Four chess legends meet in Platja d'Aro

Some things remain the same

Although the stamina and motivation might have lowered with the years, these four veterans keep showing their legend status is not unfounded. The favourite, Anatoly Karpov, still has a rapid rating over 2600, and he is defending it like a true champion in Catalonia. He leads on 3/4 after having defeated Ljubojevic and Torre.

Against 'Ljubo', the twelfth World Champion squeezed a small advantage in what seemed to be an equal endgame. It is no surprise that the Serbian grandmaster went a little overboard with his attempts to find daring tactical continuations, as he showed he has kept his aggressive style throughout the years when he worked as a commentator in Shamkir earlier this year.

Anatoly Karpov, a living legend | Photo: David Llada

In the third round, Karpov defeated Eugenio Torre. The Filipino already lost twice in Spain, but we shall mention the fact that he is the last one of the participants to have shown a great performance in a strong official tournament — at the 2016 Olympiad in Baku, Torre finished on 10/11 with a 2836 rating performance and took home the individual bronze medal for Board 3. Against Karpov, he fell victim of his opponent's boa-constrictor technique in a queen endgame.

Master Class Vol.6: Anatoly Karpov

On this DVD a team of experts looks closely at the secrets of Karpov's games. In more than 7 hours of video, the authors examine four essential aspects of Karpov's superb play.

The oldest participant, Anatoly Vaisser from France, is 69 years old, but that did not prevent him from advancing his g and h-pawns early in the game to defeat Torre in their second round encounter. The Soviet-born grandmaster won the Russian Chess Championship thirty-six years ago. 

Chess Endgames 14 - The golden guidelines of endgame play

Rules of thumb are the key to everything when you are having to set the correct course in a complex endgame. In this final DVD of his series on the endgame, our endgame specialist introduces you to the most important of these rules of thumb.

Anatoly Vaisser won an attacking game | Photo: David Llada

The legends will play two more rounds of rapid (25+10) and will rest on Thursday, before going back to the fray for twelve rounds of blitz (5+3) on Friday and Saturday.

The first ever Asian GM, Eugenio Torre | Photo: David Llada

All games from rounds 1-4

First Steps in Positional Play

‘First Steps in Positional Play’ attempts to equip the viewer with all the information he or she needs to begin to tackle this aspect of chess. Players below 1500 will benefit from this basic advice. Players above 1500 will enjoy the detailed examination of many current master games. This is an enjoyable tour of positional play from which everyone can learn.

Vila de Platja d'Aro Open

Simultaneously, a strong 9-round Open tournament is taking place in the coastal resort. After five rounds, the three rating favourites are sharing the lead on 4.5/5. Yasser Quesada Perez from Cuba (do not confuse him with his older brother Yuniesky), Levan Aroshidze from Georgia and Pavel Potapov from Russia will try to stay on top until Sunday's final round.

Standings after 5 rounds (first 20)

Links

• Official website