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Porticcio Open Final: Areshchenko triumphs!

The final round of the Porticcio Open 2015 witnessed hard-fought games on most of the top tables. GM Areshchenko overran GM Bacrot out of a relatively quiet Ruy Lopez while GM Laznicka’s heavy Queen-side attack triumphed against Bartosz Socko’s King-side play.

As a result, Areshchenko and Laznicka tied for the first place with 7.5 points each but it was Areschenko who won the laurels, thanks to his better tie-break score. GM Fressinet took the third spot.

Meanwhile, GM S.P. Sethuraman, the lone Indian hope at this event, won his last round game convincingly to finish 4th with a total of 7 points.

Final Standings: http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Resultats.aspx?URL=Tournois/Id/34158/34158&Action=Cl

Hainan Danzhou 01: Sasikiran loses to Yangyi

The 6th Hainan Donzhou Super GM Tournament is being held in China from 2nd July, 2015 and 11th July, 2015. Chinese GM Yu Yangyi (2736) continued delivering stellar results with a victory playing the white pieces against Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran (2640).

World Junior Champion GM Lu Shanglei (2595) meanwhile could not hold up against GM Wang Yue (2716), who joined Yangyi in the lead. Other games ended in draws.

You may check the pairings here.

Dortmund 04: Kramnik wins again to enter joint lead

Former World Champion GM Vladimir Kramnik of Russia won his third straight game to enter into joint lead with GM Dieter Nisipeanu of Germany, who could only draw his game with GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. Both stand at 3.0/4.

GM Fabiano Caruana of USA meanwhile accounted for German GM Arkadij Naiditsch to stay in pursuit with 2.5/4.

Standings after Round 4:

Rank Name Score Elo
1 Kramnik, Vladimir 3.0/4 2783
2 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter 3.0/4 2654
3 Caruana, Fabiano 2.5/4 2805
4 Naiditsch, Arkadij 2.0/4 2722
5 So, Wesley 1.5/4 2778
6 Hou, Yifan 1.5/4 2676
7 Nepomniachtchi, Ian 1.5/4 2720
8 Meier, Georg 1.0/4 2654

Dortmund 03: Kramnik wins with a devious swindle

Russian GM Vladimir Kramnik (2783) lost his advantage in the middle-game against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2720) and was well on his way to draw the game when he set up a fantastically complex trap, and his opponent walked right into it. He is now tied for second with GM Arkadij Naiditsch (2733) of Germany who accounted for an out of sorts GM Wesley So (2778).

GM Nisipeanu meanwhile was under some pressure from GM Hou Yifan, however, he held on to a draw to maintain his lead atop the table with 2.5/3.

Rank Name Score Elo
1 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter 2.5/3 2654
2 Naiditsch, Arkadij 2.0/3 2722
3 Kramnik, Vladimir 2.0/3 2783
4 Caruana, Fabiano 1.5/3 2805
5 So, Wesley 1.0/3 2778
6 Hou, Yifan 1.0/3 2676
7 Nepomniachtchi, Ian 1.0/3 2720
8 Meier, Georg 1.0/3 2654

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.