May 2015 – FollowChess News

French Team Championship: Favourites have easy day

The Top 12 French Team Championship, 2014 took off at Le Grau-du-Roi at France. Eight players play for each team in a course of an eleven round all-play-all.

The winners for last three years in a row, Clichy, look to defend their title and boast of names such as Wesley So, Vachier-Lagrave, Jakovenko, among other stars.

All the favourites won their games without much hiccups, except perhaps in the match at board 6, where team Evry managed to hold off team Mulhouse, winning the match 5-3.

Check the pairings and standings here.

45th Bosna International Tournament starts today!

The 45th edition of the Bosna International Tournament is all set to commence today with a total of 142 players participating. The field of this 9 round event is quite strong with as many as 19 Grandmasters in the fray.

The tournament will be played over a period of 7 days starting from 30th May to 5th June. Some of the strong players participating are:

1) GM Markus (2628)

2) GM Predojevic (2623)

3) GM Kozul (2620)

4) GM Nikolic (2618)

5) GM Stevic (2596)

Complete Starting List: http://chess-results.com/tnr168569.aspx?lan=1&art=0&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Chinese Championship: Wei Yi becomes the Chinese National Champion

Despite losing his last round game to World Junior Champion GM Lu Shanglei (2606), GM Wei Yi (2718) won the Chinese National Chess Championship, 2015 with a score of 7.5/11.

He finished half a point ahead of GM Ding Liren (2757) who beat IM Wang Chen (2536) to finish with 7.0/11. GM Yu Yangyi (2723) meanwhile lost his last round encounter to remain stranded at 6.5/11.

Check out the final ranking cross-table here.

Chinese Championship: Wei Yi draws to keep one point lead

GM Wei Yi (2718) drew his tenth round game with GM Wang Hao (2710) to keep the lead of a healthy point over the second placed GM Yu Yangyi (2723). He has 7.5/10 points.

GM Yangyi defeated IM Wang Chen (2536) to stay in the second spot with 6.5/10. The top seeded GM Ding Liren (2757) settled for a draw in his game to slip to the third spot with 6.0/10.

Check out the ranking cross-table after 10 rounds here.

Chinese Championship: Wei Yi leads

Chinese prodigy GM Wei Yi (2718) stands atop the standings at the end of nine rounds of play with 7.0/9 at the 2015 Chinese Chess Championship. He drew his game with GM Zhao Jun (2613) in a fairly quick game which nevertheless petered out till the bare kings left on the board after a series of forced exchanges resulted in a drawn ending.

The strongest Chinese player ever, GM Ding Liren (2757) settled for a draw to be tied at the second spot with GM Yu Yangyi (2723) with 5.5/9. GM Yu Yangyi was able to outsmart IM Lin Chen (2460) with an impressive display of precision in an instructive finish.

You may view the ranking cross-table after nine rounds here.

Khanty FIDE GP Final: Caruana & Nakamura qualify for the Candidates!

The 11th and Final round of the Khanty-Mansiysk FIDE Grand Prix 2015 saw just one decisive game as Svidler overcame Jobava with the White pieces in a French Defence game.

The above result, however, had no impact on the top standings as Jakovenko, Nakamura and Caruana jointly won the tournament. But the jackpot was bagged by the latter two who made it to the next Candidates Tournament courtesy of their superior scores at the end of the 2014-15 Grand Prix cycle. The winner of the Candidates Tournament will gain the right to challenge World Champion Magnus Carlsen for a World Championship Match.

Complete Round 11 Results:

Karjakin	2753	½-½	Gelfand	2744
Nakamura	2799	½-½	Jakovenko	2738
Giri	2776	½-½	Caruana	2803
Dominguez	2734	½-½	Grischuk	2780
Svidler	2734	1-0	Jobava	2699
Tomashevsky	2749	½-½	Vachier-Lagrave	2754

Final Standings:

RANK	NAME	RTG	PTS
1	Jakovenko Dmitry	2738	6½
2	Nakamura Hikaru	2799	6½
3	Caruana Fabiano	2803	6½
4	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2734	6
5	Gelfand Boris	2744	6
6	Svidler Peter	2734	5½
7	Grischuk Alexander	2780	5½
8	Giri Anish	2776	5½
9	Karjakin Sergey	2753	5½
10	Tomashevsky Evgeny	2749	5
11	Jobava Baadur	2699	4
12	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2754	3½

Chicago Open: IM Jeffery Xiong wins

IM Jeffery Xiong (2497) beat GM Lazaro Batista (2684) to win the Chicago Open, 2015 with a score of 7.0/9, half a point ahead of GM Gata Kamsky (2673) and six others who tied for second place with 6.5/9.

Indian IM Ashwin Jayaram, who had earlier registered a GM norm performance, settled for a draw in his last round game to finish with 6.0/9.

You may check the final standings here.

Chicago Open: Nine players tied for lead, another norm for IM Ashwin Jayaram

Nine players were tied for lead at the end of eight rounds with 6.0/8. In the eighth round, the top board witnessed a crucial encounter between Cuban GM Lazaro Batista (2684) and America GM Gata Kamsky (2673) which ended in a draw.

IM Ashwin Jayaram of India meanwhile won his round eight encounter to move to 5.5/8 to score his GM norm. He has all the required norms and just needs to cross 2500 elo rating to become a Grand Master.

See the standings here.

Khanty FIDE GP Rd10: Set for an Exciting Finish!

The 10th round of the Khanty Mansiysk FIDE GP 2015 saw some interesting twists as Jobava defeated overnight joint leader Dominguez while Jakovenko patiently overcame Karjakin to join Nakamura and Caruana at the top of the table. The rest of the games were drawn.

With one round to go, the trio of Jakovenko, Nakamura and Caruana are being closely followed by Dominguez and Gelfand with 5.5 points each.

Interestingly, Nakamura and Jakovenko are scheduled to clash in the last round of the tournament which makes the upcoming final round all the more exciting.

Complete Round 10 Results:

NAME	RTG	RES.	NAME	RTG
Gelfand	2744	½ – ½	Tomashevsky	2749
Vachier-Lagrave	2754	½ – ½	Svidler	2734
Jobava	2699	1 – 0	Dominguez	2734
Grischuk	2780	½ – ½	Giri	2776
Caruana	2803	½ – ½	Nakamura	2799
Jakovenko	2738	1 – 0	Karjakin	2753

Khanty FIDE GP 09: Leaders Maintain

One of the winners of Round 9: Anish Giri (Pic Source: khantymansiysk2015.fide.com)

The 9th round of the Khanty-Mansiysk FIDE GP 2015 witnessed two decisive games as Giri overcame Jobava while Tomashevsky beat Svidler. The rest of the games ended in draws. However, the draw between Jakovenko and Gelfand saw a pretty finish with Gelfand leaving his Queen en-prise to force a nice stalemate.

After 9 rounds, Dominguez, Caruana and Nakamura lead the pack with 5.5/9 each. Three others – Gelfand, Jakovenko and Karjakin – are on the second spot with 5 points each. This leaves the field wide open with just two rounds to go.

Round 9 Results:

Jakovenko	2738	½-½	Gelfand	2744
Karjakin	2753	½-½	Caruana	2803
Nakamura	2799	½-½	Grischuk	2780
Giri	2776	1-0	Jobava	2699
Dominguez	2734	½-½	Vachier-Lagrave	2754
Svidler	2734	0-1	Tomashevsky	2749