The Daily Update: St. Louis, Havana, Lublin
In St. Louis, both matches' games ended in draws. Ponomariov seemed to equalize without any real trouble with Black in a Berlin sideline, while Robson-Finegold was a Philidor that ended in a perpetual check after 29 moves. Thus Ponomariov and Robson lead their respective matches with 1.5-.5 scores.
In Havana, Andreikin-Le Quang Liem and Dominguez-Ivanchuk were drawn, while Navara ground down poor Bruzon in 82 to win with Black and move into a tie for first. Le, Navara and Andreikin share first with 4.5/7, putting them a point ahead of Ivanchuk, two points ahead of Dominguez and three points ahead of Bruzon with three rounds to go.
Finally, I was unaware of the 3rd Lublin Union Memorial tournament until "Andrey" wrote me about Alexei Shirov's performance there, but do have a look: he's playing some spectacular chess. Shirov leads this 8-player round-robin with 3.5/4, a point ahead of Grachev, Roiz, Zhigalko and Sasikiran and a full two and a half points ahead of top seed Radoslaw Wojtaszek.
Reader Comments (2)
King's Gambit from Shirov!
Another ongoing round robin might be worthwhile mentioning because it's new and has an interesting if somewhat weaker field: The Bahia Feliz tournament in Gran Canaria with Elo favorite Vallejo, rising stars Ragger and Nyzhnyk, South American oldies Granda Zuniga and Mecking, plus three Germans (Hertneck, Kindermann, Bromberger), Mateo (only GM from the Dominican Republic) and Spanish WGM Vega Gutierrez.
It's organized by Roman Krulich, a real estate businessman and chess sponsor from Munich who also does business on the Canary Islands, which explains the field, the location (and the fact that the tournament homepage is only available in Spanish and German).
[DM: Agreed. I will mention it tonight if I can find a website for it.]