Tradewise Gibraltar: Happenings

by Macauley Peterson
2/1/2018 – There's a lot more going on every year in Gibraltar aside from the main Masters tournament. From player interviews, to master classes, to the always entertaining "Battle of the Sexes" here's some of what's been happening. | Photo: Sophie Triay
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Massive Media

The media team has been prolific, posting around a dozen video clips each day, hosted by IM Tania Sachdev. These mostly consist of short spot-interviews, but there was also an hour-long lecture from Nigel Short on "Becoming a Candidate", and a lively humanising short piece featuring several of the competitors:

Rapid-fire questions for chess stars

Tania followed up with a personal five minute featurette:

Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival through Tania Sachdev's Eyes

Another regular feature of Gibraltar which returned again this year is the "Masterclasses" where one of the participants is invited to present an hour lecture on a theme. This year's guest stars were Russian GM Valentina Gunina, and Armenian-American Varuzhan Akobian.

Masterclass with Valentina Gunina

Masterclass with Vauzhan Akobian

Another traditional and unique feature of GibChess is the "Battle of the Sexes", which is available in a three minute version of condensed highlights, and a full webcam stream of an hour and forty minutes. Take your pick or watch them both!

Battle of the Sexes highlights

Full and unedited Battle of the Sexes

Long Story Short

In between a post-game interview and a master class is "long story short" a slightly longer but still digestible chat with a celebrity grandmaster. This year host Tania Sachdev talked to Russian GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Indian GM (the second after Anand to surpass 2700 Elo) Pentala Harikrishna.

Alexandra Kosteniuk

Pentala Harikrishna

Q & A panel

A new initiative this year was a question and answer panel night, hosted by webcast co-host GM Simon Williams, featuring panelists David Howell, Emil Sutovsky, Elisabeth Paehts, Batchimeg Tuvshintugs and Nigel Short.

Lots more chess

The list of players who chased Nakamura over the past ten days reads like the who's-who of top chess, with a few exceptions. The name of the French Grand Master Jules Moussard is reasonably new. The 22-year-old has won the youth championships of his age group several times. In 2004, he was split first in the Under-10 World Youth. He equalled Vachier-Lagrave for much of the tournamentat until losing to the French number one, and the English number one Michael Adams in back-to-back games.

 
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1.e41,165,57054%2421---
1.d4946,47455%2434---
1.Nf3281,31256%2441---
1.c4181,93756%2442---
1.g319,68856%2427---
1.b314,23654%2427---
1.f45,88648%2377---
1.Nc33,79651%2384---
1.b41,75348%2380---
1.a31,19754%2403---
1.e31,06848%2408---
1.d394850%2378---
1.g466246%2361---
1.h444653%2374---
1.c342651%2425---
1.h327956%2416---
1.a410860%2468---
1.f39147%2431---
1.Nh38966%2508---
1.Na34262%2482---
1.g3 d5 2.Bg2 e5 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 Nbd7 5.Nf3 Not an opening to set the pulse racing. "His opening was a bit unambitious - he played like he was Black with White... it was a reversed Modern or something," commented Mickey Adams after the game. Bd6 6.dxe5 Nxe5 7.Nxe5 Bxe5 8.Bf4 The plan seems to be simply to exchange more pieces but Black gains a bit more time after this. Bxf4 9.Qa4+ c6 10.Qxf4 0-0 11.Nd2 Re8 12.e3 A forced weakening of the d3 square, which doesn't matter now but does later. Qb6 13.Qb4 13.Nb3 a5 14.Qd4 looks a better way of dealing with the Qxb2 threat. 13...Qxb4 14.cxb4 d4 15.e4 White deals with the threat but only at the expense of creating a passed pawn for his opponent. a5 16.bxa5 Rxa5 Black already has a slight edge, which is all the encouragement a player of Adams's quality needs. 17.0-0 Be6 18.a3 g6 19.Rfc1 Rd8 20.Bf1 h5 Mickey Adams never does anything in a hurry and his show on the kingside may be part of a waiting game to see what further positional concessions his opponent may be willing to give. 21.Bc4 Bxc4 22.Rxc4 22.Nxc4 Rb5 23.e5 Ng4 24.a4 Rb4 survives in the short term but you can't help feeling White will struggle in the longer term. 22...Ng4 23.Rb4
White has long since ceded the initiative to Black but in actual fact his position is not too bad. Here Black decides to force the issue slightly, to see what White is made of. 23...Rc5!? 24.h3?! Here White has a couple of better moves. He might be able to play 24.Rxb7 but then Black can occupy the seventh rank with Rc2 and go on testing his opponent. However, for example, after 25.Rd1 c5 26.a4 c4 27.Nf3 d3 28.Nd2 it's not clear that Black has a good way to proceed. Adams mentioned in passing the possibility of 24.Rc4 when again it is not clear if Black really has a tangible plus. 24...Ne5 25.f4 25.Rxb7 is definitely problematic now since after Rc2 the knight has to move from d2 and it has to be to f1 as 26. Rd1?? allows 26...Rxd2 and a fork on f3. 25...Nd3 26.Nb3 This is bad but 26.Rc4 Rxc4 27.Nxc4 b5 28.Ne5 Nxe5 29.fxe5 c5 also looks very difficult to defend. 26.Rb3 Nc1 27.Rxb7 Rc2 28.Kf1 Nd3 29.Rd1 Nxb2 30.Rb1 Nd3 still looks good for Black. 26...Rc2 27.Rxd4 Rxd4 28.Nxd4 Rxb2 29.Rd1? A blunder but after a move such as 29.Nf3 Black starts to mobilise his passed pawn with c5 and it is hard to stop it without conceding other weaknesses. 29...Nf2 29...Nf2 Resignation looks a tad premature but White is going to be a pawn down and facing a multitude of threats from the rook and knight combination and in return he has zero counterplay. Now 30.Rc1 Nxh3+ 31.Kf1 h4! and Black breaks up the kingside pawns. 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Moussard,J2571Adams,M27090–12018A00Tradewise Gibraltar Masters9.10

John Saunders, reporting from Gibraltar for the official site, provided daily annotated games, which we've aggregated in one place below, along with a slection of player interviews. But there's much much more on the tournament's YouTube channel.

 
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1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.f4 d6 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.c3 Nd7 6.Bc4 e6 7.0-0 Ne7 8.Qe1 0-0 9.Bb3 Bxf3 10.Rxf3 c5 11.Be3 cxd4 12.cxd4 Nf6 13.Nc3 Ng4 14.Rd1 Qb6 Slightly provocative. Engines prefer 14...d5 but we have to bear in mind that Black was trying to win rather than stay solid. 15.Na4 Qa6 16.Bc1 b5 17.Nc3 Qb6? Too slow. Black needs to get on with his queenside counterplay with 17...b4 18.Qh4 This forces the knight back. Nf6 Not 18...Bxd4+? 19.Kh1 which would leave Black with two knights en prise. 19.g4 Qb7 20.Rh3 It is pretty obvious what White's intentions are but quite hard to find a convincing way to counter them. h5 21.gxh5 Nxh5 22.f5 White's attack almost plays itself. Interviewed afterwards, White felt confident of winning around here but at the same time very nervous at the thought of beating such a highly-rated opponent. "I didn't think I would... but I did get nervous. I started to shake, I could barely move the pieces." exf5 23.exf5 Nxf5 24.Qg5! The last relatively quiet move which White is obliged to find before starting the final onslaught. With the b3 bishop now applying pressure along the diagonal, Black has to cope with the threat of Qxg6 as well as Rxh5 followed by Qxf5. Ne7
24...d5 25.Rxh5 gxh5 26.Qxf5 is hopeless for Black. After the text, there is still some work to do but White can calculate his way through to mate or huge material gain. 25.Rxh5! gxh5 26.Rd2! The rook gets ready to transfer to g2 where it supports a mate threat on g7. d5 27.Nxd5 27.Rg2 Ng6 28.Nxd5 wins the same way. 27...Rfe8 28.Rg2 Ng6 29.Nf6+! Kf8 29...Bxf6 30.Qxg6+ Kf8 31.Qg8+ Ke7 32.Qxf7+ skewers the black queen. 30.Nh7+ Kg8 31.Qxg6 1–0
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
  • Drag the split bars between window panes.
  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
  • Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
  • Create an account to access the games cloud.
WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Quillan,G2340Dubov,D26941–02018B06Tradewise Gibraltar Masters1.15
Saduakassova,D2470Banusz,T26411–02018A85Tradewise Gibraltar Masters2.16
Grandelius,N2647Steinberg,N25121–02018A11Tradewise Gibraltar Masters3.6
Lochte,T2169Maisuradze,N22341–02018B21Gibraltar Challengers A4.7
Nakamura,H2781Grandelius,N26471–02018B80Tradewise Gibraltar Masters4.1
Saric,I2664Swapnil,S25331–02018A05Tradewise Gibraltar Masters4.11
Duda,J2724Nakamura,H27810–12018B76Tradewise Gibraltar Masters5.1
Pichot,A2552Cheparinov,I26990–12018B97Tradewise Gibraltar Masters5.15
Edouard,R2613Gagare,S24940–12018A11Tradewise Gibraltar Masters5.22
Sandipan,C2579Ivanchuk,V27261–02018E42Tradewise Gibraltar Masters6.6
Saric,I2664Batsiashvili,N25041–02018C72Tradewise Gibraltar Masters6.11
Raja,H2427Antova,G22601–02018B81Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 20186.67
Howell,D2682Saric,I26641–02018A11Tradewise Gibraltar Masters7.2
Aronian,L2797Short,N26811–02018A27Tradewise Gibraltar Masters7.4
Gupta,A2610Ivanchuk,V27261–02018E12Tradewise Gibraltar Masters8.8
De Vega Fernandez,F1784Adebajo,O19220–12018B23Tradewise Challengers B4.36
Aronian,L2797Sethuraman,S26461–02018A13Tradewise Gibraltar Masters9.3
Moussard,J2571Adams,M27090–12018A00Tradewise Gibraltar Masters9.10
Antipov,M2588Mikhalevski,V25381–02018A01Tradewise Gibraltar Masters9.17

Click or tap a game in the list to switch games

Indian prodigy Praggnananda after round three

'Prag' did not manage to score a GM norm

Vassily Ivanchuk after round five

The other Indian supertalent in Gib, Nihal Sarin, after round eight

Lance Henderson de la Fuenta after round nine

Henderson, earned a GM norm, and was mentioned in our post after round seven

Tour the rock

Finally, if you can't make it to Gibraltar yourself, you take a mini-tour of the Rock with some of the players in this extensive photo album from house photographer Sophie Triay.

Batchimeg Tuvshintugs Josefine Heinemann Valentina-Gunina

Batchimeg Tuvshintugs, Josefine Heinemann, Valentina Gunina, Irine Kharisma Sukandar, Margit Brokko, Karl Erik Olde, Pavel Tregubov, Alexandra Kosteniuk | Photo: Sophie Triay

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Macauley served as the Editor in Chief of ChessBase News from July 2017 to March 2020. He is the producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast, and was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, Magnus.

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