Gibraltar 2019: The 2700s Remain Undefeated Through Round 4
Through four rounds of the 2019 Tradewise Gibraltar Masters, the 14 participating 2700s have made it through 55 games without a defeat. (Rauf Mamedov had a bye in round 1.) This does not mean that they are all 4-0, of course; in fact, only one of them - David Navara - is 4-0, and he is in fact the only player with a perfect score in the whole tournament. This is surprising for a tournament with 250 players, but that's the way it is.
Here are the leading pairings for round 5 of this 10-round tournament:
- Navara (4) - So (3.5)
- Grandelius (3.5) - Naiditsch (3.5)
- Jumabayev (3.5) - Artemiev (3.5)
- Adams (3.5) - Papp (3.5)
- Khademalsharieh (3.5) - Adhiban (3.5)
- Vitiugov (3) - Harsha (3.5)
Romain Edouard also has 3.5 points, but is taking a bye. In addition to Vitiugov another 41 players have 3 points, including Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian, Yu, Nakamura, Le Quang Liem, and Ivanchuk, to name just the 2700s. It's a strong, deep tournament, and it's likely that there are more riches to be found here than in Wijk, if one has the patience to look for them.
Reader Comments (3)
Hi Dennis, You may be amused by Gawain Jones' crazy Round 4 game.
[DM: Yes, that was an entertaining game. I'll blog it later today - thanks for passing it along, and for those who want to replay the game, here's a direct link: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/gibraltar-masters-2019/4/1/13.]
The last (lowest-rated) 2700er Matlakov was lucky or smart to remain unbeaten: Swedish FM Hedman accepted Matlakov's draw offer on move 38 while engines say about +10 for him. It was mutual time trouble, and Matlakov had been better just a few moves earlier.
Wijk aan Zee would (or does) also have "more riches to be found" if one looks beyond the Masters group. In the Challenger group, l'Ami-Korobov (eventually drawn) was "from another planet", and there are lots of amateur groups. Only games from the top group (which does have several IMs) may become available. Only I and a few others know about the drama that cost a former clubmate first place in his amateur group 6 [Elo level about 1600, :) or :( ].
[DM: My sympathies for your friend - it's painful to have first place on your fingertips and have it slip away, no matter what the level of the tournament.]
The happy end was that both players promote to group 5 next year, and also share the first (book) prize. Both had 8/9 including three forfeit wins, the other one had superior Sonneborn-Berger from winning the direct encounter from a losing position.
Wijk aan Zee can be "generous" at amateur level, because the number of groups per level is flexible - depending on how many players register and are eligible by Elo or history (qualifying for a group above their nominal Elo level) for a given level. Only the total number of amateur players is limited to about 600 - "first come first served".