tag: Khanty-Mansiysk - Page 2

Khanty Rd8: More mistakes!

5/22/2015 – Big mistakes today changed the standings significantly. Caruana lost to Jakovenko: the Italian player was pushing for a significant amount of time and then out of nowhere he blundered heavily! Jakovenko took advantage of his chances and won. Grischuk beat Karjakin in a very complex game marked by a last-minute Karjakin blunder. Finally Nakamura's game was unpredictable!

Khanty Rd7: Three White Wins

5/21/2015 – Three important white victories in today's round change the standings of not only the tournament, but of the Grand Prix series. Nakamura grabs second, just behind Caruana, in the GP as he beat MVL (his fourth straight loss!) and Tomashevsky drops to fourth place after losing to Giri. Dominguez overtook Svidler to leapfrog him in the standings, and the Cuban is now tied for second.

Khanty Rd6: Mistakes in Marathon Round

5/20/2015 – Today was a long day over the board in Khanty-Mansiysk. Three games last more than six hours, and at the end of an exhausting day many mistakes were made. Grischuk was losing, managed to find a draw against Caruana but blundered in the end and lost. Giri did basically the same against Svidler. Meanwhile, Dominguez let go of Gelfand, and falls back to fourth place.

Khanty R5: MVL, Tomashevsky fall again

5/19/2015 – Another tough loss for Evgeny Tomashevsky. After a marathon game against Sergey Karjakin, the GP leader committed a mistake... on move 70! This allowed Karjakin to finally get a small positional advantage that he converted into a win. MVL is clearly out of shape in this tournament, and blundered a pawn to a nice but simple tactic. Jakovenko took advantage of this and won the game.

Khanty Rd4: Caruana marches on

5/17/2015 – Caruana won his second game in a row in Khanty-Mansiysk by defeating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with the black pieces. A complicated Ragozin took place and Caruana seemed to handle the position better than the Frenchman. Tomashevsky had an advantage against Jakovenko, but was unable to do much with it, while none of the other games seemed to really favor any of the remaining players.

Khanty Rd3: Caruana beats Tomashevsky

5/16/2015 – A huge result for the Grand Prix standings. Evgeny Tomashevsky, who was leading the tournament and the GP series, lost to Fabiano Caruana who is now in the lead with Leinier Dominguez and Peter Svidler - the latter beat Dmitry Jakovenko today in an exchange Spanish. With this series of results Tomashevsky will have to step up his game to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.

Khanty Rd2: Missed Opportunities

5/15/2015 – The second round of the Grand Prix could have been much bloodier. Dominguez was the only one to win today, against Jakovenko, but many missed chances cost important half points. Most importantly Tomashevsky let Grischuk go from a position where the engines even announced forced mate (!). In several other games, one side had an extra pawn but was unable to convert.

Khanty Rd1: Jakovenko, Tomashevsky win

5/14/2015 – A good day for the Russian players, and specially for Evgeny Tomashevsky. The leader of the GP won his first game in Khanty-Mansiysk against Baadur Jobava, despite having a very shaky position from the opening. Dmitry Jakovenko defeated Anish Giri in the most classical of styles: with the pair of bishops into a double rook endgame. The rest of the games in Russia were all drawn.

Final GP Begins Tomorrow

5/13/2015 – The final leg of the Grand Prix series is upon us. With two direct qualifying spots to the Candidates Tournament later this year, the Khanty-Mansiysk Grand Prix tournament promises to be an exciting one. Three players are clearly favorites for the spots, Tomashevsky, Caruana and Nakamura, however nothing is set in stone and realistically many players can earn their qualification.

Khanty Final: Leaders intact

4/21/2014 – Much fighting spirit was seen in the last round of Khanty-Mansiysk, but no changes were seen in the top spots. Hou Yifan had already clinched her tournament victory, and a draw with Kosteniuk allowed the Russian to retain her third place. Second went to Girya who held down two pawns against Tuvshintugs. However the other games were almost all decisive with quite a few surprises.

Khanty 10: Hou Yifan clinches

4/21/2014 – With an easy draw against Anna Muzychuk, Hou Yifan was able to secure her win at the Grand Prix in Khanty-Mansiysk. Girya retains her second place by beating Kosintseva but Kosteniuk is right on her heels as she also won, this time against Muminova. Many Grand Prix points are still at stake, but the World Champion was simply untouchable except in egg tapping.

Khanty 09: Hou Yifan leads by two points

4/20/2014 – "Girya in hot pursuit" was the title of our previous report. The Russian WGM had beaten the second seed and was aiming at the leader, Women's World Champion Hou Yifan. The two met in round nine, Chinese GM launched a devastating kingside attack, won the game and took a two-point lead over the field. Her her performance: 2750. With just two rounds to go we have a winner!

Khanty 08: Girya in hot pursuit

4/18/2014 – The big news of the day from Khanty-Mansiysk is Girya's victory against Muzychuk. This allows her to leapfrog over the Slovenian and she is now at striking distance from Hou Yifan; only one point away. This point can be quite decisive for the tournament as tomorrow is a rest day, but afterwards the battle between the leaders will take place. Report of an exciting round eight.

Khanty 07: Leaders advance

4/16/2014 – The top three players in the Khanty-Mansiysk Grand Prix have distanced themselves from the pack even further. Hou Yifan, Muzychuk and Girya, currently the one, two and three places of the tournament, all won their games with white today and move forward in the tournament, though the Chinese retains a full point lead. Girya's game today against Kosteniuk was brilliant.

Khanty 06: Few changes at the top

4/16/2014 – Both Hou Yifan and Muzychuk drew their games which means that the only change on the leader-board was on who was tied for third place. Zhao Xue lost quite badly against Girya, not only losing her opening advantage with white early on but giving black the better chances quickly. Kosteniuk won a crazy game against Dzagnidze, and now both Girya and Kosteniuk are tie for third place.

Khanty 04: Muzychuk catching up

4/13/2014 – Many missed opportunities today in Khanty-Mansiysk as the players head to their first rest day. Muzychuk took advantage of Muminova's lack of endgame knowledge and converted a position which is theoretically drawn, but very hard to do so without prior knowledge of the position. Hou Yifan and Lagno drew, still leaving the Chinese ahead by half a point. Pictures, games and standings.

Khanty 03: Good day for the Chinese

4/11/2014 – It was a good day for both of the Chinese players in Khanty-Mansyisk. Zhao Xue took advantage of a major blunder by Stefanova in a drawn endgame to take the full point. Meanwhile Hou Yifan crushed Dzagnidze with a wonderful attack and it is the second game in a row in which she wins in less than 25 moves. Not only that, she currently has the lead by a full point...

Khanty 02: Hou Yifan solo 2/2

4/10/2014 – After another thrilling day in Khanty-Mansiysk, again with five out six games being decisive, Hou Yifan has emerged an early leader by being the only player to have won both of her games. She is closely followed by Stefanova, who beat Ushenina, and Muzychuk, who drew Dzanigdze. Although it's only round two, nine of the twelve participants have already suffered a defeat...

Khanty GP: Near Whitewash

4/9/2014 – It was not a bad day to be white! With five of the six games resulting in white victories it was only Kosteniuk that, miraculously, with black was able to hold a draw against Stefanova. The World Champion started with a win against Kosintseva, and the only upset of the round was Girya's win against Dzanigdze. Round one report.

Preview of the Women's Grand Prix

4/8/2014 – Only a week after the Candidates tournament has finished in Khanty-Mansiysk, the new "Chess Mecca" is host to the fourth Women's Grand Prix of the cycle. The tournament is full of stars including Hou Yifan, Stefanova, T. Kosintseva, Muzychuk, Zhao Xue etc. Alina l'Ami has traveled all the way to the playing site and brings us an impressive and beautiful pictoral report.

2014 Candidates - Players, event and schedules

3/7/2014 – The time is approaching, and we are on the threshold of a new Candidates tournament. The last one qualified Magnus Carlsen for a shot at the world title, and we know what happened after that. A fresh lineup, with new players and old, promises exciting battles, and we bring you a preview of the players, the tournament, and the schedules for Playchess GM commentary.

2013 Ugra Governor's Cup

12/9/2013 – The city of Khanty Mansiysk recently held the IX Ugra Governor's Cup, a strong swiss that is a part of the Russia Cup circuit from November 27-December 6, 2013. The tournament brought in dozens of grandmasters, as well as players of all ages and gender. The "A" tournament, open to all players rated 2350 and above, included dozens of grandmasters and was won by Denis Khismatullin. Report, pictures and games.

Le Quang Liem is World Blitz Chess Champion

6/12/2013 – The Vietnamese GM is always good for a surprise upset. With many of the top blitz player in the world taking part Le Liem took the lead (with Ian Nepomniachtchi) on day one, and kept the lead on day two, challenged mainly by Ruslan Ponomariov. A win in the final round secured Gold for Le Liem, with Alexander Grischuk and Ponomariov settling for Bronze and Silver. Illustrated report from Khanty Mansiysk.

Mamedyarov wins World Rapid Chess Championship

6/9/2013 – For most of the 15-round FIDE Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi was leading – after the first two days by two full points. But on the final day Azerbaijani GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won five games in the row and finished the tournament with 11.5/15 points, a 2903 performance and the title. Once again our report has a lot of instructive analysis by GM Efstratios Grivas.
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