Month: May 2015

EnterCard Chess Qualifier 05: Hammer, Fressinet lead after the classical tournament

With draws in the final round of the EnterCard Scandinavian Masters Classical Tournament, GMs Hammer and Fressinet go into the rapid tournament with a comfortable lead over their nearest rivals.

The only decisive game of the day was Agdestein vs Hansen. The game followed a rather ‘See-Saw’ course with both the players making mutual mistakes. However, at one point, Agdestein made a string of mistakes which finally brought about Hansen’s first victory in this tournament.

The Rapid Section of the tournament will be played today. The overall winner will qualify for the super-tournament ‘Norway Chess 2015’.

Spain International Open: Ten players in lead

GM Vishnu Prasanna (2482) held GM Andrey Sumets (2563) to a draw to be among the leaders at the end of six rounds at the IVth Llucmajor Chess Tournament in Spain. Ten players in total are tied for the lead at 5.0/6.

GM Sundararajan Kidambi (2427) meanwhile slipped to his second loss to be left stranded at 4.0/6.

Check out the pairings for Round 7 here.

Khanty FIDE GP Round 1: Tomashevsky, Jakovenko start with a win

Jobava misplayed a nice position out of the opening. Jobava 0-1 Tomashevsky. (Pic Source: http://khantymansiysk2015.fide.com/)
Jobava misplayed a nice position out of the opening. Jobava 0-1 Tomashevsky.
(Pic Source: http://khantymansiysk2015.fide.com/)

The opening round of the Khanty-Mansiysk FIDE GP 2015 saw two decisive games while the remaining games finished in draws. Amongst the drawn games, only MVL – Gelfand proved to be an exciting one.

The best game of the day was Jakovenko’s nice positional win over Anish Giri. In a Ragozin Defence, Giri surprisingly opened the position on his own despite Jakovenko possessing the Bishop pair. The ploy backfired on Giri as Jakovenko was able to force matters into an advantageous Rook ending (for Jakovenko), which the Russian player won in a clinical fashion.

However, the other decisive game – Jobava vs Tomashevsky – was nowhere near one-sided. Jobava obtained an excellent position right out of the opening but later went astray in the middlegame. Tomashevsky pounced upon this opportunity and decided the game in his favour in the middlegame itself.

Round 1 Results:

PLAYER

 RTG RES. PLAYER

RTG

Vachier-Lagrave

 2754 0.5 – 0.5 Gelfand

2744

Jobava

 2699 0 – 1 Tomashevsky

2749

Grischuk

 2780 0.5 – 0.5 Svidler

2734

Caruana

 2803 0.5 – 0.5 Dominguez

2734

Jakovenko

 2738 1 – 0 Giri

2776
Karjakin 2753 0.5 – 0.5 Nakamura

2799

Spain International Open: GM Prasanna joins leaders

Five players are leading the IVth Llucmajor International Open 2015 at the end of five rounds.

GM Vishnu Prasanna (2482) held the second seeded Bulgarian GM Kiril Georgiev (2616) to a creditable draw to move to 4.5/5. Next up, he will be facing Ukranian GM Andrey Sumets (2563).

GM Sundararajan Kidambi (2427), the other Indian hope in this event, meanwhile won his second straight game to move to 4.0/5.

Check the Round 6 pairings here.

FIDE Grand Prix starts in Khanty-Mansiysk (May 14 – 26)

(credit: official site)

The final leg of the FIDE Grand Prix series starts in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from May 14-26, 2015.

Its a 11 round-robin tournament with an average ELO of 2755.

Players:

Caruana, Fabiano ITA 2803
Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2799
Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2780
Giri, Anish NED 2776
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2754
Karjakin, Sergey RUS 2753
Tomashevsky, Evgeny RUS 2749
Gelfand, Boris ISR 2744
Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2738
Svidler, Peter RUS 2734
Dominguez, Leinier CUB 2734
Jobava, Baadur GEO 2699

Schedule

May 14-17, (18 rest) 19-21 (22 rest) & 23-26, 15:00 local time (15:30 IST)

Official site: http://khantymansiysk2015.fide.com/

Live games with video can be followed using Follow Chess App.

EnterCard Chess Qualifier 03: Hammer, Fressinet in lead

The third round of the EnterCard Scandinavian Masters Chess Qualifier 2015 saw GMs Hammer and Fressinet score full points as they beat GMs Agdestein and Curt Hansen respectively. The 3rd game of the day – Grandelius vs Tari – finished in a draw, although it was nothing short of interesting.

Rankings after Round 3:

Rank

 Player

Points

1

 GM Fressinet, Laurent

2.5

GM Hammer, Jon Ludvig

2.5

3

 GM Grandelius, Nils

2

4

 GM Agdestein, Simen

1

IM Tari, Aryan

1

6

 GM Hansen, Curt

0

The winner of this tournament will qualify for the super-tournament ‘Norway Chess 2015’.

Spain International Open: Top seed GM Edouard stumbles

The IVth LLucmajor International Open, 2015 saw an upset as early as the third round as top seeded French GM Romain Edouard (2627) lost to GM Carlos Garica (2427) of Italy.

Among the Indians, GM Vishnu Prasanna (2482) moved to 3.0/3 and will be facing GM Garcia in his fourth round game. Meanwhile,GM Sundarajan Kidambi (2427) could not overcome the second seeded Bulgarian GM Kiril Georgiev (2616) and is stuck at 2.0/3.

Check the pairings for Round 4 here.

EnterCard Chess Qualifier Round 2: 3 players in lead

Lone Winner of Round 2: GM Nils Grandelius. (Pic Source: http://www.sjakkbloggen.no/)
Lone Winner of Round 2: GM Nils Grandelius. (Pic Source: http://www.sjakkbloggen.no/)

The second round of the EnterCard Scandinavian Masters Chess Tournament saw only one decisive game as GM Nils Grandelius overcame GM Curt Hansen with the black pieces. Although the game was about equal out of the opening, Hansen went astray in the later part of the Middlegame. Grandelius, thus, secured a nice advantage, which he duly converted. This was Hansen’s second consecutive loss.

In the encounter between the 2 overnight leaders, GM Hammer and GM Fressinet split points and maintained their top position. The remaining game – IM Tari vs GM Agdestein – also ended in a draw, albeit an interesting one.

After 2 rounds, GMs Hammer, Fressinet and Grandelius lead the pack with 1.5/2. The winner of this tournament will qualify for the super tournament ‘Norway Chess 2015’.

Spain International Open: Two Indians in fray

The IVth Llucmajor International Chess Open took off to a roaring start with 22 Grandmasters and 25 International Masters competing. French GM Romain Edouard is the top seed of the event.

Two Indian Grandmasters – GM Vishnu Prasanna and GM Sundararajan Kidambi – are in the fray and are tied amongst the leaders at 2.0/2.

Check the pairings for Round 3 here.

EnterCard Chess Qualifier 01: Fressinet, Hammer start with a win

The two victors of Round 1: GM Hammer (L) and GM Fressinet (R). (Pic Source: http://www.sjakkbloggen.no/)
The two victors of Round 1: GM Hammer (L) and GM Fressinet (R).
(Pic Source: http://www.sjakkbloggen.no/)

The opening round of the EnterCard Chess Qualifier 2015 was nothing short of exciting with 2 games ending decisively and the 3rd game proving to be an interesting draw. GM Fressinet and GM Jon Ludvig Hammer commenced their campaign in this 5 round tournament with victories over IM Tari and GM Curt Hansen respectively and as a result, took the lead after Round 1.

Meanwhile, the Agdestein vs Grandelius encounter turned out to be dramatic with the advantage changing hands quite often. Although the ending was slightly better for Grandelius, he was unsuccessful in nurturing this advantage. The game, thus, ended in a draw.