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Qatar Masters 2015 – It’s a Carlsen vs Kramnik showdown!

Report from Doha by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal

What a finale we have at the Qatar Masters Open 2015! It’s Magnus Carlsen against Vladimir Kramnik on board one of the final round, but before we start to discuss the possibilities on who will lift the trophy and also the tiebreak regulations (yes, there is one!), let us first shift our attention to the penultimate round.

At the start of the eighth round three players were in the lead with 5.5/7 – Magnus Carlsen, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Sanan Sjugirov. Carlsen faced Mamedyarov on the top board and Sjugirov was up against his countryman Vladimir Kramnik.

Name first, surname second, that’s the way the World Champion writes his scoresheet

At first, Mamedyarov played all solid with the Bxf6 variation in the Ragozin. Was he going to play it solidly and just make a draw? Well, the decision of taking back on d4 with the pawn and accepting the isolated pawn meant that Mamedyarov wanted something more. He then went ahead with his h-pawn and prepared for the d4-d5 central break. But it is one thing to trick 2600 rated opponents, which Mamedyarov has been doing quite successfully in this event, and quite another to fool the highest rated player in the world. Magnus was up to the task, gobbling up Shakhriyar’s incorrect pawn sacrifice and later even won a piece. The game ended in just 25 moves!

Mamedyarov - Carlsen

A composed Mamedyarov a few minutes before all hell broke loose and he landed in a lost position

The sole leader of the Qatar Masters Open 2015 – Magnus Carlsen with 6.5/8

The only other person who could catch him was Sanan Sjugirov. The 22-year-old was up against Vladimir Kramnik. Last year at the Qatar Masters Kramnik had defeated Sjugirov by playing an absolutely flawless game from the white side of the Reti. Today the ex-World Champion decided to play the London System, and things were not very different from 2014. Kramnik once again played some fantastic chess to beat Sanan, although it must be said that Sjugirov made his opponent’s task considerably easier by castling long.

Sanan Sjugirov was having a great event with wins over Radoslaw
Wojtaszek and Dmitry Jakovenko, but the youngster had to taste
bitter defeat against Vladimir Kramnik

What? Wait! Come on Vlad, that is illegal!

Kramnik - Sjugirov

Kramnik always takes special care to keep himself in the best possible shape at the board

“Who am I playing?” Yu Yangyi does a la Kramnik, before the start of his game against Nils Grandelius

Nils Grandelius - Yu Yangyi

Due to the huge number of draws, Vladimir Kramnik and Yu Yangyi are the only players in second with 6.0/8. While Magnus, the sole leader, faces Vladimir Kramnik, Yu Yangyi will take on Wesley So. The Chinese player still has some chances to defend his title.

The most important pairing for the final round

If Magnus beats Vladimir then it is all over. He wins the title as no one can catch him. But in case the top board clash ends in a draw and Yu Yangyi is able to beat Wesley So, then both Carlsen and Yu Yangyi would be on 7.0/9. The rules of the tournament say that, “In the event of a tie for the first place in the Tournament, there shall be conducted a Play-Off for the first prize of $27,000 and Trophy.” The players will play a blitz (5 minutes + 3 seconds) tiebreak of two games. If that ends in a draw there will be another tiebreak of two games. In the event of another 1-1 tie the person to win the next decisive game would be the champion.

By the way this tiebreak scenario can also arise if Kramnik beats Carlsen and Yu Yangyi gets the better of Wesley So. In any case the blitz tiebreaks will only happen if Yu Yangyi scores a full point. For all other spots except the first place the tiebreak criteria is rating performance.

An about-to-yawn-Anish Giri was not able to breakthrough Ruslan Ponomariov’s defenses
and the game ended in a draw

Wesley So had a great chance of winning against Lin Chen (2532) but was unable to do
so and hence has fallen out of the race for the top spot. He will still play a pretty huge
role in determining the winner of the tournament as he faces Yu Yangyi in the final round.

Sergey Karjakin has been nowhere close to the form he showed in the
Baku World Cup 2015. He is currently on 5.5/8 and in the tenth spot.

Surya Shekhar Ganguly beat Salem Saleh in a tense encounter to move to 5.5/8

A battle between two men in their forties ended in a draw. Trivia: Who do you think is older:
Vladimir Akopian (left) or Vassily Ivanchuk? Please write your answers in the comments section
below. (Don’t use Google!)

Red – a colour that is associated both with love and war. In their game Vladimir Fedoseev
went for blood and defeated Dronavalli Harika

The two super Chinese players: Lin Chen (standing) drew against Wesley So in the eighth
round, while Xu Yinglun drew against David Howell and has a rating performance 2811. Both
are on 5.5/8 and the latter had already achieved his GM norm with two rounds to spare!

Somewhere around the 40th move, Shardul Gagare (right) was in a lost position and had
only one second on his clock when he made his move against Daniele Vocaturo. Nevertheless,
he miraculously saved his position and thus made his final GM norm. He is currently on 2491
and requires nine Elo points to become India’s latest grandmaster.

Four women players on 4.5/8 have a chance to win the women’s prize of US $8,000. From
top left clockwise: Aleksandra Goryachkina, Hou Yifan, Eesha Karavade and Alexandra Kosteniuk.
Currently Kosteniuk has the best tiebreak.

Chess Couples!

Chess is one of the very few sports where men and women can compete with each other on equal footing. When male and female players compete in the same event it is natural that many of them interact with each other! And when these meetings happen repeatedly in many chess events all over the world there are high chances of a relationship building up. In such a scenario the country, creed, caste etc. doesn’t really matter. What matters is the love for each other and the common bonding thread of the beautiful game of chess! At the Qatar Masters 2015 there are many chess couples. Amruta Mokal took pictures of them over the days of the event and we present them to you now:

The tournament director Mohamed-Al-Modiahki (2550) is the first grandmaster of Qatar and his wife
Zhu Chen (2416) is the former World Women’s Champion. They both married in the year 2001.

It’s been only a few months since Radoslaw Wojtaszek (2749) and IM Alina Kashlinskaya (2448) have
married each other and they are already back to the thing they love the most – playing chess together!

Pavel Tregubov (2576) is a strong Russian grandmaster while Alexandra Kosteniuk (2520)
is a former World Women’s Champion. They tied the knot in 2015.

One of the most lively and enthusiastic couples in Qatar are the Bartels! Mateusz is a strong
grandmaster with an Elo of 2631 while Marta is a WGM with a peak rating of 2379. They have
been married for two years.

Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son was a wonder kid. He started playing chess at the age of three and won
the world under-10 title. His wife IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen has shown a marked improvement in her
level of play ever since they got married in 2015. Take for example where she beat two GMs
Neelotpal Das and Aravindh Chithambaram and drew with Alex Lenderman and Nils Grandelius!

Ni Hua with his wife Su Shenzen who is a musician, though we are almost certain that she knows the rules of chess!

Chinese couple who now live in Singapore: GM Zhang Zhong and IM Li Ruofan

Do these guys even need an introduction! Currently the most famous chess couple in the
town Anish Giri and Sopiko Guramashvili. This might be a good time to revisit the beautiful
day of 18th July 2015 when the couple got hitched to each other.

The video above is shared by Anish’s father Sanjay Giri on Youtube and has the famous Indian
song “Tum Hi Ho” playing in the background.

Note: The last round begins three hours earlier than usual, at 12.p.m local time.

That’s the million dollar question!

Photos by Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India

Replay games of round eight (with times per move)

Pairings and results for round eight on 28.12.2015

Standings after eight rounds

Click for complete standings

Schedule for Playchess Commentary

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