Qatar Masters Open 2015

**Hans Jung** · Tuesday, 6th October, 2015, 12:28 PM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Magnus is participating! I wish I was FIDE 2300+ What a tournament! Lucky Leon.

**Wayne Komer** · Wednesday, 16th December, 2015, 01:57 PM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Qatar Masters Open 2015

December 16, 2015

If you like watching chess during the Christmas holidays, the Qatar Masters overlaps the holiday.

Magnus Carlsen is the top-rated entrant and there are over 50 players with a rating of 2600 or more.

There is little doubt in my mind that Magnus received a 6-figure participation fee.

On the EC Forum there was speculation that this is the first appearance of a reigning World Champion in a Swiss Open since Boris Spassky played at Vancouver in 1971.

Then someone said Karpov had played in a 15-round Swiss in the West German Open, Hannover 1983.

In the Canadian Open, Spassky met eleven players with these results: P. Danenhower (W), D. Banks (W), J. MacPhail (W), V. Dobrich (W), L, Kavalek (D), D. Suttles (W), Z. Vranesic (D), H. Ree (D), G. Formanek (D), R. Zuk (W) and G. Kuprejanov (W).
Spassky and Ree were joint winters and Suttles, Vranesic and Browne joint 3-5. Spassky did not play L. Piasetski, which is a shame because he is entered in the Qatar Masters and it would be something to have played both Spassky and Carlsen in their Opens!
________

Vladimir Kramnik was the first to arrive in Doha, the same as last year.

Anish Giri is about to depart and does a bit of self-advertising in this tweet:

- Back home! Will stare at my own happy face on a NIC cover for a day and then onto the Qatar Masters.

I count 18 GMs with a rating over 2700 including Carlsen, Kramnik, Giri, So, Karjakin, Mamedyarov, Wei Yi and Ivanchuk.
Along with So, the other Americans there are Shankland, Naroditsky, Lenderman and Krush.

http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/en/players
_______

The last round of the tournament is on Tuesday, December 29. Two weeks later, Tata Steel 2016 begins on Saturday, January 16 and continues on (13 rounds!) until January 31st. Carlsen, Caruana, Giri, So, Wei Yi will all be there but no Nakamura, sadly. We won't see Hikaru until Zurich 2016 on February 12. Girl will be there too; doesn't that guy ever stop?!

**Vlad Dobrich** · Wednesday, 16th December, 2015, 02:14 PM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Originally posted by Wayne Komer View Post

Qatar Masters Open 2015

December 16, 2015

On the EC Forum there was speculation that this is the first appearance of a reigning World Champion in a Swiss Open since Boris Spassky played at Vancouver in 1971.

Right after the Vancouver '71 C O , Spassky came to Toronto and played in the CNE Open on theLabour Day weekend. And that was the one and only time a reigning World Champion played in a weekend swiss tournament!

**Vlad Dobrich** · Wednesday, 16th December, 2015, 02:17 PM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Furthermore, he played two games/day as normal in a w/e swiss and neither asked nor received an appearance fee.

**Hugh Brodie** · Wednesday, 16th December, 2015, 04:51 PM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

The 1971 Canadian Open (Vancouver) ended on Sept. 3, 1971; the CNE Open (Toronto) started the following morning. Spassky played all his games in both events.. The Chess Canada report (Vlad?) mentions that 30 players played in both events.

**Tony Boron** · Wednesday, 16th December, 2015, 11:28 PM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Originally posted by Wayne Komer View Post

Qatar Masters Open 2015

We won't see Hikaru until Zurich 2016 on February 12.

Hikaru is on the list for Gibraltar starting January 26, along with Anand and MVL, amongst many others.

**Wayne Komer** · Thursday, 17th December, 2015, 02:49 AM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Qatar Masters Open 2015

Ah, that is where they have got to! Thanks.

**Wayne Komer** · Friday, 18th December, 2015, 04:08 PM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Qatar Masters Open 2015

December 18, 2015

Peter Doggers writes a preview of the Qatar Masters in chess.com

http://schaken.chess.com/news/qatar-...ops-field-2262

“Carlsen's closest rivals will be two top GMs who made the trip to Doha last year as well: Vladimir Kramnik and Anish Giri. Thus the organizer can nicely advertise his event as having the world's top 3 (in the live ratings).

You'll probably also remember that it wasn't Kramnik and it wasn't Giri who took the 2014 trophy home. That was Yu Yangyi. 13th seeded, he beat these two gentlemen in the last two rounds.

Yu will be back to defend his title, and this time he is 11th seeded.

Note that Teimour Radjabov and Pavel Eljanov had to withdraw only days ago.

The rounds start at 3 p.m. local time, which is 1 p.m. Amsterdam, noon London, 7 a.m. New York and 4 a.m. Pacific and 11 p.m. Sydney. (The final round starts three hours earlier.)

Note that Chess.com is producing the live broadcast with commentary by GMs Alejandro Ramirez and Peter Svidler.”

**Jack Maguire** · Sunday, 20th December, 2015, 09:43 AM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Magnus has clearly not won the opening against Georgia's #2 female, IM Nino Batsiashvili (2498). Nino also has a bit of a time advantage.

http://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2015-...siashvili_Nino

**Wayne Komer** · Sunday, 20th December, 2015, 03:20 PM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Qatar Masters Open 2015

December 20, 2015

Round One

The commentators are Peter Svidler and Alejandro Ramirez. He is a Costa Rican-born, 27-year-old American chess grandmaster.

His father, of course, was one of the early influences on his chess. He gave this anecdote about their relationship a couple of years ago:

My favorite story of his is probably our experience in 2004 Cappelle la Grande. I was already a GM-elect and had been offered full conditions to participate in the tournament, including hotel. We had requested beforehand that I get a double room since my dad was traveling with me, and to our surprise they told us that this was impossible: the rooms were only for chess players. However they offered as a solution, they would give us the double room for free as long as my father played in the tournament!

So for the first time in his life my dad played a huge international open! Halfway through the tournament my dad had really gotten into it, he had lost a few games but had actually managed to score a victory. I remember preparing for my game (I was having a dreadful tournament) and of course I had to dedicate a fair amount of energy to preparing for my games, but my dad kept insisting I teach him the 'Modern' defense as he was unhappy with the positions he kept getting from the opening! It is funny how tournaments can creep into you. I think he was very pleased with his result at the end. I think he finished with a solid 2.5/9 after he offered a 6-year-old kid called 'Francois' a draw after my dad had taken all his pieces!
_______

The guys say that this is an open tournament but it will start to resemble a round-robin for the top players at about Round 4, when they start meeting players of their own strength. The nightmare scenario is getting beaten by a player several hundred Elo points below you in rating.

Many of the players here, the Chinese in particular, are virtually unknown in the West and they are underrated and most of their games unknown as well.

As an example, the game Fang (2438)-Khismatullin (2654). You might remember the latter from his game of the year versus Eljanov in the European Championship last March.

Qatar Masters Open 2015
Round 1, Dec. 20, 2015
Fang, Yuxiang – Khismatullin, Denis
A37 English, Symmetrical Variation

1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.g3 Nc6 5.Bg2 d6 6.O-O Bf5 7.d3 Qd7 8.Nd5 Rb8 9.a4 Nf6 10.Bd2 h5 11.h4 Ng4 12.Bc3 Nge5 13.Rb1 O-O 14.Nxe5 dxe5 15.b4 b6 16.b5 Nd8 17.a5 Qd6 18.Ra1 Bd7 19.axb6 axb6 20.Ra7 e6 21.Ne3 f5 22.Nc2 Nf7 23.Qa1 Rfd8 24.Qb2 Be8 25.Rfa1 Rd7 26.Ne1 Bf6 27.f4 Bh8 28.Nf3 exf4 29.Bxh8 Nxh8 30.Rxd7 Bxd7 31.Qe5 Nf7 32.Qxd6 Nxd6 33.Ne5 Be8 34.gxf4 Kg7 35.Ra7+ Kf6 36.Bc6 1-0

and Wei Yi (2730) went down to defeat against Shardul Gagare (2470), 18-year-old Indian master.

Round 1, Dec. 20, 2015
Gagare, Shardul – Wei, Yi
E10 Blumenfeld Counter-Gambit

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5 5.Nc3 b4 6.Na4 Bb7 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bxf6 Qxf6 9.e4 d6 10.a3 Nd7 11.axb4 cxb4 12.Qd2 Rb8 13.Be2 Be7 14.O-O O-O 15.Nd4 Rfc8 16.b3 Bf8 17.Rae1 Re8 18.Bd1 g6 19.Nc2 a5 20.Nd4 h5 21.g3 Rbc8 22.f4 e5 23.Nb5 exf4 24.gxf4 Ba6 25.Na7 Rc7 26.Nc6 Bh6 27.Qf2 Bc8 28.Kh1 Qg7 29.Qg3 Bb7 30.Nxa5 Ba8 31.Bf3 Kh8 32.Bg2 Qd4 33.Rd1 Qa7 34.Nc6 Bxc6 35.dxc6 Rxc6 36.e5 Ra6 37.exd6 Re3 38.Qf2 Rxb3 39.Qxa7 Rxa7 40.Bc6 Nb8 41.Bb5 Ra3 42.Rfe1 Kg7 43.Re8 Rb7 44.Re7 Rxb5 45.cxb5 Rxa4 46.Rb7 Ra8 47.d7 Nxd7 48.Rbxd7 Rb8 49.R7d5 Kf6 50.R1d4 Bf8 51.Rd8 Bc5 52.Rxb8 Bxd4 53.Rd8 1-0

Magnus Carlsen didn’t have too easy a time against the Georgian WGM Nino Batsiashvili (2498).

Round 1, Dec. 20, 2015
Carlsen, Magnus – Batsiashvili, Nino
A07 Reti, King’s Indian Attack

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 c5 4.c4 d4 5.b4 cxb4 6.a3 b3 7.Qxb3 Nc6 8.O-O e5 9.e3 Be7 10.exd4 exd4 11.Bb2 O-O 12.Re1 Re8 13.a4 Na5 14.Qd3 Be6 15.Na3 Bxa3 16.Bxa3 Bxc4 17.Qxd4 Qxd4 18.Nxd4 Bd5 19.Rxe8+ Rxe8 20.Rc1 b6 21.Bf1 Bb7 22.Nf5 Rd8 23.d4 Nd5 24.Bg2 g6 25.Nd6 Ba8 26.h4 h5 27.Re1 Bc6 28.Re5 Nf6 29.Rxa5 Bxg2 30.Rxa7 Bd5 31.Ra6 Nd7 32.Nb5 Re8 33.Bb4 Re2 34.Ra7 Nf6 35.Kf1 Rb2 36.Bc3 Rc2 37.Rc7 Ng4 38.Ke1 Rxf2 39.Rc8+ Kh7 40.Rd8 Bf3 41.Re8 f6 42.Re7+ Kg8 43.Re8+ Kh7 44.Re7+ Kg8 45.Bd2 Rg2 46.Bf4 g5 47.hxg5 fxg5 48.Bxg5 Rxg3 49.Nc3 Bc6 50.Kd2 Rg2+ 51.Re2 Nf2 52.d5 Bxd5 53.Nxd5 Ne4+ 54.Ke3 Rxe2+ 55.Kxe2 Nxg5 56.Nxb6 Ne6 57.a5 Nc7 1/2-1/2

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov arrived late and started his game with Natalia Zhukova an hour after the others. He won. Vassily Ivanchuk as Black, drew with Zhonghan Ma (2463). Giri and Karjakin had little trouble with their lower-rated opponents.

First Round Results

1. Carlsen – Batsiashvili 0.5-0.5
2. Khotenashvili – Kramnik 0-1
3. Giri – Sunilduth 1-0
4. Goryachkina-So 0-1
5. Karjakin-Ezat 1-0
6. Shoker-Li Chao 0-1
7. Mamedyarov-Zhukova 1-0
8. Sanai – Tomashevsky 0-1
9. Harikrishna – Aravindh 0.5-0.5
10. Tabatabael – Jakovenko 0.5-0.5
11. Yu Yangyi – Neelotpal 1-0
12. Gagare – Wei Yi 1-0
13. Vitiugov – Xu Yinlun 0-1
14. Krush – Wojtaszek 0-1
15. Korobov – Moroni 1-0
16. Ma Zhonghan – Ivanchuk 0.5-0.5
17. Ponomariov – Ly Moulthun 1-0
_______

All in all, a very attractive tournament to watch. There are the top grandmasters and loads of strong unknowns, women masters and juniors. The commentators are fun to listen to and the venue is outstanding. When the Bentley is the official car of The Open, you know there is money there!

Here is the blurb for The Torch Hotel:

THE TORCH HOTEL

At 300 meters high and with 360° panoramic views across Doha, The Torch is currently the tallest hotel in Qatar. It is the centerpiece of Doha's majestic Sports City - Aspire Zone, which is welcoming Qatar Masters Open this year.

This iconic hotel is spread across 51 floors with rooms and suites featuring a unique iPad in-Room Solution, mood lighting system in 12 different colours and Interactive LED TVs.

Health Club at The Torch includes:

• Cantilevered swimming pool on the 19th floor
• Steam and sauna with modern finishing
• Gym with state-of-the-art Technogym equipment
• Jet showers featuring different jet setup and foot massage area
• Fitness club instructors always on hand for advice and assistance
• Four treatment rooms

_______

The games start at 3:00 p.m. Doha time, which is 7:00 a.m. Montreal/Toronto time.

(Olimpiu Urcan) – The fast and furious action in the Qatar Open makes the London Classic look like a knitting contest

- Interesting how Opens prove how much top players benefit from Closed events & ability to prepare for opponents in advance.

- (Malcolm Pein) - Amazing day, Carlsen draws IM Nino Batsiashvili, Wei Yi loses to Indian IM Gagare not sure final posn is lost after 31...Bb6!!

- One game to remember for Nino; one game to forget for the World Champion.

(Anish Giri) – All’s funky that starts funky

(Tarjei Svensen) - Had to go WAY back to find the last time Carlsen faced a player below 2500 in a classical event. 2947 days to be precise

**Wayne Komer** · Monday, 21st December, 2015, 01:46 AM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Qatar Masters 2015

Round Two Pairings

1. Kramnik, Vladimir (2796) – Piorun, Kacper (2637)
2. Grandelius, Nils (2632) – Giri, Anish (2784)
3. So, Wesley (2775) – Naroditsky, Daniel (2628)
4. Salem, Saleh (2622) – Karjakin, Sergey (2766)
5. Li Chao B (2750) – Ipatov, Alexander (2619)
6. Zhang, Zhong (2619) – Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (2748)
7. Tomashevsky, Evgeny (2744) – Bluebaum, Matthias (2590)
8. Bok, Benjamin (2594) – Yu, Yangyi (2736)
9. Wojtaszek, Radoslaw (2723) – Lin, Chen (2532)
10. Rambaldi, Francesco (2560) – Korobov, Anton (2713)
11. Kosteniuk, Alexandra (2542) – Ponomariov, Ruslan (2710)
12. Howell, David (2688) – Stefanova, Antoaneta (2521)
13. Al-Sayed, Mohammed (2520) – Matlakov, Maxim (2684)
14. Hou, Yifan (2683) – Harika, Dronavalli (2513)
15. Sundarajan, Kidambi (2513) – Duda, Jan-Krzysztof (2663)
.....

23. Aravindh, Chith. (2486) – Carlsen, Magnus (2834)
24. Batsiashvili, Nino (2498) – Harikrishna, P. (2743)
25. Jakovenko, Dmitry (2737) – Ma, Zhonghan (2463)
26. Ivanchuk, Vassily (2710) – Tabatabael, Amin (2482)

Francesco Rambaldi is the 16-year-old Italian grandmaster. He is sometimes called “the new Caruana”. Born the same year as Wei Yi.

It should be interesting following his progress in this tournament. In Round Two, he is playing Anton Korobov on Board 10.

**Egidijus Zeromskis** · Monday, 21st December, 2015, 10:23 AM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Originally posted by Wayne Komer View Post

Qatar Masters 2015

Round Two Pairings

63 87 IM Kashlinskaya Alina 2448 0 0 IM Piasetski Leon 2287 130

**Wayne Komer** · Monday, 21st December, 2015, 01:06 PM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

Qatar Masters 2015

December 21, 2015

Round 2

The Half-Time Report

I missed giving Leon Piasetski’s game yesterday, which I can make up for now.

Qatar Masters Open 2015
Round 1, Dec. 20, 2015
Piasetski, Leon (2287) – Sundarajan, Kidambi (2513)
A11 English

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 d5 4.e3 a6 5.b3 Bf5 6.Bb2 e6 7.d4 Bd6 8.Bd3 Bg6 9.Qc2 Nbd7 10.O-O O-O 11.Bxg6 hxg6 12.e4 dxe4 13.Nxe4 Nxe4 14.Qxe4 Nf6 15.Qe2 a5 16.a3 Qe7 17.Ne5 Rfd8 18.Nd3 Qc7 19.g3 Be7 20.Ne5 c5 21.dxc5 Bxc5 22.Rfd1 Ra6 23.Rxd8+ Qxd8 24.Rd1 Rd6 25.Rxd6 Qxd6 26.Qd3 Bxa3 27.Bxa3 Qxe5 28.Qd8+ Kh7 29.Qd1 Ne4 30.Qe2 Qa1+ 31.Kg2 Nxg3 32.hxg3 Qxa3 33.Qf3 Qe7 34.Qf4 f6 35.Qd4 Qc7 36.c5 Qc6+ 37.f3 Qb5 38.Qe3 e5 39.Kf2 Kg8 40.f4 Qd7 41.fxe5 Qf5+ 42.Kg2 Qxe5 43.Qf3 Qxc5 44.Qxb7 Kh7 45.Kf1 Qc1+ 46.Kf2 Qb2+ 47.Kf1 Qb1+ 48.Kf2 Qf5+ 49.Ke3 g5 50.Qf7 g4 51.Kd4 Qe5+ 52.Kc4 Kh6 53.Qa7 Qe4+ 54.Kc3 Qe1+ 55.Kc2 Kg6 56.Qa8 Qf2+ 0-1

Round 2, Dec. 21, 2015
Kashlinskaya, Alina (2448) – Piasetski, Leon (2287)
A55 Old Indian, Main Line

1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 Nbd7 4.Nc3 e5 5.e4 Be7 6.Be2 O-O 7.O-O Re8 8.Re1 exd4 9.Nxd4 Bf8 10.Bf1 c6 11.f3 Ne5 12.f4 Ned7 13.h3 Nc5 14.Qc2 Qb6 15.Kh2 g6 16.Nb3 Nxb3 17.axb3 Nd7 18.Be3 Nc5 19.Ra3 Qc7 20.b4 Nd7 21.g3 b6 22.Bg2 Bb7 23.Qf2 a6 24.Raa1 Rac8 25.Rad1 Rcd8 26.Rf1 c5 27.b5 Nf6 28.e5 Bxg2 29.Kxg2 Qb7+ 30.Kh2 Nd7 31.exd6 axb5 32.Nd5 bxc4 33.f5 Ne5 34.fxg6 fxg6 35.Nf6+ Kh8 36.Nxe8 Rxe8 37.Bd2 Bg7 38.Bc3 Qd7 39.Rd5 Qe6 40.d7 Nxd7 41.Rxd7 Bxc3 42.Qf8+ 1-0

Magnus takes care of his opponent handily

Round 2, Dec. 21, 2015
Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr (2486) – Carlsen, Magnus (2834)
B20 Sicilian Defence

1.e4 c5 2.b3 g6 3.Bb2 Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.e6 f6 6.exd7+ Qxd7 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.Bb5 Nc7 9.Bxc6 Qxc6 10.Qf3 Bd7 11.O-O-O e5 12.Qxc6 Bxc6 13.f3 Ne6 14.Nge2 Be7 15.Rhf1 b5 16.Rde1 Kf7 17.Nd1 a5 18.Ne3 Bd6 19.Nc3 h5 20.a4 b4 21.Ne4 Bc7 22.Nc4 h4 23.g4 hxg3 24.hxg3 Rh3 25.g4 Rd8 26.g5 Bxe4 27.fxe4 Nf4 28.gxf6 Ke6 29.Ne3 g5 30.Nd5 Bd6 31.Rg1 Rg8 32.Rg4 Rh4 33.Rgg1 g4 34.Ne3 g3 35.Nf5 Rhh8 36.f7 Rg6 37.Kd1 g2 0-1

and Vassily does the same

Round 2, Dec. 21, 2015
Ivanchuk, Vassily (2710) – Tabatabaei, Amin (2482)
E60 King’s Indian, 3. Nf3

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.e3 O-O 5.Be2 d5 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.e4 Nb6 8.O-O Bg4 9.Nbd2 Nc6 10.d5 Bxf3 11.Nxf3 Ne5 12.Nxe5 Bxe5 13.f4 Bg7 14.a4 a5 15.Qb3 Qd6 16.Be3 Qb4 17.Qxb4 axb4 18.a5 Nd7 19.e5 b6 20.Bb5 Nc5 21.Bc6 Ra7 22.axb6 Rxa1 23.Rxa1 cxb6 24.Ra7 e6 25.d6 f6 26.Bd4 fxe5 27.Bxe5 Bxe5 28.fxe5 Nd3 29.Bd7 Nc5 30.Bb5 Rd8 31.Re7 1-0
________

With a lot of fresh young talent, we get to meet players in the interviews, who we have not seen before. Two that come in are Harika Dronavalli and Daniil Yuffa.

Harika played Hou Yifan to a draw. She also is the winner of the FIDE online women’s championship that took place in Rome. After winning she said that it was a bit weird to travel to Rome, but not for playing blitz via laptops. “It was funny for me, to travel all the way from India to Europe for a tournament which lasted for only four hours. But playing on laptops was fine because that's the whole new concept and point of this event.”

The guys said that after move 7, a position was reached that had not occurred before.

Round 2, Dec. 21, 2015
Hou, Yifan (2683) – Dronavalli, Harika (2513)
A07 Reti, KIA, Neo-Grunfeld

1.g3 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.c4 Bg7 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.h4 Nc6 7.Nc3 Bf5 8.Qb3 Nb6 9.d3 a5 10.a4 h6 11.Bd2 Nb4 12.O-O O-O 13.Rfc1 Rc8 14.Qd1 c5 15.b3 Nd7 16.Rab1 b6 17.Nb5 Na2 18.Rc2 Nb4 19.Rcc1 Na2 20.Rc4 Be6 21.Rc2 Nb4 22.Rcc1 Na2 23.Rc2 Nb4 24.Rcc1 Na2 25.Rc2 1/2-1/2

Daniil Yuffa is an IM who Peter Svidler says is playing like a grandmaster. He had the quickest win yesterday and today he beat Bologan.

He said that he came to Qatar to play the best and is enjoying it.

Round 1, Dec. 20, 2015
Pratyusha, Bodda (2260) – Yuffa, Daniil (2504)
E73 King’s Indian, Semi-Averbakh System

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 O-O 6.Be3 e5 7.d5 a5 8.g4 c6 9.h4 cxd5 10.cxd5 Na6 11.h5 Nc5 12.Bf3 b5 13.a3 Bd7 14.g5 Ne8 15.Bg4 b4 16.Bxd7 bxc3 17.Bxe8 cxb2 18.Bxf7+ Rxf7 19.Rb1 Rb8 20.hxg6 hxg6 21.Nf3 Qc8 22.Nh4 Nxe4 23.Nxg6 Qc3+ 24.Ke2 Nxf2 25.Ne7+ Kf8 26.Ng6+ Ke8 27.Qa4+ Kd8 28.Nf4 exf4 29.Bxf2 f3+ 0-1

Round 2, Dec. 21, 2015
Yuffa, Daniil (2504) – Bologan, Viktor (2654)
D10 QGD Slav Defence, Alekhine Variation

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 dxc4 4.e4 b5 5.a4 b4 6.Nb1 Nf6 7.e5 Nd5 8.Bxc4 e6 9.Nf3 Be7 10.O-O Bb7 11.Nbd2 Nd7 12.Ne4 h6 13.a5 Rc8 14.Bxd5 cxd5 15.Nd6+ Bxd6 16.exd6 Ba6 17.Re1 O-O 18.Bd2 Rb8 19.Ne5 Nxe5 20.dxe5 f5 21.Qh5 Kh7 22.Rac1 Rb7 23.Rc5 b3 24.h4 Bb5 25.Bg5 Qxa5 26.Rec1 Qb4 27.Rc7 Rxc7 28.Rxc7 Qe1+ 29.Kh2 Qxe5+ 30.f4 Qd4 31.Qxh6+ Kg8 32.Qxe6+ Kh8 33.Qe5 Qxe5 34.fxe5 Re8 35.Be7 d4 36.d7 Bxd7 37.Rxd7 d3 38.Bb4 1-0

In the recent (Sept. 2015) World Under-20 Tournament at Khanty-Mansiysk, among the players were Duda, Bluebaum, Bok, Rambaldi and Yuffa – all of them playing in the Qatar Masters.

Rambaldi, by the way, beat Sopiko Guramishvili in the first round and drew with Anton Korobov in the second.

**Jack Maguire** · Monday, 21st December, 2015, 02:05 PM

Re: Qatar Masters Open 2015

With Giri winning today, while Kramnik ceded a draw, Giri takes over the #2 live ranking. If Giri can maintain his #2 status and manage to win the 2016 Candidates (a tall task!), that would make for an ideal 2016 World Championship match, Carlsen against the #2 player in the world and one he's never managed to beat (:

http://www.2700chess.com/

Qatar Masters Open 2015

Qatar Masters Open 2015

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