Catching Up Everywhere: Danzhou, Dortmund, and the U.S. Junior
Slightly old "news", but for completeness' sake here goes:
Danzhou: Ian Nepomniachtchi led this event with two rounds to go, despite the fact that no one in the tournament had lost more games than he had. Interestingly, that didn't change in the last two rounds, and it could have been even better. In round 8 he defeated Bu Xiangzhi while all the other games were drawn, and in round 9 all the games were drawn. Against Ivanchuk Nepo was very fortunate not to suffer his third loss, and if that had happened it would have been fantastic an oddity: Nepomniachtchi would have won the tournament despite losing more games than all the other participants! Has this ever happened before? As it was, he was still the co-leader in losses despite finishing in clear first.
Final Standings:
- 1. Nepomniachtchi 6 (of 9)
- 2-3. Harikrishna, Wang Yue 5
- 4-6. Yu Yangyi, Bu Xiangzhi, Ding Liren 4.5
- 7-9. Ivanchuk, Leko, Hou Yifan 4
- 10. Wang Hao 3.5
Dortmund: When we left off with two rounds to go Maxime Vachier-Lagrave led Ruslan Ponomariov and Leinier Dominguez - his next two opponents - by a full point. He defeated Ponomariov in the penultimate round, and since Dominguez only drew his game MVL clinched first with a round to spare. His drew with Dominguez in the final round to score a terrific 5.5/7, winning the tournament by a point and a half. He also gained 13 rating points, vaulting himself into #2 on the rating list.
The other individual winners in the last two rounds were his closest pursuers on the rating list. Fabiano Caruana (now #4 in the world) won in the penultimate round (over Rainer Buhmann) and Vladimir Kramnik (the world #3) defeated Evgeniy Najer in the last round.
Final Standings:
- 1. Vachier-Lagrave 5.5 (of 7)
- 2-4. Dominguez, Kramnik, Caruana 4
- 5-6. Nisipeanu, Ponomariov 3.5
- 7. Najer 2
- 8. Buhmann 1.5
U.S. Junior Championship: Top seed GM Jeffery Xiong enjoyed a full point lead with two rounds to go, and after everyone drew in the penultimate round he was able to clinch the title with a short, safe draw with Luke Harmon-Vellotti from a position of strength. Young (13-year-old) IM Awonder Liang defeated older IM Aleksandr Ostrovskiy to take clear second, and Ruifeng Li also won in the last round (with the black pieces against Michael Bodek) to take clear third.
Reader Comments