly not least, was the game between Pentala Harikrishna and Jon Ludvig Hammer. The Norwegian player came in a fighting mood, after a timely sacrifice of his queen for a rook, bishop and two pawns, he was definitely playing for a win in a two-result game. Unfortunately for him, it was never quite enough, and the Indian player held on.
Sometimes the job just means to suffer for 92 moves and hold the draw
AGON has signed in more corporate sponsorship for chess
|
Vimpelkom and PhosAgro to sponsor 2017 FIDE Moscow Grand Prix World Chess and FIDE today announced that PhosAgro and Vimpelkom, two of Russia’s largest and best-known companies, have become official partners to the Moscow Grand Prix. The commercial partnerships were announced at a press conference this morning at the Telegraph Building in Moscow, the venue for the Grand Prix. Ilya Merenzon, Chief Executive of World Chess, said: “I am delighted to unveil Vimpelkom and PhosAgro as partners to the Grand Prix. Their involvement further underlines the fact that the commercial potential for chess as a sport continues to grow.” PhosAgro sponsored the 2016 World Chess Championship Match in New York in November, while Vimpelkom has not sponsored chess before. |
Artashes Sivkov, executive VP for corporate business development, PJSC VimpelCom, said: "Sport plays an important role in solving problems of social and economic development, as it is a special socio-cultural sphere that positively influences the most important indicators of the well-being our country. Participation of the country in international competitions and sports achievements contribute to the development of international economic relations and useful cooperation, and chess is most closely connected with the long-term strategy that is so close to business". |
| "PhosAgro has been the general partner of the Russian Chess Federation for seven straight years. The philosophy of chess and the development of PhosAgro are similar in key ways. Both are based on strategic thinking and the desire to calculate every move in advance in order remain one step ahead of the competition. These skills help us to maintain leading positions in the commodity markets of 100 countries worldwide, including our priority Russian market. We care about the future of the Russian school of chess. We have put great effort into making chess popular in the regions where we operate, we open chess classes in the schools and pre-schools that we support, and we fund the training of teachers in the field of chess. We already have established a tradition of supporting World Chess Championship matches that take place in Russia, for example, in Sochi in 2014. We also support matches with Russian grandmasters, as we did in New York in 2016, where Sergei Karjakin, who is here today, played a truly exciting game. Therefore, we are pleased to be an official partner of the Grand Prix stage here in the heart of Russia, and we hope to see our grandmaster participate in the match for the title of World Champion next year!" said Andrey Guryev, Russian Chess Federation Board of Trustees Member, CEO PJSC PhosAgro. |
| Rk. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. |
| 1 | Hou Yifan | CHN | 2652 | 1,0 |
| 2 | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | FRA | 2795 | 0,5 |
| Nakamura Hikaru | USA | 2786 | 0,5 | |
| Giri Anish | NED | 2785 | 0,5 | |
| Ding Liren | CHN | 2773 | 0,5 | |
| Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | AZE | 2772 | 0,5 | |
| Svidler Peter | RUS | 2755 | 0,5 | |
| Grischuk Alexander | RUS | 2750 | 0,5 | |
| Harikrishna P. | IND | 2750 | 0,5 | |
| Adams Michael | ENG | 2747 | 0,5 | |
| Inarkiev Ernesto | RUS | 2727 | 0,5 | |
| Gelfand Boris | ISR | 2724 | 0,5 | |
| Radjabov Teimour | AZE | 2710 | 0,5 | |
| Vallejo Pons Francisco | ESP | 2710 | 0,5 | |
| Tomashevsky Evgeny | RUS | 2696 | 0,5 | |
| Salem A.R. Saleh | UAE | 2633 | 0,5 | |
| Hammer Jon Ludvig | NOR | 2621 | 0,5 | |
| 18 | Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS | 2751 | 0,0 |
| Bo. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | FED | Rtg |
| 1 | Hou Yifan | CHN | 2652 | 1 | ½ | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | FRA | 2795 | |
| 2 | Nakamura Hikaru | USA | 2786 | ½ | ½ | Radjabov Teimour | AZE | 2710 | |
| 3 | Adams Michael | ENG | 2747 | ½ | ½ | Giri Anish | NED | 2785 | |
| 4 | Ding Liren | CHN | 2773 | ½ | ½ | Inarkiev Ernesto | RUS | 2727 | |
| 5 | Gelfand Boris | ISR | 2724 | ½ | ½ | Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | AZE | 2772 | |
| 6 | Svidler Peter | RUS | 2755 | ½ | ½ | Salem A.R. Saleh | UAE | 2633 | |
| 7 | Grischuk Alexander | RUS | 2750 | ½ | ½ | Tomashevsky Evgeny | RUS | 2696 | |
| 8 | Vallejo Pons Francisco | ESP | 2710 | ½ | ½ | Harikrishna P. | IND | 2750 | |
| 9 | Hammer Jon Ludvig | NOR | 2621 | ½ | 0 | Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS | 2751 |
AGON is offering exclusive pay-per-view video of the games and live commentary. It comes in three packages: a one-time $10 fee just for Moscow GP, a full package of all the events in the World Championship cycle for $30, and a $250 package, which is the same as the $30 Base but comes with signed posters from each event.
For more information, see the widget on the main page.
LinksThe 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 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
|
