Isle of Man - Final round

Photos by Harry Gielen

The last round saw that the fate of the event in the hands of four Super-GMs. On board one, GM Wesley So from the US, faced leader GM Pavel Eljanov from Ukraine, where only a win could help So catch Eljanov who stood a full point ahead. Although it was So's birthday, Eljanov was not in a giving mood and his superb opening preparation gave him an easy draw.

Pavel Eljanov showed flawless preparation and easily neutralized any ambitions Wesley So might have harbored

This put Caruana in a must-win situation against Adams to join Eljanov in the first place. Adams who had half a point less than Caruana, is known for not being an easy nut to crack in super-GM tournaments, however, in a close encounter in the Berlin Defense, it was the experienced British champion who made the last mistake.

It was an all-out war between Michael Adams and Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Caruana - Michael Adams (Annotations by GM Elshan Moradiabadi)

Adams and Caruana go over their game as IM Lawrence Trent, Caruana's manager, listens in

In spite of the heroic effort, Fabiano Caruana was still denied first place, though he expressed the regret there was no playoff for first. This reporter can only agree that when deciding first, a battle over the board is always preferable over a mathematical equation. The tiebreak system that decided it was accumulated score, which favored the Ukrainian as he got out of the gates faster. On the flip side, Fabiano’s efforts will send him to a very lofty 2823, which will secure a clear world no.2 spot, just 30 shy of Magnus Carlsen.

Third place was decided by Azeri player Arkadij Naiditsch, who really went out of his comfort zone to decide his fate.

Playing Black against another top player is always tough, since their preparation will certainly be of the very highest standard. Arkadij Naiditsch not only chose to play the Classical King's Indian with black, hardly his usual fare, but walked right into a pet line of his Israeli opponent, Maxim Rodshtein. To be fair, this was not by any choice, since one of the caveats of the King's Indian is that it is basically White who decides what line will be played. Naiditsch's decision was not done in half measures and he not only prepared the opening to death, but took all the appropriate risks to justify his decision. There would be no olive branch today.

Maxim Roshtein - Arkadij Naiditsch

On the other hand, not all were as pleased. Shirov was certainly breathing a sigh of relief, since he had nearly lost after a catastrophic blunder on move 61. Armenian Gabriel Sargissian could not look him in the eye after after the game. The look of purest sympathy in Alexei Shirov's face shows he understands perfectly...

The final position on the board and at the board

Another tale of woe came with Vidit Gujrathi's game against Julio Granda Zuniga. Had he won, he would have been in the top eight players, and won he was except he was extremely short of time, and allowed his Peruvian opponent to repeat the position, letting him off scott free.

Naturally, it was hardly all tales of tragedy. Consider IM John Paul Wallace (above) from Australia, 40 years old and rated 2355 FIDE, who had the event of his life as he had locked the GM norm a round in advance! In fact, no doubt due to nerves, he ruined a winning game against GM Salem, and lost, but it changed nothing and his 2639 performance easily exceeded the requirements.

No more is needed to say of 11-year-old Praggnanandhaa's superb final result as he steamrolled his much higher rated GM opponent, Axel Bachmann. Here the very-soft spoken boy is being interviewed by Fiona Steil-Antoni.

Another lovely final game was played below between two IMs, one of whom was particularly inspired.

Lou Yiping - Das Arghyadip

Another surprise was Hou Yifan's defeat to Sabino Brunello in the last round. Hou Yifan had started very strongly with 4.0/5, but a 1.0/4 in the latter half really ended that good work.

The four top female players receive their prizes: IM Tania Sachdev, GM Anna Ushenina, IM Nino Batsiashvili, and GM Harika Dronavalli (best woman)

Pavel Eljanov raises his trophy, and will have earned 15 Elo in the process too

Top pairings and results of Round 9

Full results of all 68 games

Final standings

Click for complete standings

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