Ivanchuk Wins in Havana, Plus a Sigeman & Co. Update

We've already reported on the World Championship, and the U.S. Championship (both versions) had a rest day. So that left two major events to report: the 47th Capablanca Memorial, which finished today (now yesterday) and Sigeman & Co.

Vassily Ivanchuk had a half point lead over Ian Nepomniachtchi in the Capablanca Memorial, and drew with White against Viktor Laznicka in 11 rounds. He practically dared Nepomniachtchi to try to catch him, but while he may have tried, he didn't succeed. Leinier Dominguez defeated him and caught him in second place. Ivanchuk finished with 6.5/10 while Nepomniachtchi and Dominguez had 5.5 points apiece. In minus territory, Vladimir Potkin wound up with 4.5 while Yuniesky Quesada and Laznicka totaled 4 points.

While in Havana the standings finished more or less according to ratings, the story's a bit different in Malmo, Sweden, where the Sigeman & Co. tournament has finished five rounds of seven. Top seed Fabiano Caruana won his first two games and, three draws later, remains in first. But he has been caught by Nils Grandelius, who is the lowest-rated player in the tournament. Caruana drew a crazy Gruenfeld against Li Chao, while Grandelius won with White against Jonny Hector in a Slav. The leaders have 3.5 points, good for a half point edge over Li Chao and Peter Leko and a full point advantage over Anish Giri.

Ivanchuk the Early Leader in Cuba; Round 3 Underway

In round 1 of the Elite Group of the 47th Capablanca Memorial in Havana, Cuba, Leinier Dominguez was the only winner, defeating Viktor Laznicka. In round 2, their fortunes were reversed: Laznicka beat Yuniesky Quesada while Dominguez lost to top seed Vassily Ivanchuk. Round 3 just started a few minutes ago, with the pairings Quesada-Ivanchuk, Dominguez-Vladimir Potkin and Ian Nepomniachtchi-Laznicka.

Coming Soon: The Capablanca Memorial

The Capablanca Memorial in Havana, Cuba, is one of the great traditional events on the chess calendar, with this year marking the 47th edition of the tournament. (The great man himself died in 1942.) This year's lineup includes Vassily Ivanchuk, who is a regular at this tournament and a 5-time winner, along with Leinier Dominguez, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Viktor Laznicka, Vladimir Potkin and Yuniesky Quesada. This double round-robin is both the smallest and strongest Capablanca Memorial I can remember, but that's mitigated by the presence of a second, concurrent 10-player GM round robin and a very strong open event as well.

Play starts on Friday.

Reggio Emilia, Round 7: Two Quick Draws and an Ivanchuk Blunder

Round 7 of Reggio Emilia was very strange. After three straight rounds with three decisive games, two of today's games (Morozevich-Giri and Caruana-Nakamura) were drawn by move 21! The third game could and probably should have been a relatively quick draw as well, but Vassily Ivanchuk hallucinated something or other against Nikita Vitiugov and lost a piece and, therefore, his third consecutive game. (In all three games he had the black pieces, but that's not really to blame, as he was winning in round 5 against Nakamura and should have drawn today.)

With three rounds to go, Nakamura has 15 points (on 3-1-0 scoring), Morozevich has 11, Giri 9, Caruana and Ivanchuk 8 and Vitiugov 5.

Games here, but without notes except for a brief discussion at the end of Vitiugov-Ivanchuk.

Reggio Emilia, Round 4: Ivanchuk, Nakamura Lead

All three games in round 4 of Reggio Emilia finished with winners and losers. Alexander Morozevich entered the round in clear first, but ended it in third after being outplayed by Vassily Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk built up a winning attacking position with White in a Ruy Lopez, and while the game got murky for a while he never really let Morozevich get back into the game. In a pleasant rarity, Morozevich let Ivanchuk deliver mate - very sporting of him!

That put Ivanchuk into the lead, and he was joined there by Hikaru Nakamura. Anish Giri's 23.d6 was interesting at best and dubious at worst, and the follow-up 31.Qd5? left him with a lost ending. Nakamura won pretty easily after that, and he looks poised for a second strong result.

Finally, Nikita Vitiugov's loss to Fabiano Caruana resembled Giri-Nakamura. Like Giri, Vitiugov embarked down an enterprising sacrificial path, but like Giri he played without sufficient energy, only to wind up in a hopeless ending down material.

After four of ten rounds, Ivanchuk and Nakamura have 8 points (they're using 3-1-0 scoring), a point ahead of Morozevich. Caruana has 4, and Vitiugov and Giri are bringing up the rear with 2 points apiece.

The games, with my (light) comments, are here.

The Daily Update: Reggio Emilia, San Sebastian, Stockholm and Hastings

1. Reggio Emilia. Vitiugov-Giri and Morozevich-Nakamura were normal draws while Caruana-Ivanchuk was neither normal nor drawn. It looked like it would be drawn in a knight and three vs. bishop and three ending, but Ivanchuk poked and prodded with his king and bishop until he had at last extracted an error from the youngster. Caruana miscalculated something, or perhaps failed to calculate at all in time trouble, when he allowed Ivanchuk to swap down into a winning pawn ending.

After three rounds, Morozevich continues to lead with seven points (on 3-1-0 scoring). Nakamura and Ivanchuk have five points apiece; Vitiugov and Giri have two while the hometown favorite (Caruana) has but a single point.

Today's games, with notes to all three over the final stages, are here.

2. San Sebastian. There was a preliminary round yesterday, but today the action began in earnest. The tournament is a seven round knockout event, with a unique twist: opponents play two games with each other simultaneously, one with each color. The thought is that having the white pieces first in a two game mini-match is a substantial advantage, so having the games played simultaneously eliminates that imbalance.

As it's early yet, the heavy hitters haven't faced off yet, but the late rounds should be quite interesting as there are quite a few 2700s involved.

3. The Rilton Cup. There are no super-GMs in this annual open event in Stockholm, Sweden, but it's decently strong as opens go, featuring 19 GMs. It looks like an excellent event for Scandinavian norm aspirants to attend each year.

4. Hastings. The classic annual event is a Swiss event this year with 13 GMs amongst the 112 participants. The top British participant (and second seed overall) is David Howell, while the top seed and clear favorite is Wang Yue (2697).