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Dubai Rd. 8: Five players lead

The eighth round of the Dubai Open Chess Tournament saw bloody fights on the top boards. The seventh round leaders on the first table, GM Shabalov and GM Fedoseev settled for draws which allowed others to catch up.

Among the Indians, GM RR Laxman continued his superb showing with a win over compatriot GM Abhijeet Gupta. GM Laxman and GM Murali Karthikeyan now share the lead among the Indians at 5.5/6.

You may check the pairings for the ninth and the final round here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=9&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Dubai Rd. 7: Shabalov and Fedoseev lead, Indians play catch-up

The overnight leaders at the Dubai Open Chess Tournament settled for draws except GM Shabalov of USA and GM Fedoseev of Russia. They won their respective games to set up a top-board clash in the penultimate round. Shabalov and Fedoseev are on 6/7 points!

Amongst the Indian players, IMs Sayantan Das and Rathnakaran lead the way with 5.0/7 while the others are playing catch-up with 4.5/7. GM Sahaj Grover suffered an upset loss to Rakesh Kulkarni (2319) and is left behind at 3.5/9.

You may check out the pairings for round 8 here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=8&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

 

Nakamura and Krush are US Chess Champions 2015!

Red bull = Secret of the US #1!? (pic by Lennart Ootes)

The pre-tournament favorites, Hikaru Nakamura and Irina Krush won the 2015 US Chess championship for Men & Women respectively.

Nakamura was in the lead from the very beginning and ended up with 8/11 points. Krush had to fight her way back to the top and wrestle the first spot from Nemcova who was in lead for most part of the tourney. Krush ended with 8.5/11 points!

Final Standings (Men)

1 GM Nakamura, Hikaru 2798 8
2 GM Robson, Ray 2656 7.5
3 GM So, Wesley 2788 6.5
4 GM Onischuk, Alexander 2665 6
5 GM Kamsky, Gata 2683 5.5
6 GM Akobian, Varuzhan 2622 5.5
7 GM Sevian, Samuel 2531 5.5
8 GM Shankland, Samuel L 2661 5
9 GM Troff, Kayden W 2532 5
10 GM Holt, Conrad 2530 4.5
11 GM Gareev, Timur 2604 4
12 GM Naroditsky, Daniel 2633 3

Final Standings (Women)

1 GM Krush, Irina 2477 8.5
2 IM Paikidze, Nazi 2333 7.5
3 WGM Nemcova, Katerina 2279 7.5
4 WIM Ni, Viktorija 2188 7
5 WGM Sharevich, Anna 2267 6.5
6 IM Goletiani, Rusudan 2311 6
7 WGM Abrahamyan, Tatev 2322 5.5
8 WGM Foisor, Sabina-Francesca 2235 5.5
9 WCM Virkud, Apurva 2132 3.5
10 WIM Wang, Annie 1901 3.5
11 FM Melekhina, Alisa 2235 2.5
12 WFM Yu, Jennifer R 2180 2.5

Bangkok Chess Club Open 2015

The 15th Bangkok Chess Club Open takes place from Apr 12 – Apr 19. Its a 9 round swiss league tourney with average ELO 2095.

Top seed is China’s Wang Hao (2713).

Top Indian players participating are:

Ganguly, Surya Shekhar 2619
Ghosh, Diptayan 2512
Kunte, Abhijit 2477
Deepan, Chakkravarthy J. 2475
Sunilduth, Lyna Narayanan 2464

Official website http://bangkokchess.com/

List of players http://www.chess-results.com/tnr169298.aspx?lan=1

The live games can be followed in Follow Chess App!

Eight players tied for lead at Dubai Open, IM Rathnakaran leads the Indian charge

The 17th Dubai Open Chess Tournament is getting heavier at the top with eight players sharing the lead at 5.0/6.

The Indian’s are having a tough time at this extremely strong open tournament with IM Rathnakaran being the sole Indian at 4.5/6. In a curious case, many Indian players have been pitted against each other for their seventh round games!

You may check out the complete pairings for the seventh round here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=7&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Catch all the action live in your Followchess App.

Irina Krush takes sole lead, Nemcova lost

Krush in round 9 (pic by Lennart Ootes)

Krush won, Nemcova lost

In the penultimate round (10) of the US Chess championship, women’s top seed Irina Krush (2477) beat Jennifer (2180), while co-leader Nemcova (2279) lost to (2333). With this turn of events, Krush is on 8/10 with a comfortable one point lead over Nemcova (7/10) & Paikidze (7/10)

In the men’s section, there were no changes in the standings, despite some decisive results.

Nakamura continues to lead, Robson second

The much anticipated encounter between Nakamura and Robson ended in a draw. Nakamura is now on 7/10 while Robson is closely following him on 6.5/10.

Wesley So finally found his mojo and beat Kamsky with the Black pieces. He is on 5.5/10 points.

USChessChamps : Wesley So forfeited!

Nothing going right for Wesley (pic by Lennart Ootes)

The US Chess Championship round 9 turned out to be the most eventful round of the championship so far, albeit in a rather odd way.

Wesley forfeited!

Wesley So (2788) was forfeited in his game against Akobian (2622), for taking notes on his scoresheet! Apparently he was warned twice before and hence the harsh punishment (of losing the game plus valuable rating points!)

More details on this story at Chess.com

Nakamura continues to lead

Nothing else changed at the top of the table and Nakamura is in sole lead with 6.5/9 points, followed by Ray Robson (2656) with 6.

Krush joins Nemcova

In the women’s section, Irina Krush won her 3rd game on the trot, to finally join Nemcova at

IM Sameer Kathmale beats GM Ehlvest, three lead with 4.0/4

GM David Howell, GM Nils Grandelius and GM Yuri Solodovnichenko won their respective games to share the lead with 4.0/4 at the ongoing 17th Dubai Open Chess Tournament, 2015.

The Indians had a fairly good day with IM Sameer Kathmale (2289) of Maharashtra, India managing to win against GM Jaan Ehlvest (2547) of USA. Amongst the other players from Maharashtra state, untitled players Rakesh Kulkarni and Abhishek Kelkar also had good outings as they held higher rated players to draws meanwhile Aniruddha Deshpande won against Egyptian IM Imed Abdelbabbi. The highest seed amongst Indians GM Abhijeet Gupta lost to the attacking Amerian GM Alexander Shabalov.

You may check the pairings for round 5 here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=5&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Holt beats Wesley, Nakamura takes sole lead

Wesley So – not a good tourney so far (by Lennart Ootes)

Holt beats Wesley

Wesley So’s woes continued at the US Chess Championship 2015 when he lost to Conrad Holt (2525) in round 8.

With the Black pieces, Wesley made a potential unsound pawn sacrifice to launch attack at the White King. Holt defended well and ultimately Wesley had to resign due to severe material deficit.

Nakamura in sole lead

Nakamura beat Troff with the Black pieces to grab sole lead again with 6/8 points.

Irina wins again

In the women’s section, top seed Irina Krush beat Melekhina to reduce the gap at the top of the table. Nemcova is in sole lead with 6.5/8 closely followed by Irina on 6.

17th Dubai Chess Open begins with 39 Grandmasters, 31 Indians in fray

The 17th edition of the traditional Dubai Chess Open began at the Dubai Chess & Culture Club in the UAE. Over the years, this open tournament has been a breeding ground for many talented chess-players.

The top seed of the event GM David Howell seems to not have faced any problems after three rounds of play as he shares the lead with eleven other Grandmasters at 3.0/3.

Indians make up for 31 of the total 155 players playing which is even more than the players from the host country! GM Abhijeet Gupta (2629) leads the way for Indians at 2.5/3.

As can be expected, there were numerous noticeable upsets over the course of three rounds. In the following example, young Tamil Nadu youngster and former National U-11 champion Ram L. Arvind finds a cute win.

Beshukov (2409) – Ramarvind (2109) 0-1

Black won with 1…Nh3! 2. gxh3 Qh1+ 3. Bg1 Qxf3+ 4. Bf2 Bh2! forcing mate.

You may check the pairings for round 4 here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=4&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Follow the games live on your FollowChess app!