Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival ARONIAN WINS

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2/1/2018 – Blitz playoffs with Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian and Richard Rapport. Live commentary of the playoff! | Photo: John Saunders

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Masters group live games and commentary

Aronian wins a nailbiter of a blitz tiebreak over Vachier-Lagrave!

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Final standing after round ten (top 25)

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1
1	3	GM	Nakamura Hikaru		2781	7,5	2822
2	12	GM	Rapport Richard		2700	7,5	2763
3	2	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime		2793	7,5	2759
4	1	GM	Aronian Levon		2797	7,5	2746
5	7	GM	Vitiugov Nikita		2732	7,5	2731
	11	GM	Adams Michael		2709	7,5	2731
7	6	GM	Le Quang Liem		2737	7,5	2713
8	16	GM	Howell David W L		2682	7,0	2760
9	31	GM	Gupta Abhijeet		2610	7,0	2732
10	81	GM	Debashis Das		2501	7,0	2728
11	9	GM	Duda Jan-Krzysztof		2724	7,0	2713
	33	GM	Oparin Grigoriy		2607	7,0	2713
13	10	GM	Wang Hao		2711	7,0	2710
14	32	GM	Vocaturo Daniele		2609	7,0	2679
15	14	GM	Gelfand Boris		2697	7,0	2673
16	25	GM	Sethuraman S.P.		2646	7,0	2672
17	19	GM	Sutovsky Emil		2673	7,0	2668
18	15	GM	Dubov Daniil		2694	7,0	2658
19	116		Henderson De La Fuente Lance		2429	7,0	2642
20	93	GM	Kobo Ori		2477	7,0	2638
21	13	GM	Cheparinov Ivan		2699	7,0	2634
22	18	GM	Motylev Alexander		2673	7,0	2633
	45	GM	Narayanan S. L.		2573	7,0	2633
24	66	GM	Epishin Vladimir		2536	7,0	2595
25	35	GM	Bindrich Falko		2605	7,0	2594

Top results of round ten

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Aronian Levon	2797	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Nakamura Hikaru	2781	3
2	2	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2793	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Rapport Richard	2700	12
3	6	GM	Le Quang Liem	2737	6½	1 - 0	7	GM	Dubov Daniil	2694	15
4	7	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2732	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	2588	38
5	31	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2610	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Duda Jan-Krzysztof	2724	9
6	10	GM	Wang Hao	2711	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Howell David W L	2682	16
7	11	GM	Adams Michael	2709	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Grandelius Nils	2647	24
8	13	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2699	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Vocaturo Daniele	2609	32
9	33	GM	Oparin Grigoriy	2607	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Gelfand Boris	2697	14
10	93	GM	Kobo Ori	2477	6½	½ - ½	6	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2726	8

(Daily at 15:00 CET, except round 10)

Live from beside the Rock

by Andre Schulz

The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is entering its 16th year and was recently voted the best open tournament by members of the Association of Chess Professionals. Numerous absolute world-class players dare to skate the the thin ice of a Swiss open tournament each year, battling against a pack of hungry non-or not-yet-world-class players eager to steal their Elo rating points. Even amateurs can sometimes land a lucky punch on a good day and beat a top player. Nobody is invulnerable in chess.

The organizers around Brian Callaghan and Stuart Conquest had a good idea years ago when they instituted special prizes for the female participants of the chess festival; this year there are 15 prizes with the top prize of GBP £ 15,000 (about USD $21,000). This has promoted the appeal of chess among the female professionals who flock to the city-state each year, and help create a festive and convivial social atmosphere.

Gibraltar Chess Festival on YouTube

While half of the world class is in Wijk aan Zee, the other half is in Gibraltar. Each tournament has its own format and appeal, with professional organization, attracting a large following. Although the tournament tradition of the Tradewise Chess Festival is not quite as old as the Tata Steel Festival, which is now in its 80th year, it is firmly established as a preminent chess destination gets more popular each year. In addition to the Masters, there are several Challenger and Amateur tournaments, each with 70 to 80 participants. 270 players registered for the Masters — the Caleta Hotel is bursting at the seams!

On the fringes of the tournaments there is an attractive supporting program, with team blitz events and such show bouts like the "Battle of the sexes," played on an oversized floor chess set.

World-class line-up

The top seed this year is 2017 "player of the year" Levon Aronian. Maxim Vachier-Lagrave and four-time champion Hikaru Nakamura are are back representing the world's top players as well. But in this open format, expect some surprises, as nine other grandmasters also sport an Elo rating of 2700 or more. In all there are 92 grandmasters playing. For the group as a whole, most players come from Spain (31) then India (28), England (24) and Germany (19). Among the best women in the starting field are Anna Muzychuk, Kateryna Lagno, and World Rapid Champion among women, Ju Wenjun.

The up and coming youth are out in force as well, particularly from India, the two "miracle children" Nihal Sarin and Praggnanandhaa R but also the young German star IM Vincent Keymer. All three compete for the special prize for the best player under eighteen years of age (£ 1,000). The winner of the tournament receives £ 25,000.

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

Players (top 20) and Schedule

No.		Name	FideID	FED	Rtg
1	GM	Aronian Levon	13300474	ARM	2797
2	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	623539	FRA	2793
3	GM	Nakamura Hikaru	2016192	USA	2781
4	GM	Navara David	309095	CZE	2749
5	GM	Harikrishna P.	5007003	IND	2745
6	GM	Le Quang Liem	12401137	VIE	2737
7	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	4152956	RUS	2732
8	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	14100010	UKR	2726
9	GM	Duda Jan-Krzysztof	1170546	POL	2724
10	GM	Wang Hao	8602883	CHN	2711
11	GM	Adams Michael	400041	ENG	2709
12	GM	Rapport Richard	738590	HUN	2700
13	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2905540	BUL	2699
14	GM	Gelfand Boris	2805677	ISR	2697
15	GM	Dubov Daniil	24126055	RUS	2694
16	GM	Howell David W L	410608	ENG	2682
17	GM	Short Nigel D	400025	ENG	2681
18	GM	Motylev Alexander	4121830	RUS	2673
19	GM	Sutovsky Emil	2802007	ISR	2673
20	GM	Anton Guijarro David	2285525	ESP	2666

...270 players

Round	Date	Time (CET)
1	2018/01/23	15.00
2	2018/01/24	15.00
3	2018/01/25	15.00
4	2018/01/26	15.00
5	2018/01/27	15.00
6	2018/01/28	15.00
7	2018/01/29	15.00
8	2018/01/30	15.00
9	2018/01/31	15.00
10	2018/02/01	11.00

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