tag: Kings Tournament 2011 - Page 1

Medias Kings Rd10: Carlsen-Karjakin draw, Carlsen wins Medias 2011

6/21/2011 – Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin took joint first after a last round matchup was unable to break the tie. The superb results also had an impact on the world rankings as Carlsen will retake first, and Karjakin will pass Kramnik as clear fourth. A last round win by Ivanchuk relegated Nakamura to under 50%, tied third-fourth with Radjabov. Photos, videos, GM commentary.

Medias Kings Rd9: Karjakin catches Carlsen – again

6/20/2011 – Carlsen manuevered to a promising middlegame, but an exchange sac by Nisipeanu stopped him cold, while a disastrous opening by Ivanchuk gave Karjakin a blitzkrieg attack that ended it in just 22 moves. Nakamura pressed but was not able to take Radjabov's fortress. Tomorrow will be the big showdown to decide gold and silver. Full report with videos and GM analysis.

Medias Kings Rd8: three draws, Carlsen leads with two games to go

6/19/2011 – After breathtaking battles day in and day out, and at least one knockout for the audience, today's games all ended in a draw. To be fair they were hard fought, but nobody fell to the mat. With only two rounds left, Carlsen maintains his lead and it is now that much harder to overtake him. Our GM commentator Dorian Rogozenco provides commentary in his entertaining and instructive style.

Medias Kings Round six: Commentary by GM Rogozenco

6/18/2011 – Three interesting and exciting games, one decisive: the 66-mover between Sergey Karjakin and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, a Schliemann Gambit in which the Romanian sacrificed two pawns for activity but got into time trouble and went down to the ruthless pressure of former boy wonder and youngest GM in history Sergey Karjakin. Our resident GM Dorian Rogozenco presents video and analysis.

Medias Kings Rd7: Carlsen supreme with 2913 performance

6/18/2011 – The impulse is to use words like impressive and powerful, but with three rounds to go, the thesaurus might soon run out of synonyms. Magnus Carlsen outwitted Vassily Ivanchuk in an endgame, doing what he does best, by finding every possible way to give his opponent ways to go wrong, however slightly. He now leads alone with 5.0/7. Videos and commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.

Medias Kings Rd6: Karjakin wins to share lead with Carlsen

6/17/2011 – With Magnus Carlsen making moves to run away with the tournament, one question was whether anyone would (or could) challenge him for it. Round six saw fellow boy wonder Sergey Karjakin outlast Romanian Nisipeanu in an epic endgame battle and draw level with Magnus. We bring you an express report with sensational pictures of the strongest football player rated over 2558.

Medias Kings Rd5: Thrilling chess by all; Carlsen leads

6/15/2011 – The fifth round was certainly a looker with all games featuring action-packed chess. Carlsen beat Nisipeanu with his signature play, and is now on 3.5/5 with a nigh 2900 performance. Karjakin faced Ivanchuk's Giuoco Piano and shocked him with 16...Bxh3!! in a fantastic attack. Radjabov and Nakamura played a Najdorf that drew after mind-boggling tactics. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.

Medias Kings Rd4: Hard fights, but no knockouts

6/14/2011 – It is always disappointing to report that all games ended in draws. In this round, however, you will find interesting hard-fought games. Carlsen almost got a good advantage with black against Karjakin, but missed his chance, while Nakamura pressured Ivanchuk. Radjabov played his pet Schliemann, always an interesting game. Illustrated report with full commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.

Medias Kings Rd3: Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco

6/14/2011 – Round three of the Kings' Tournament in Romania was marked by the victory of Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu over the international star Vassily Ivanchuk. In the postmortem session with our resident commentator Dorian Rogozenco the local son was very animated in his comments. Rogozenco has again prepared some fine analysis of all three games, which we present here for your study and enjoyment.

Medias Kings Rd3: Nisipeanu hero of the day

6/13/2011 – It seems as if none of the players is destined to finish without at least one win: after blundering away a drawn position to Nakamura, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu extracted his pound of flesh from Ivanchuk in round three. Sergey Karjakin and Hikaru Nakamura played a Najdorf that never quite took off, and Magnus Carlsen drew with Teimour Radjabov. Express report with pictures.

Medias Kings Rd2: Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco

6/13/2011 – Once the games of a round are over the players – well, at least the ones who have not suffered a disaster – proceed to the press room to discuss the moves with the resident GM. Later in the evening Dorian Rogozenco inserts much of this into his own analysis and sends us his commentary in ChessBase format. On this news page we present it to you with our new JavaScript player.

Medias Kings Rd1: Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco

6/12/2011 – One of the key persons at the Medias Kings' Tournament is GM Dorian Rogozenco, who not only advises the organisers, but also interviews the players after the games. Then, after a swim and a meal, this industrious grandmaster retires to his room and prepares full annotations to all the games, in his own well-loved style. We present his notes and analyses in our new JavaScript player.

Medias Kings Rd2: Nakamura wins after Nisipeanu blunders

6/12/2011 – In the second round, the two winners from round one drew after it quickly became evident neither could force the issue. Radjabov obtained a significant space advantage over Karjakin but was unable to make anything of it, while Nakamura and Nisipeanu also seemed destined to draw until a late-game hallucination by the Romanian handed the win to the American. Express report with pictures.

Medias Kings Rd1: Carlsen and Ivanchuk open with wins

6/11/2011 – All the ingredients for a super tournament are there, with ultra-talented players known for their creativity and combativeness. Magnus Carlsen, always in the center of the international spotlight, beat Nakamura in a powerful game in the opening round, while Ivanchuk did much the same against Radjabov, in a highly original King's Indian Averbakh. Express report with pictures.

King's Tournament Medias – pictures from the opening ceremony

6/11/2011 – Friday afternoon the six players of the Fifth Kings Tournamentin Medias gathered together in the Natural Gas Documentation and Information Centre to meet the sponsors, Romgaz, execute the drawing of lots and speak to the journalists. The ceremony had a world champion present: Ognean Mihnea-Ionut, World School under seven Champion. Photographic impressions by Frederic Friedel.

King's Tournament in Medias starts on Saturday

6/10/2011 – The fifth edition of the Kings Tournament will be held in Medias, Romania, from June 11-22. The event is a category 21 double round robin with six players, all but one over 2700 (Elo average: 2758). Most have arrived in Bazna, their place of residence. Just getting there was an electrifying experience, as Frederic Friedel reports in the first installment of his Medias journal.
1