Tradewise Gibraltar: Aronian takes the playoff

Vachier-Lagrave the runner-up

Five players entered the Masters Open final round in Gibraltar with 7 points. Levon Aronian pushed with white against Nakamura's Pirc defense but agreed a draw in a position that could have been played a bit further. On board two the game between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Richard Rapport ended with the point split:

Click or tap the second game in the list to switch

Play the Pirc like a Grandmaster Vol. 1: Positional lines

In the positional systems White does not try to refute the Pirc from the very first moves, but aims for a long strategic battle to prove that his space advantage and better development will finally give him the better position.

The Fashionable Caro-Kann Vol.1 and 2

The Caro Kann is a very tricky opening. Black’s play is based on controlling and fighting for key light squares. It is a line which was very fashionable in late 90s and early 2000s due to the successes of greats like Karpov, Anand, Dreev etc. Recently due to strong engines lot of key developments have been made and some new lines have been introduced, while others have been refuted altogether. I have analyzed the new trends carefully and found some new ideas for Black.

The fifth player with 7 points was Daniil Dubov. He got paired "down" to Le Quang Liem who was in the chasing group with 6½, but lost his game and was thus out of the race for the tournament victory. Instead, Le moved into the top group, along with Michael Adams and Nikita Vitiugov.

Top results of round ten

But Gibraltar must have a single winner, and the rules stipulate that only four players could participate in a playoff with performance rating being used as the tiebreak. So, Le, Adams, and 2013-winner Vitiugov were out.

Afterwards Adams and Le spoke about their games — which both featured 3.Bb5 against the Sicilian — and their overall tournament performance.

The Sicilian with 3.Bb5

The Rossolimo Variation of the Sicilian Defence (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5) is always an excellent choice with White if you want to avoid the deeply analysed main lines of the Open Sicilian. Alexei Shirov provides you with the requisite understanding of the opening's subtleties, by annotating extensively his most important games in this variation. During his career, he has played the 3.Bb5 system with both colours and he shares with you on this DVD his valuable experience.

Final standings after ten rounds (top 25)

The playoff

In the semi-final, Hikaru Nakamura met Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Richard Rapport fought Levon Aronian, each in two rapid games of 10 minutes plus 5 seconds per move. Aronian won the first game against rapport with Black, from an unfavorable position. Nakamura failed to put his positional advantage against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave into action, and the game ended in a draw.

Semi-final tiebreak

Aronian also won the second rapid game against Rapport but the second game between Nakamura and Vachier-Lagrave also ended in a draw, so their match had to be decided in blitz. Vachier-Lagrave prevailed.

In the final, after three draws Aronian won the fourth tiebreak game against the Frenchman, became tournament winner and winner of the first prize (and GBP £25,000).

All playoff games

The winner's interview

Aronian remarked that it was generally "a decent tournament" despite kicking himself for missing his chances in the last round of regulation against Nakamura. He also notes that his World Cup tiebreak experience against Vachier-Lagrave came in handy.

"I was thinking that Maxime would definitely love to have a revenge, so it was my mission not to allow it."

The London System with 2.Bf4

"Simple yet aggressive!" Enjoy this new exciting DVD by Simon Williams. Let the famouns Grandmaster from England show you how to gain a very exciting yet well founded opening game with the London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4).

The fight for the first special prize for the best woman was won by Pia Cramling. The Swedish grandmaster, born in 1963, is one of the pioneers of the women's professional chess. Her earliest games in the Mega Database are those from the preliminary round of the 8th Chess Olympiad in 1978 in Buenos Aires. Cramling has played on the Swedish national women's team since she was 15 years old.

Pia Cramling

In the following years, she was of course not limited to women-only tournaments, but regularly participated in strong opens and, for example, at the Swedish National Championships with her male colleagues. In 1986/87 Pia Cramling was the first woman to play in the German Bundesliga (for Lasker Steglitz). In 1983 she was awarded the title of International Master, and in 1992 the Grandmaster title. Between 1978 and 2016, she took part in eight women's Olympiads with the Swedish team, as well as four open Olympiad teams between 1990 and 2000. In 2003 and 2010 Pia Cramling became European Women's Champion.

Here was her last round game against Varuzhan Akobian, who gave an acclaimed Master Class earlier in the week.

English 1.c4 c5 for Black

When White doesn’t want to get involved into tons of theory, when he thinks that he is better than his opponent and can outplay him in a long game, then he uses 1.c4, the opening called English. 14 years ago Bologan started to play 1...c5 and until now he likes this move thanks to the rich type of positions arising after it, thanks to the aggressive and comfortable setups Black can get against the English Opening. “1...c5 is the best for Black!”

All games