Gibraltar 2017 Underway
The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival (henceforth just "Gibraltar") has become increasingly popular and strong, and now it's a kind of super-open. World #2 Fabiano Caruana is the top name on the marquee, and then there are another 11 players over 2700, including Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura, Vassily Ivanchuk, Michael Adams, Peter Svidler, Veselin Topalov, and Boris Gelfand. There are some players in the upper 2600s as well, including several who have been over 2700 in the not too distant past.
There were some upsets in round 1, and some games that should have finished in an upset. Ivanchuk's game with WGM Petra Papp was very level for a very long time, but someone he pulled it out. Yu Yangyi was even lost against IM Sahl Bjarke, but he too managed to win. But while they escaped against their much lower-rated opposition, Gelfand, Nigel Short, Surya Ganguly, and Romain Edouard were all nicked for draws, to talk only about 2600+ players. And two 2600+ players lost: Abhijeet Gupta and Grigoriy Oparin.
It's an enjoyable 10-round tournament for the spectators, and I'd recommend checking out their website. There's live, on-scene commentary, player interviews, and master classes to boot. Wijk may be the headliner for a few more days, but don't forget about Gibraltar!
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