Author: Shubham Kumthekar

French Chess Championship 08: Three Decisive Games

The 8th round of the French Championship 2015 saw 3 of the total 6 games ending decisively. From the point of view of current standings, GM Gozzoli’s victory over GM Istratescu proved to be a crucial one as it enabled the former to move on to the joint-second spot along with GM Gharamian. In the other decisive games, GMs Edouard and Maze overcame GMs Cornette and Schekachev respectively.

After 8 rounds, GMs Bauer and Degraeve are leading the pack with 5.5 points each. The duo drew their 8th round games against Lagarde and Bacrot respectively.

Round 8 Results:

Degraeve

 Bacrot ½-½
Edouard Cornette

1-0

Gozzoli

 Istratescu 1-0
Lagarde Bauer

½-½

Maze

 Shchekachev 1-0

Moussard

 Gharamian

½-½

French Chess Championship 06: A Fighting Round!

The sixth round of the French Chess Championship 2015 proved to be an exciting one with 4 of the 6 games ending decisively. The only games to end in peace were Degraeve – Gharamian and Lagarde – Bacrot.

From the standings point of view, GM Bauer’s 61-move victory over GM Gozzoli proved to be an important one. This victory helped Bauer secure the sole second spot after Round 6, just half a point behind the leader GM Jean-Marc Degraeve. Meanwhile, GMs Gharamian, Maze and Edouard are ranked joint 3rd and are trailing Bauer by half a point.

Round 6 Results:

Degraeve

 Gharamian ½-½
Edouard Shchekachev

1-0

Gozzoli

 Bauer 0-1
Istratescu Cornette

1-0

Lagarde

 Bacrot ½-½
Maze Moussard

1-0

RTU Open 08: Hovhannisyan in sole lead

A miniature victory over GM Baron Tal enabled GM Robert Hovhannisyan to take up the sole lead going into the final round of the Riga Technical University Open 2015. The Hovhannisyan – Baron encounter, which took off with the Four Knights Opening, saw Baron get overly ambitious with his 13th move. Hovhannisyan took perfect advantage of his opponent’s blunder and as such, Baron had to resign on move 17.

In other games, the all-Latvian encounter on Board 2 between GMs Shirov and Kovalenko resulted in a fighting draw while Untitled Indian player Aryan Chopra successfully held GM Bartosz Socko on Board 3.

With only one round to go, Hovhannisyan is being closely followed by Shirov on 6.5 points. Meanwhile, as many as 9 players, including Aryan Chopra, are ranked 3rd with 6 points each.

Round 8 Results: Here

French Chess Championship 05: GM Degraeve in sole lead

The fifth round of the French Championship 2015 witnessed a couple of crucial results as GM Degraeve won against IM Moussard while GM Cornette overcame GM Bauer. These results enabled GM Degraeve to take up the sole lead after Round 5 win a 1-point margin over his nearest rivals.

Meanwhile, GM Yannick Gozzoli scored a convincing victory over GM Maze. The rest of the games ended in peace.

Round 5 Results:

Gharamian

 ½-½  Edouard
Cornette 1-0

Bauer

Bacrot

 ½-½ Istratescu
Moussard 0-1

Degraeve

Schekachev

 ½-½ Lagarde
Maze 0-1

Gozzoli

RTU Open 06: Shirov, Hovhannisyan on top

After 6 rounds of the Riga Technical University Open 2015, GMs Alexei Shirov and Robert Hovhannisyan are in joint lead with 5.5 points each. The duo overcame IM Chiagev and GM Naroditsky respectively in the 6th round of this 9-round event.

Amongst Indians, IM Prasanna Rao and untitled Aryan Chopra have notched up 4.5 points each. The former notably defeated GM Jure Skoberne in Round 6.

The 7th round is expected to be a crucial one with the two leaders – Shirov and Hovhannisyan – paired against each other. A win for either of the two will take the winner a step closer to winning this tournament.

Round 6 Results: Here

French Chess Championship 04: Bauer, Degraeve in lead

The 4th round of the French Championship 2015 witnessed two decisive games as GMs Gharamian and Edouard overcame GM Lagarde and IM Moussard respectively. Both the games proved to be pretty one-sided affairs for the two winners.

Meanwhile, GMs Bauer and Degraeve maintained their lead at the top of the table with draws against GMs Bacrot and Maze respectively. The two leaders, who are on 3/4, are being closely trailed by GMs Maze and Gharamian with a tally of 2.5 points each.

Round 4 Results:

Bauer, Christian

 Bacrot, Etienne ½-½

Degraeve, Jean-Marc

 Maze, Sebastien ½-½
Edouard, Romain Moussard, Jules

1-0
Gozzoli, Yannick Cornette, Matthieu

½-½

Istratescu, Andrei

 Shchekachev, Andrei ½-½
Lagarde, Maxime Gharamian, Tigran

0-1

Asian Continental Chess Final: GM Salem crowned Asian champion!

The final round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015 saw the top-board game between GMs Salem A. R. Saleh and Vidit Gujrathi end in a quick draw while on the second board, GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly overcame GM Zhang Zhong in an inspired fashion. As a result, Salem and Ganguly both ended up with 7 points each. However, Salem was crowned the new Asian Continental Champion, thanks to his better tie-break score.

Meanwhile, the third place was secured by GM Sethuraman, who pipped GMs Vidit and Zhou Jianchao on the tie-breaks.

The surprise factor of this tournament turned out to be Maghsoodloo Parham, an untitled player from Iran who notched up a total of 6 points. He secured the 6th position in the final rankings and finished ahead of several strong Grandmasters.

Final Rankings: Here

Asian Continental Chess 07: Gupta, Ganguly among leaders

With victories over IM Lin Chen and GM Sethuraman respectively in the 7th round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015, GMs Abhijeet Gupta and Salem A. R. Saleh moved on to a tally of 5.5 points out of a possible 7. The duo, along with GM Ganguly, are currently leading the pack with 2 rounds to go.

Meanwhile, the leading trio is being closely followed by 7 players, including Indian GMs Sasikiran, Sengupta and Vidit, on 5/7.

The penultimate round of the tournament will witness an all-India clash on the top board with GMs Gupta and Ganguly paired against each other whilst GM Salem will be up against GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son on the second table.

Complete Round 7 Results: Here

Asian Continental Chess 06: Indians reigning supreme

The sixth round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015 saw the top-board clash between the leaders Lin Chen & Surya Shekhar Ganguly end quickly with a 11-move draw. The duo are currently leading the pack with a score of 5/6.

The second-board game between Le Quang Liem and Abhijeet Gupta, however, compensated for the short draw on board one. In this crucial encounter, the Vietnamese GM dominated the latter right from the opening. However, an ill-timed Rook swap in the endgame saw Le Quang Liem lose all his advantage. As such, the game soon petered out into a draw on move 59.

In other top games, Indian GMs Vidit and Sethuraman overcame their Grandmaster opponents to move on to 4.5/6. As many as 6 players, including Vidit, Sethuraman and Gupta are trailing the leaders by half a point with 3 more games to go.

Round 6 Results: Here

Asian Continental Chess 05: Ganguly wins, Vishnu loses

The 5th round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015 saw both the encounters between the 4 joint-leaders end decisively. Indian GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly overcame Iranian GM Darini Pouria whilst the in-form Chinese IM Lin Chen won against Indian GM Vishnu Prasanna. As such, the aforementioned winners are jointly-leading the table after the 5th round with 4.5 points each.

Meanwhile, the trio of GMs Le Quang Liem, Abhijeet Gupta and Rustam Khusnutdinov is close on the leaders’ heels with 4/5.

Round 5 Results: Here