Capablanca 04: Yu Yangyi wins again, leads by a point

Young Chinese GM Yu Yangyi (2715) defeated GM Bruzon Batista (2677) of Cuba with the white pieces to to increase his lead by a full point with 3.5/4..

Ukranian GM Pavel Eljanov (2718) is placed sole second with 2.5/4 as he could only draw with the top seed Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez (2746).

Standings after Round 4:

Rank Name                                Score       Elo
1 Yu, Yangyi                              3.5/4        2715

2 Eljanov, Pavel                       2.5/4         2718

3 Andreikin, Dmitry               2.0/4         2718

4 Dominguez Leinier              2.0/4        2746

5 Bruzon Batista, Lazaro       1.5/4        2677

6 Nepomniachtchi, Ian          1.0/4        2720

Norway Chess Round 02: Caruana beats Carlsen

The second round of the Norway Chess Super-Tournament 2015 produced a solitary decisive result as Fabiano Caruana overcame the defenses of World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the latter’s favorite Berlin Ruy Lopez. This puts the World Champion in the last place with no points from the first two rounds of this 9-round event.

The rest of the games ended in draws, although they weren’t short of excitement.

After 2 rounds, as many as 5 (!) players lead the table with 1.5 points each. Indian hope Vishy Anand is on the sole second spot with 2 draws in as many games.

Round 2 Results:

Name

 Rtg Res. Name

Rtg

Grischuk

 2781 ½-½ Aronian

2780

Hammer

 2677 ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave 2723
Topalov 2798 ½-½ Nakamura

2802

Caruana

 2805 1-0 Carlsen 2876

Giri

 2773 ½-½ Anand

2804

Capablanca 03: Yu Yangyi beats Dominguez with black, leads

The 50th edition of the traditional Capablanca Memorial Tournament, 2015 is the strongest event in the tournament’s long history. Five of the six participants have their elos above 2700, with the average elo being 2716.

China’s Yu Yangyi (2715) played a splendid technical game to register a fine win with the black pieces over the local hero Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez (2746). The other boards settled for a draw to leave Yangyi in sole lead with 2.5/3.

Rank Name                                Score       Elo
1 Yu, Yangyi                              2.5/3        2715

2 Eljanov, Pavel                       2.0/3         2718

3 Andreikin, Dmitry               1.5/3         2718

4 Dominguez Leinier              1.5/3        2746

5 Bruzon Batista, Lazaro       1.0/3        2677

6 Nepomniachtchi, Ian          0.5/3        2720

Norway Chess: Dramatic First Round!

The Norway Chess Super-Tournament 2015 commenced with a bang as the first round produced a lot of drama and excitement. Giri, Vachier-Lagrave and Nakamura (all playing White) were right on the money as they convincingly beat Grischuk, Aronian and Hammer respectively. On the other hand, Caruana’s excellent opening preparation allowed him an easy draw against Vishy.

However, the most dramatic game of the day was undoubtedly Carlsen-Topalov. Carlsen had dominated the game throughout and it seemed as if he was coasting away to victory. But due to lack of knowledge about the time-control in use, Magnus forfeited the game on time in a comprehensively winning position. Later, it turned out that the Arbiter had announced the details of the time-control before the round but Carlsen was late in reaching for the same.

Thus, after just 1 round, 4 players jointly lead this 9-round tournament.

Round 1 Results:

Name

 Rtg. Res. Name Rtg.
Giri Anish 2773 1-0 Grischuk

2781

Anand

 2804 ½-½ Caruana 2805
Carlsen 2876 0-1 Topalov

2798

Nakamura

 2802 1-0 Hammer 2677
Vachier-Lagrave 2723 1-0 Aronian

2780

Norway Chess Blitz: MVL triumphs!

With Maxime Vachier-Lagrave having lost more than 30 classical rating points in the last month, hardly anybody would have fancied his chances at the ‘Norway Chess Super-Tournament’ before yesterday’s blitz began. However, MVL made a strong statement before the start of the main event as he won the blitz section quite impressively.

MVL scored a total of 6.5/9, half a point clear of second-placed Nakamura. The third place was shared by Carlsen, Giri and Anand with a total of 5.5 points each.

Final Standings:

Rank

 Players Rating (Blitz)

Pts.

1

 Vachier-Lagrave 2826 6.5
2 Nakamura 2883

6

3

 Carlsen 2933 5.5
3 Giri 2771

5.5

3

 Anand 2767 5.5
6 Aronian 2816

5

7

 Grischuk 2839 4
8 Topalov 2641

3

9

 Caruana 2679 2.5

10

 Hammer 2648

1.5

 

Norway Chess 2015 to commence today!

The 3rd edition of the annual Norway Chess Super-Tournament is all set to commence from today onwards. The tournament will begin with a blitz event which will be played today and its standings will determine the pairings for the main event to be played from tomorrow onwards. Both the events – Blitz and Classical – will be contested by 10 players over 9 rounds in an all-play-all format.

List of Players:

#

 PLAYERS RATING
1 Carlsen

2876

2

 Caruana 2805
3 Anand

2804

4

 Nakamura 2802

5

 Topalov 2798
6 Grischuk

2781
7 Aronian

2780

8

 Giri

2773

9

 Vachier-Lagrave 2723
10 Hammer

2677

Official Website:  http://2015.norwaychess.com/

19th Voronezh International Chess Festival Alekhine Memorial

The 19th Voronezh International Chess Festival (Alekhine Memorial) takes places from Jun 10 – 21 in Voronezh, a city in Russia.

The festival includes a Chess 960, rapid and blitz tournaments, besides the classical tourney in two categories, Master and FIDE Open (< 2200 ELO).

The Master tourney will be played from Jun 12-20 and has an average ELO of 2305.

Top players in the Master category are:

Bukavshin, Ivan 2647
Kokarev, Dmitry 2639
Ponkratov, Pavel 2610
Goganov, Alexey 2608
Aleksandrov, Aleksej 2607

Official site : http://vrnchessfestival.org/

The live games from Master and FIDE Open will be available in Follow Chess app.

Utrecht Open Championship 2015

The Utrecht Open Chess championship takes place from Jun 5 – 7, 2015 in The Netherlands.

Its a 6 round swiss tourney and features top players like GM Vadim Malakhatko,
GM Csaba Horvath and the young IM Jorden Van Foreest.

Last year’s winner was GM Zhaoqin Peng.

Official site : http://www.paulkeres.nl/oku/

Results & Pairings : http://www.sgsasp.nl/oku2015/groepa/

The games are live in Follow Chess App!

Bosna International Round 7: GM Hrvoje in sole lead

The top-board clash in the 7th round of the Bosna International Open 2015 saw GMs Hrvoje and Antipov split points. With this draw, the former maintains his sole-lead over his nearest rivals. Seven players, including 6 GMs and an IM, are joint-second.

The 8th and the penultimate round of the tournament will witness GM Nikolic taking on the leader GM Hrvoje on the first board. With the former being vastly experienced and the latter in a very good form, this encounter promises to be a cracking one.

Complete Results of Round 7: http://chess-results.com/tnr168569.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=8&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Mayor’s Cup: Eventful start

The Mumbai Mayors Cup witnessed an eventful start with the top seeds having no problems in dispatching their lower rated opponents. As many has 18 Grand Masters and 16 International Masters are participating in this event. Five players are rated above 2600.

The middle and lower boards however saw a lot of upsets with lower seeds making the most of their chances. Unheralded youngster from Maharashtra Sammed Shete (2071) beat Bangladeshi GM Abdulla Al-Rakib (2498) while Tamil Nadu player Sa Kannan (2003) beat IM Himanshu Sharma (2420), among the most notable reverses.

Check the pairings for Round 2 here.