Month: June 2015

Edmonton 09: Harikrishna holds fort, wins the tournament

Playing with the Black pieces, Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna (2733) was facing Chinese GM Wang Hao (2704), where he needed a draw to clinch clear first place. However, if GM Wang Hao could win this particular game, he would tie for first with GM Harikrishna. A classic India-China duel was in the offing.

And GM wang Hao pushed with all his might. He had almost close to a decisive advantage, however, GM Harikrishna smartly kept pressurizing White’s pawns and cleverly liquidated to a drawn endgame to hold fort and win the tournament by a full point’s margin with 7.5/9.

GM Wang Hao meanwhile tied for the second place with GM Vassily Ivanchuck of Ukraine and GM S.S. Ganguly of India, with 6.5/9.

Check the Final Ranking Cross-table here.

Dortmund 02: Nisipeanu surprise leader with 2.0/2

Bottom seed German GM Dieter-Liviu Nisipeanu (2654) turned out to be the surprise leader at the end of two rounds at the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting.

The eight player field has the likes of Caruana, Kramnik, Wesley So, Hou Yifan in the line up. Kramnik and So both lost their Round one games but came back strongly in Round two to beat Hou Yifan and Caruana respectively.

Standings after Round 2:

Rank Name Score Elo
1 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter 2.0/2 2654
2 Kramnik, Vladimir 1.0/2 2783
3 So, Wesley 1.0/2 2778
4 Naiditsch, Arkadij 1.0/2 2722
5 Nepomniachtchi, Ian 1.0/2 2720
6 Meier, Georg 1.0/2 2654
7 Caruana, Fabiano 0.5/2 2805
8 Hou, Yifan 0.5/2 2676

Edmonton 08: Harikrishna wins yet again, keeps his point’s lead

GM Pentala Harikrishna (2733) of India won his Round 8 game to move to a phenomenal 7.0/8. Second placed GM Wang Hao (2704) also won his game to stick to his second spot with 6.0/8.

In fact, all the higher seeds had no difficulties dispatching their lower rated opponents. GM S.S. Ganguly (2625) also won his game to stay joint third with 5.5/8.

Check out the standings and pairings here.

Edmonton 07: Harikrishna draws to maintain a point’s lead

Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna (2733) drew his sixth and seventh round games with Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuck and compatriot GM S.S. Ganguly respectively to move to 6.0/7. He is a point clear of Chinese GM Wang Hao (2704) who is at 5.0/7.

The other Indian in fray, GM Ganguly (2625) is tied for third with GM Ivanchuck at 4.5/7.

You may check the standings and pairings here.

Norway Chess Final: Topalov triumphs, Carlsen shocked!

With an early repetition against Vishy Anand, Bulgarian Super GM Veselin Topalov clinched the 3rd edition of the Norway Chess Super-Tournament, half a point clear of Anand and Nakamura. Anand, meanwhile, secured the second place, thanks to his better tie-break score.

However, the news of the day was Jon Ludvig Hammer’s surprisingly resounding victory over compatriot and World Champion – Magnus Carlsen. The latter, playing black, adopted a highly unusual approach in the Queen’s Gambit which allowed Hammer a nice edge out of the opening. The matters never really improved for Carlsen and he blundered big time on move 32, followed by resignation on move 34. Interestingly, this was Hammer’s lone win of the event.

Round 9 Results:

Topalov

 ½ : ½ Anand
Hammer 1 : 0

Carlsen

Aronian

 0 : 1 Nakamura
Caruana ½ : ½

Giri

Vachier-Lagrave

 ½ : ½

Grischuk

Final Standings:

Rank

 Name Points
1 Topalov

6.5

2

 Anand 6
3 Nakamura

6

4

 Giri 5.5
5 Caruana

4

6

 Vachier-Lagrave 4
7 Carlsen

3.5

8

 Grischuk 3.5
9 Aronian

3

10

 Hammer

3

Edmonton 05: Harikrishna wins his fifth straight game

Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna (2733) won his fifth straight game to move to a spectacular 5.0/5. He is a full 1.5 points ahead of second placed Ukranian GM Vassily Ivanchuck (2733).

GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2625) meanwhile drew his game with GM Samuel Shankland (2656) of USA to move to 3.0/5.

Check the standings and results here.

Capablanca 09: Yu Yangyi wins with a round to spare

In a master class performance, Chinese phenom GM Yu Yangyi (2715) took an unassailable 1.5 points lead after a draw with the bottom seed GM Lazaro Batista (2677) over the second placed GM Dimitry Andreikin (2718). Yangyi now moves to 6.5/9.

GM Pavel Eljanov (2718) meanwhile slipped up in his game with the top seed GM Leinier Dominguez (2746) of Cuba to slip to third place with 4.5/9.

Standings after Round 9

Rank Name Score Elo
1 Yu, Yangyi 6.5/9 2715
2 Andreikin, Dmitry 5.0/9 2718
3 Eljanov, Pavel 4.5/9 2718
4 Dominguez Perez, Leinier 4.0/9 2746
5 Nepomniachtchi, Ian 3.5/9 2720
6 Bruzon Batista, Lazaro 3.5/9 2677

Capablanca 08: Yangyi beats Dominguez, increases lead

Chinese phenom GM Yu Yangyi (2715) defeated Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez (2746), this time with the white pieces , to increase his lead by 1.5 points.

Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2720) meanwhile beat the bottom seed GM Lazaro Batista (2677) of Cuba to bring some cheer after his lackluster start.

Standings after Round 8:

Rank Name Score Elo
1 Yu, Yangyi 6.0/8 2715
2 Eljanov, Pavel 4.5/8 2718
3 Andreikin, Dmitry 4.5/8 2718
4 Nepomniachtchi, Ian 3.0/8 2720
5 Dominguez Perez, Leinier 3.0/8 2746
6 Bruzon Batista, Lazaro 3.0/8 2677