Isle of Man International 2016

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Isle of Man International 2016

Isle of Man International 2016

October 8, 2016

Round Eight

If So beats Eljanov tomorrow a number of players can catch up to him. If they draw, Caruana can tie. If Eljanov wins, he wins the tournament outright.

The games start one hour earlier than today.

Results of Round Eight

1. Eljanov-Caruana 0.5-0.5
2. Nakamura-So 0.5-0.5
3. Adams-Bok 1-0
4. Rodshtein-Grandelius 1-0
5. Howell-Vidit 0.5-0.5
6. Naiditsch-Sunilduth 1-0
7. Shirov-Harika 1-0
8. Donchenko-Melkumyan 0.5-0.5
9. Leko-Wallace 0.5-0.5
19. Paehtz-Hou Yifan 0-1
60. Dahl-Ottosen 1-0
68. Mclaren not paired

Rankings After Round Eight

1. Eljanov 7.0
2. Caruana 6.5
3. So 6.0
4. Adams 6.0
5. Rodshtein 6.0
6. Naiditsch 6.0
7. Shirov 6.0
8. Nakamura 5.5
9. Vidit 5.5
10. Sargissian and 7 others on 5.5
115. Mclaren 2.5
124. Ottosen 2.0

Final Round Pairings
1. So-Eljanov
2. Caruana-Adams
3. Rodshtein-Naiditsch
4. Sargissian-Shirov
5. Aravindh-Nakamura
6. Vidit-Granda Zuniga
7. Melkumyan-Howell
8. Wallace-Salem
9. Fressinet-Donchenko
58. Mclaren-Fathallah
67. Ottosen not paired

Some Round Eight Games

IoM International 2016
Douglas
Round Eight, Oct. 8. 2016
Adams, Michael – Bok, Benjamin
B91 Sicilian, Najdorf, Zagreb Variation

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.g3 e5 7.Nde2 Be7 8.Bg2 O-O 9.O-O b5 10.Nd5 Nxd5 11.Qxd5 Ra7 12.Be3 Rb7 13.Qd3 Nd7 14.Nc3 Nf6 15.Bg5 Be6 16.Bxf6 Bxf6 17.Nd5 Bg5 18.h4 Bh6 19.c3 a5 20.a3 Qc8 21.b4 axb4 22.axb4 Qc6 23.Rfd1 g6 24.Ra3 Kg7 25.Qf3 f5 26.exf5 Bxf5 27.Qe2 Qc4 28.Qxc4 bxc4 29.Ra6 Rbf7 30.Rda1 Bc8 31.Ra7 Bb7 32.b5 Bd2 33.b6 Kh6 34.Rd1 Rxf2 35.Rxb7 Kh5 36.Nf4+ R8xf4 37.gxf4 Be3 38.Kh1 exf4 39.Rf1 Rb2 40.Rxh7+ Kg4 41.b7 d5 42.Rg7 d4 43.Rxg6+ Kxh4 44.Rf3 1-0

Round Eight, Oct. 8, 2016
Shirov, Alexei – Harika, Dronavalli
C19 French, Winawer, Advance

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Nf3 Qa5 8.Bd2 Nbc6 9.a4 Bd7 10.Bb5 a6 11.Bd3 c4 12.Be2 h6 13.O-O O-O-O 14.Bc1 Kb8 15.Ba3 Nc8 16.Qd2 Ka8 17.Nh4 Rdg8 18.g3 Nb8 19.f4 g6 20.Ng2 Bc6 21.Ne3 Nd7 22.Bf3 Qc7 23.a5 h5 24.Bb4 Rd8 25.Qg2 Nb8 26.Rfb1 h4 27.g4 f6 28.Rf1 g5 29.f5 fxe5 30.fxe6 e4 31.Bxe4 h3 32.Qe2 dxe4 33.Rf7 Nd7 34.Raf1 Rhe8 35.Qxc4 Nd6 36.Bxd6 Qxd6 37.exd7 Rxd7 38.R1f6 Qc7 39.Rxd7 Qxd7 40.Qc5 Qc8 41.c4 Qb8 42.c3 Rg8 43.d5 Ba4 44.Rf7 Rc8 45.Qb6 Rf8 46.Rc7 Rf3 47.d6 Bc6 48.d7 Rf8 49.Qc5 Bxd7 50.Nd5 1-0

Round Eight, Oct. 8, 2016
Paehtz, Elisabeth – Hou Yifan
B28 Sicilian, O’Kelly Variation

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.c3 e6 4.d4 d5 5.exd5 exd5 6.Bg5 Qb6 7.Qb3 Qe6+ 8.Be2 Be7 9.dxc5 Bxc5 10.Nbd2 h6 11.Bf4 Ne7 12.Qd1 Nbc6 13.Nb3 Bb6 14.O-O Qf6 15.Qd2 O-O 16.Nbd4 Bg4 17.Be3 Bc7 18.Nxc6 bxc6 19.Bc5 Rfb8 20.Nd4 Bd7 21.g3 a5 22.Rfe1 Ng6 23.b3 Bh3 24.Bf1 Bxf1 25.Kxf1 Ne5 26.Kg2 Re8 27.a4 Qg6 28.Re3 Nd7 29.Ba3 Re4 30.Qc2 f5 31.Rae1 Rae8 32.R3e2 f4 33.f3 Rxe2+ 34.Rxe2 Rxe2+ 35.Qxe2 fxg3 36.Qe6+ Qxe6 37.Nxe6 Be5 38.Nd8 c5 39.Nc6 Bxc3 40.Ne7+ Kf7 41.Nxd5 Bb4 42.Bb2 gxh2 43.Kxh2 g5 44.Ne3 Ke6 45.Nc4 Kf5 46.Kg2 Nb8 47.Be5 Nc6 48.Bc7 h5 49.Kg3 Ke6 50.Kf2 Kd5 51.Ke3 h4 52.Nb6+ Ke6 53.Nc4 h3 54.Kf2 Kd5 55.Kg3 Kd4 56.Nd6 Kc3 57.Ne4+ Kxb3 58.Nxg5 c4 59.Ne4 c3 60.Nxc3 Bxc3 61.Kxh3 Kxa4 62.Kh4 Kb3 63.Bxa5 Nxa5 64.f4 Nc4 65.f5 Nd6 66.f6 Bxf6+ 67.Kg4 Kc4 68.Kf4 Kd3 69.Kf3 Be5 70.Kf2 Ne4+ 71.Kf3 Ng3 72.Kf2 Ke4 73.Kg2 Ke3 74.Kg1 Kf3 75.Kh2 Bd4 76.Kh3 Bg1 77.Kh4 Ne4 78.Kh5 Kf4 79.Kg6 Ng5 80.Kg7 Bc5 81.Kg6 Bd4 82.Kh5 Kf5 83.Kh6 Be5 84.Kh5 Bg3 85.Kh6 Ne6 86.Kh5 Ng7+ 87.Kh6 Kf6 88.Kh7 Bf4 89.Kg8 Kg6 90.Kf8 Bd6+ 91.Kg8 Nf5 0-1

The old K, N+B vs K endgame

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Isle of Man International 2016

Isle of Man International 2016

October 9, 2016

Round Nine

Part I

When the last round was about three hours in, So-Eljanov was a draw. Thus Pavel wins the tournament. Caruana can catch his score but if so will lose on the tiebreak.

IoM International 2016
Douglas
Round 9, Oct. 9, 2016
So, Wesley – Eljanov, Pavel
A35 English, Symmetrical, Four Knights System

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nxc3 7.bxc3 e5 8.O-O Be7 9.d4 exd4 10.cxd4 cxd4 11.Bb2 Bf6 12.Ba3 Be7 13.Bxe7 Qxe7 14.Nxd4 Nxd4 15.Qxd4 O-O 16.e3 Rd8 17.Qe4 Qxe4 18.Bxe4 Rb8 19.Rfc1 Be6 20.Rc7 Rd7 21.Rxd7 Bxd7 22.Rd1 Be6 23.Bxb7 Bxa2 24.Ra1 Rxb7 25.Rxa2 h5 26.Kg2 g6 27.f4 Kg7 28.Kf3 f5 29.h3 Re7 30.Ra3 Kf7 31.g4 hxg4+ 32.hxg4 fxg4+ 33.Kxg4 a5 34.f5 gxf5+ 35.Kxf5 Re6 36.Rxa5 Rxe3 37.Ra7+ Re7 38.Rxe7+ Kxe7 1/2-1/2

Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu

You know the story of Praggu. In February of this year, at the age of ten years and seven months, he was rated 2301. After that he picked up two IM norms at Cannes and Moscow. In May at the KIIT International in Bhubaneswar, India he got his final IM-norm and became the world’s youngest International Master.

His coach from the age of 8 has been GM RB Ramesh and he found the boy to be the ideal student. “He knows the mistakes he’s made without being told. The way he analyses his games is way beyond his years”.

Here the young master (2442) demolishes Axel Bachmann of Paraguay (2645).

Round 9, Oct. 9, 2016
Bachman, Axel – Praggnanandhaa, R.
A45 Queen’s Pawn Game

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Qd2 Bg7 5.Bh6 O-O 6.Bxg7 Kxg7 7.O-O-O c5 8.e3 Nc6 9.f3 c4 10.e4 b5 11.exd5 Nb4 12.Nxb5 Nxa2+ 13.Kb1 Qxd5 14.Na3 c3 15.bxc3 Rb8+ 16.Ka1 Qa5 17.Kxa2 Nd5 18.Ne2 Be6 0-1
________

Today happens to be the birthday of Peter Doggers (1975), the Dutch journalist of chess.com. On-line at the tournament, they sang Happy Birthday to him and shared two cakes with candles.

It is also the birthday of Wesley So (Oct. 9, 1993).

There are lots of interesting games today. This to be concluded in the next post.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Isle of Man International 2016

Isle of Man International 2016

October 9, 2016

Round Nine
Part II

Lawrence Trent came in after his game and sat and analyzed with Simon Williams for quite a while. There was one difficulty in all this – he is also the manager of Fabiano Caruana and he cannot disclose opening prep or anything that might hurt Fabiano’s chances. Also, Lawrence is a good friend of Michael Adams, Fabiano’s opponent.

The game very close to the time control was in Adams’ favour. Then it seemed that Fabiano got a bit better game and then an ending with R + K and pawns vs N + K and pawns – a theoretical win for Caruana as Black.

The win puts Fabiano in a tie with Pavel but the latter wins on tiebreak but the top two prize monies £12,000 +£6000 are split – so £9000 to each.

He gained 10 ELO points today.

Fabiano came in for a postmortem and said that he was going to the Karaoke tonight, where they are celebrating Peter Doggers’ birthday. His next tournament is a four-man match Nov. 10 to 14th:

The 2016 Champions Showdown shall be an exhibition event featuring four players (Viswanathan Anand, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Veselin Topalov). Over five days, the Players shall complete two Classical Round Robins (G/60 +5” delay), two Rapid Round Robins (G/15 +5” delay) and four Blitz Round Robins (G/3 +2” delay).
______

Arkadij Naiditsch (b. 1985) is a German grandmaster who now plays for Azerbaijan. In October 2014 he married Israeli chess player WIM Yuliya Shvayger. He has just brought out a series of five books with Csaba Balogh entitled Most Interesting Draws 2012-2015, Best fighting games of 2012-2015, Most instructive endgames of 2012-2015, Positional Masterpieces of 2012-2015 and Best Attacking Games 2012-2015. I bought the endgames one and it is beautifully produced and well worth the price.

In any case, Arkadij beat Rodshtein to take third place

Round 9, Oct. 9, 2016
Rodshtein, Maxim – Naiditsch, Arkadij
E90 King’s Indian

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.e4 d6 4.d4 Bg7 5.Nf3 O-O 6.h3 e5 7.d5 a5 8.g4 Na6 9.Be3 Nc5 10.Nd2 c6 11.Be2 Bd7 12.g5 Ne8 13.Nb3 cxd5 14.exd5 Na4 15.Nd2 Nxc3 16.bxc3 f5 17.gxf6 Bxf6 18.Bg4 Bf5 19.Bxf5 gxf5 20.Rb1 Rf7 21.Rg1+ Kh8 22.Qh5 Qd7 23.Bg5 e4 24.Bxf6+ Nxf6 25.Qh6 Re8 26.Qf4 Qa4 27.Rg5 e3 28.fxe3 Qc2 29.Qd4 f4 30.Rxb7 fxe3 31.Ne4 e2 0-1

In the meantime, his wife was playing the veteran Oleg Romanishin. The game was discussed by Lawrence and Simon because Yuliya took the knight with her pawn instead of the queen and this was reminiscent of a Tal-Botvinnik game from their 1960 match when Tal took 5.gxf3 in a Caro-Kann.

From chessgames.com:

To the criticism of annotators at the time, Tal introduced a theoretical novelty on move 5 by capturing the bishop with the g pawn. He was attempting to create a more open game by opening the g file. However, Tal claims that he destroyed the possibility of creating an open game with 9th move of e5. He still managed to force a draw despite being down a minor piece and maintained his 1/2 point lead after the third match of World Championship.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1032534

Round 9, Oct. 9, 2016
Shvayger, Yuliya – Romanishin, Oleg
C48 Four Knights, Rubinstein Counter-Gambit

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Nd4 5.Bc4 Nxf3+ 6.gxf3 Bc5 7.Rg1 O-O 8.d4 exd4 9.Bh6 g6 10.Na4 Bb4+ 11.c3 dxc3 12.Nxc3 d5 13.Bxf8 Qxf8 14.Qd4 Nxe4 15.fxe4 dxc4 16.O-O-O Be6 17.Nd5 Bxd5 18.exd5 b5 19.Kb1 Bc5 20.Qf4 Qd6 21.Qf3 b4 22.Rc1 c3 23.bxc3 Rb8 24.c4 a5 25.h4 a4 26.h5 b3 27.hxg6 hxg6 28.a3 Bd4 29.c5 Bxc5 30.Rc4 b2 31.Rxa4 Qb6 32.Rh1 Qb3 33.Qxb3 Rxb3 34.Rc4 Bd6 35.a4 Rd3 36.Kxb2 Rxd5 37.Kc2 Rf5 38.Rf1 Kf8 39.f3 Ke7 40.Kd3 Kd7 41.Ke2 Re5+ 42.Re4 Ra5 43.Ra1 g5 44.Rc4 f5 45.Kd3 f4 46.Rb1 Re5 47.Re4 Rd5+ 48.Ke2 Rc5 49.Rb2 Rc3 50.Ra2 g4 51.fxg4 Rg3 52.Ra1 Rg2+ 53.Kd3 Rxg4 54.a5 Rg8 55.a6 f3 56.a7 Ra8 57.Rc4 Be5 58.Rd1 1/2-1/2
________

It seems that more and more in the tournaments of this year we are quoting games of talented Indian players. Hikaru Nakamura was playing Aravindh and near the time control it looked like the Indian would be playing bullet against Hikaru in a complex position and we all know how that would turn out. But, he was cool and ended up with a little more time than Nakamura when the time control (and bathroom privileges) were reached:

Round 9, Oct. 9, 2016
Aravindh, Chithambaram VR – Nakamura, Hikaru
B86 Sicilian, Sozin Attack

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 Nbd7 8.O-O Nc5 9.Bg5 Be7 10.Re1 O-O 11.Qf3 h6 12.Bh4 Nd5 13.Bxe7 Nxe7 14.Rad1 b5 15.e5 d5 16.Nce2 f6 17.exf6 Rxf6 18.Qe3 Qd6 19.f4 Bd7 20.c3 Be8 21.g4 Bg6 22.Ng3 Re8 23.Rf1 Ref8 24.Rde1 Bd3 25.Rf2 Be4 26.Ref1 Kh8 27.Bc2 Bxc2 28.Nxc2 Ng6 29.f5 Ne5 30.fxe6 Rxf2 31.Rxf2 Rxf2 32.Qxf2 Nxe6 33.Nf5 Qf8 34.Qg3 Qf6 35.Nce3 Ng5 36.Nxd5 Qf7 37.Nfe3 Qg6 38.Nf5 Nxg4 39.Nde7 Qb6+ 40.Nd4 Ne5 41.h4 Qc5 1/2-1/2

Online Comments

Fabiano Caruana - Tied for first at Isle of Man with 7.5/9! Couldn't be happier. Congrats to Pavel Eljanov for a great tournament, well deserved victory.

Pavel Eljanov - Happy to win #iomchess! Looks like I was infected by Volokitin's virus in Olympiad :). Timing of incubation period was optimal :)

Mark Crowther - Watching Praggnanandhaa brought back memories of seeing a diminutive 11 year old Leko playing Shirov at the Lloyds Bank Masters of 1991.

Mark Crowther - I saw one of Praggnanandhaa's wins (vs Jan Krejci) He effortlessly obtained an advantage. Making me wonder why I can't do that!

ChessBase - Famous chess writer Leonard Barden posted on English Chess Forum: "India's 11-year-old youngest ever IM with the unpronounceable name has this afternoon won an 18-mover against a 2645-rated GM which will go round the world and be compared to Fischer's Game of the Century." The age difference between Praggnanandhaa and Leonard is close to eighty years.

The game is analyzed at:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/news-fl...-historic-game

All the results and statistics of the tournament to come in Part III.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Isle of Man International 2016

Isle of Man International 2016

October 9, 2016

Round Nine
Part III

Standings After Round Nine

1. Caruana, Fabiano 7.5
2. Eljanov, Pavel 7.5
3. Naiditsch, Arkadij 7.0
4. So, Wesley 6.5
5. Salem, Saleh 6.5
6. Nakamura, Hikaru 6.0
7. Adams, Michael 6.0
8. Rodshtein, Maxim 6.0
9. Vidit, Gujrathi 6.0
10. Shirov, Alexei 6.0
11. Fressinet, Laurent 6.0
12. Granda Zuniga, Julio 6.0
13. Grandelius, Nils 6.0
14. L’Ami, Erwin 6.0
15. Lenderman, Aleksandr 6.0
16. Brunello, Sabino 6.0
17. Aravindh, Chithambaram 6.0
24. Van Foreest, Jorden 5.5
42. Hou Yifan 5.0
74. Trent, Lawrence 4.0
105. Mclaren, Brian 3.5
127. Ottosen, David 2.0

Round Nine Results

1. So-Eljanov 0.5-0.5
2. Caruana-Adams 1-0
3. Rodshtein-Naiditsch 0-1
4. Sargissian-Shirov 0.5-0.5
5. Aravindh-Nakamura 0.5-0.5
6. Vidit-Granda Zuniga 0.5-0.5
7. Melkumyan-Howell 0-1
8. Wallace-Salem 0-1
9. Fressinet-Donchenko 1-0
10. Harika-Movsesian 0.5-0.5
11. Hou Yifan-Brunello 0-1
12. Grandelius-Shyam 1-0
13. Van Foreest-Vishnu 0.5-0.5
14. L’Ami-Gagare 1-0
15. Bok-Puranik 0.5-0.5
21. Bachmann-Praggnanandhaa 0-1
58. Mclaren-Fathallah 1-0
67. Ottosen not paired

Game scores given in Parts I and II (previous)

Online Comments

- I have to disagree a little with Leonard (who compared the Praggu game with Fischer’s Game of the Century) - the GM committed suicide in that one the moves are not that hard to find.

- Yes, I think it comes with 2645 having a bad tournament and then falls to pieces having to play promising 11 year old . Nothing like the Game of the Century really, although still a nice game.

- From the chess24 interview with Fiona Steil-Antoni it's clear the kid saw a lot of long variations with some very nice tactics, and assessed the compensation correctly. He finished the tournament on +2. Not just "promising 11 year old" - was youngest ever IM at 10. Karjakin's record for youngest GM is in serious jeopardy.

Bachmann's approach (going for all-out mating attack from early in the opening) was completely wrong for a game against such an opponent. Mark Hebden will be thinking "there but for fortune..."

Not as deep as D. Byrne-Fischer but the winner was a lot younger

- A shame for Adams in particular as Caruana appeared to have overpressed and he showed some nice lines in commentary where black could have increased his advantage eg 27....Qg4 28 h3 Qxg2 29 Qxg2 Rxg2 30 e6 Rd2!! He also considered 32...Ne6 to be much better than the Qg3+ played.

Mike Klein at chess.com

Two very different final rounds produced the same ending score. When the day's play ceased, GMs Pavel Eljanov and Fabiano Caruana tied for first place in the 2016 Chess.com Isle of Man International.

Due to progressive tiebreaks, Eljanov wins the first place trophy and the title. The two men each take home £9000. Eljanov, who's had at least a share of the lead for the final week, didn't have to work much at all today. GM Wesley So, celebrating his 23rd birthday, couldn't make any headway on board one. Not counting increment, Eljanov's clock ticked for less than eight minutes.

With the additional half point for the Ukrainian, that shut out a handful of players from reaching his total of 7.5/9. Only one player still had hope, and that was Caruana. In this case, "hope" only meant he could reach that score, not that his position looked promising. But true to his manager's speculation, Caruana pulled out the full point from a position where he mostly tried to avoid losing.

"He's so resilient," manager IM Lawrence Trent said.
"He's so hard to beat."
"I don't seem to be losing many games, despite the horrible positions I seem to be getting in in most games," Caruana said.

Unlike other large open events, like the Gibraltar Chess Festival, there is no playoff here in Isle of Man. You might think with all monies split players may not care, but not so.

"I think a playoff is by far the best," Caruana said. "I don't understand why a tournament would not have a playoff. It's the most fair... I would love to play a playoff."

In some ways his loss on tiebreaks is the chess universe evening things out. Less than one month ago, nail-biting tiebreaks narrowly gave Caruana's USA squad gold over Eljanov's Ukrainian team.

[David Ottosen]

Re: Isle of Man International 2016

Despite the fact that it was a total disaster for me in terms of playing, great tournament and amazing to see all the monsters playing.