The first Geneva Chess Masters

The first Geneva Chess Masters is taking place from June 26th to 30th. Eight players in two groups qualify for a knockout phase. The games are played at 25 minutes + 10 seconds per move. In the initial phase, two groups of four players play two game matches and play-offs (in other words, no ties) and produce points to go into an all-play-all table. The top two in each group go through to the final phase.

The stage with the players

The lineup is eclectic with Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Judit Polgar (Hungary), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaidjan), Etienne Bacrot (France), Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Romain Edouard (France), and Yannick Pelletier (Switzerland).

French GM Gilles Miralles opens the event

With four match ups and a minimum of eight games per day, the organizers made the most of it by breaking up the encounters into two groups of play. This allowed spectators to follow only two games at a time, without missing any of the action, and the live commentators to keep up.

Manny Rayner and Cathy Chua are providing live video commentary via the official
site. Commentary is quite colorful, with numerous references to Fred Reinfeld, and
comments on how worthless most computer suggestions are.

The first matches of the day were between Vladimir Kramnik and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on one board, and Yannick Pelletier against Judit Polgar. Although Vladimir Kramnik had the edge in terms of Elo, in rapid games anything can happen, and that is precisely what took place. In a last minute scramble in the second game, Kramnik lost control of the position and the Azeri pulled of a win to earn his first match point.

Kramnik and Mamedyarov came quite tired after a grueling schedule these last months

The second match was between the local guest Yannick Pelletier, known to Playchess subscribers as a frequent GM commentator,  and one of the greatest prodigies of all time, Judit Polgar.

Judit Polgar is the freshest of the players, but perhaps too much so as rust may
affect her standard of play.

Despite having done little play for some time, Polgar was the clear favorite of the encounter, but the rust really showed, and it was an impressive route by the Swiss GM who won both games. In their first game, Pelletier won with relative ease, but sadly for him and the fans, missed an amazing queen sac that might have finished in great style.

Here is their first game with some light notes:

The next batch of matches pitted Hikaru Nakamura versus Romain Edouard and although Edouard impressively took the match to the blitz tiebreaks, it only made his task all the harder. Nakamura’s blitz skills are well known, and he recently stormed away with the Tal Memorial Blitz. The result was that not only did he outplay his French opponent on the board, but the clock usage was also quite decisive.

Hikaru Nakamura showed that surviving the rapids only promised punishment in blitz

Here is the video of their two games. Feel free to skip ahead to the 4m30 mark to see the start of the games.

The second match faced former Women World Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk, against Etienne Bacrot. The Russian GM was doing quite well as Black against her much higher rated opponent, and Bacrot could not outfox Kosteniuk in a Fianchetto Gruenfeld, much as he tried. Eventually, the position against her king became dangerous, and with little time she went astray and lost. In game two she was unable to equalize the match, and the French GM took the match point.

Bacrot outlasted Kosteniuk who came close to holding her own

Links Official tournament site All A Games in PGN All B Games in PGN 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.