2011 Gibraltar (Tradewise Chess Festival)

Final standings in the Masters Group after R10 (150 players)(full results):

Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1
1 GM Ivanchuk Vassily UKR 2764 9.0 2968
6 GM Dzagnidze Nana GEO 2550 7.0 2672 (wins 10,000 Pounds)
13 IM Melia Salome GEO 2449 7.0 2610 (wins 5,000 Pounds)
21 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda RUS 2552 6.5 2654 (wins 3,000 Pounds)
30 IM Harika Dronavalli IND 2520 6.5 2537 (wins 2,500 Pounds)
31 IM Zatonskih Anna USA 2493 6.5 2530 (wins 2,000 pounds - Yah, Anna!)
34 GM Zhukova Natalia UKR 2441 6.5 2447 (wins 1,500 Pounds)
41 GM Zhu Chen QAT 2495 6.0 2572 (wins 1,000 Pounds)
44 GM Cmilyte Viktorija LTU 2526 6.0 2504 (wins 500 Pounds)
49 GM Kosintseva Tatiana RUS 2570 6.0 2463 (wins 400 Pounds)
63 IM Gaponenko Inna UKR 2466 6.0 2334 (wins 350 Pounds)
71 IM Krush Irina USA 2483 5.5 2457
72 WGM Calzetta Ruiz Monica ESP 2284 5.5 2423
84 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2546 5.5 2320
90 GM Cramling Pia SWE 2516 5.5 2267
94 WFM Wilson Alexandra SUI 2037 5.5 2054
99 IM Karavade Eesha IND 2353 5.0 2356
106 WGM Pogonina Natalija RUS 2472 5.0 2295
135 WFM Itkis Hana USA 2084 4.5 2205
143 WIM Steil-Antoni Fiona LUX 2118 4.5 2089

My apologies - I did not have the complete list of female players when I did this post, so I am adding the remainder today 2/4/11:

151 Emilia Georgieva 4.5 BUL 1907
170 Latefah Messam-Sparks 4.0 ENG 1904
195 Yerazik Khachatourion 3.5 NOR 1996
197 Line Jin Jorgensen 3.5 NOR 1892
199 Winfried Leimeister 3.5 GER 1906
200 Vanessa Reid 3.5 AUS 1841
203 Szilvia Lochte 3.0 HUN 2015
205 Elise Forsa 3.0 NOR 1726
217 Monika Neumanova 2.5 CZE 1712


I do not know at this point if any of the ladies will also qualify for the "relative ratings achievement" prizes.

2011 Gibraltar (Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival)

Rank after Round 9 (top finishers).  There is one more round to go - tomorrow.  The chess dudes have all the top prize money locked up, so the women are fighting for the ten separate women's prizes (see prize list below):

Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1
1 GM Ivanchuk Vassily UKR 2764 8.0 2947
10 IM Melia Salome GEO 2449 6.5 2612 (GO, SALOME, GO!)
18 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda RUS 2552 6.0 2649
20 GM Dzagnidze Nana GEO 2550 6.0 2629
29 GM Cmilyte Viktorija LTU 2526 6.0 2534
30 IM Harika Dronavalli IND 2520 6.0 2530
43 IM Krush Irina USA 2483 5.5 2521
44 IM Zatonskih Anna USA 2493 5.5 2512
50 GM Zhukova Natalia UKR 2441 5.5 2433
64 GM Zhu Chen QAT 2495 5.0 2564
70 GM Kosintseva Tatiana RUS 2570 5.0 2440

Standings for the USA contingent:
SNo Name Rtg FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pts. Rk. Group
7 GM Onischuk Alexander 2689 USA 1 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 0 ½ 5.5 40
18 GM Akobian Varuzhan 2618 USA 1 1 ½ ½ 1 0 0 1 ½ 5.5 39
39 GM Robson Ray 2532 USA 0 1 1 1 0 1 ½ 1 0 5.5 49
52 IM Zatonskih Anna 2493 USA 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 ½ 5.5 44
55 IM Krush Irina 2483 USA ½ 1 1 ½ 0 1 ½ 0 1 5.5 43
69 IM Sarkar Justin 2418 USA ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 0 1 ½ 0 4.0 130
86 FM Zaremba Andrie 2339 USA 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 5.0 72
128 Szuper Paul 2174 USA 0 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 0 0 5.0 74
155 WFM Itkis Hana 2084 USA ½ 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 4.5 112
183 Sigamoney Cyril S 1978 USA ½ 0 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 1 0 3.5 182

What the women are fighting for in prizes (complete prize schedule):

Women's Awards in Gibraltar Masters
Open to all Women
1st Prize £10,000
2nd Prize £5,000
3rd Prize £3,000
4th Prize £2,500
5th Prize £2,000
6th Prize £1,500
7th Prize £1,000
8th Prize £500
9th Prize £400
10th Prize £350

There are also ratings prizes that some of the female players may be in contention for.

2011 Gibraltar (Tradewise Chess Festival)

One of the R6 games was highlighted at the official website today:

Dzagnidze,Nana (2550) - Vallejo Pons,Francisco (2698)
King’s Indian Defence

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.g3 0–0 5.Bg2 d6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.0–0 a6 8.e4 Rb8 9.h3 b5 10.e5 Ne8 11.Ng5 An enterprising try. 11.cxb5 axb5 12.Ng5 Na5 13.e6 has also been played in some quite elderly games. 11...Na5 12.e6!? A familiar move in several openings. White intends to disrupt the black position and prevent the co-ordination of his pieces. One GM commented that the Spanish GM had made an error when selecting his opening. 12...Bxe6 12...fxe6 is also possible but Black prefers to be rid of the pesky knight. 13.Nxe6 fxe6 14.c5 e5 15.dxe5 Bxe5 16.Bg5 Nc4 17.Nd5 Nf6 18.b3!

Nana decides to bank on the strength of the a1–h8 long diagonal. It proves to be an inspirational decision. 18...Bxa1 19.Qxa1 Ne5 20.f4 Nd3?! 20...Ned7 21.c6 Nb6 looks a better try. 21.c6 Rf7 22.Rd1 Nc5 23.Re1! Suddenly Black is wide open to major threats and there seems to be no good way to defend. The game ends in a flurry of tactics. 23...Qf8

24.Rxe7! Rxe7 25.Nxf6+ Kf7 26.Bd5+ Ne6 26...Re6 27.Nd7 Nxd7 28.cxd7 Qh8 29.Qxh8 Rxh8 30.d8N+ Rxd8 31.Bxd8 wins. 27.Nd7 Qh8 28.Bf6 Qg8 29.Bxe7 Kxe7 30.Qf6+ 1–0

But standings through R7 were available at chess-results.com:

Rank after Round 7 (full standings):

Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1
1 GM Ivanchuk Vassily UKR 2764 6.0 2880
7 IM Melia Salome GEO 2449 5.5 2600
30 GM Dzagnidze Nana GEO 2550 4.5 2632
31 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda RUS 2552 4.5 2620
36 IM Krush Irina USA 2483 4.5 2563
40 IM Harika Dronavalli IND 2520 4.5 2481
53 GM Zhukova Natalia UKR 2441 4.5 2358
57 GM Zhu Chen QAT 2495 4.0 2592
60 GM Cmilyte Viktorija LTU 2526 4.0 2503
63 IM Zatonskih Anna USA 2493 4.0 2480
67 WGM Calzetta Ruiz Monica ESP 2284 4.0 2455
68 GM Kosintseva Tatiana RUS 2570 4.0 2445
72 IM Karavade Eesha IND 2353 4.0 2415
80 IM Gaponenko Inna UKR 2466 4.0 2351
84 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2546 4.0 2304
85 WGM Pogonina Natalija RUS 2472 4.0 2295

2011 Gibraltar (Tradewise Chess Festival)

From The Week in Chess - after R4:

Nigel Short beat Deep Sengupta with the black pieces to 4/4 alongside Nadezhda Kosintseva. Vassily Ivanchuk made a nice rook sacrifice to win a game that otherwise would have been drawn. 79 year old Viktor Korchnoi remains undefeated.

Go, Nadezhda!  Go Korchnoi, you old fart!

Tomorrow sees N. Kosintseva face off against Nigel Short.  Here are top standings (232 players) after R4:

Rk Name Ti FED Rtg Pts TB1
1 Short Nigel D GM ENG 2658 4.0 3308
2 Kosintseva Nadezhda IM RUS 2552 4.0 3231
3 Rapport Richard GM HUN 2531 3.5 2914
4 Ivanchuk Vassily GM UKR 2764 3.5 2873
5 Fridman Daniel GM GER 2655 3.5 2846
6 Kotronias Vasilios GM GRE 2599 3.5 2749
7 Korchnoi Viktor GM SUI 2544 3.0 2772
8 Sengupta Deep GM IND 2530 3.0 2748
9 Sasikiran Krishnan GM IND 2690 3.0 2737
10 Felgaer Ruben GM ARG 2585 3.0 2728
11 Zhu Chen GM QAT 2495 3.0 2723
12 Cmilyte Viktorija GM LTU 2526 3.0 2722
13 Adams Michael GM ENG 2723 3.0 2709
14 Buhmann Rainer GM GER 2572 3.0 2706
15 Kulaots Kaido GM EST 2577 3.0 2683
16 Roiz Michael GM ISR 2649 3.0 2678
17 Harikrishna Pentala GM IND 2667 3.0 2674
18 Akobian Varuzhan GM USA 2618 3.0 2666
19 Sandipan Chanda GM IND 2641 3.0 2662
20 Lafuente Pablo GM ARG 2551 3.0 2635
21 Gopal Geetha Narayanan GM IND 2597 3.0 2634
Krush Irina IM USA 2483 3.0 2634
23 Caruana Fabiano GM ITA 2721 3.0 2633
24 Georgiev Kiril GM BUL 2669 3.0 2616
Kacheishvili Giorgi GM GEO 2585 3.0 2616
26 Kosintseva Tatiana GM RUS 2570 3.0 2568
27 Zatonskih Anna IM USA 2493 3.0 2564
28 Ikonnikov Vyacheslav GM RUS 2580 3.0 2555
29 Kanep Meelis GM EST 2531 3.0 2551
30 Mikhalevski Victor GM ISR 2579 3.0 2524
31 Vaarala Eric SWE 2152 3.0 2508
32 Lemos Damian GM ARG 2553 3.0 2463
33 Robson Ray GM USA 2532 3.0 2446
34 Sarkar Justin IM USA 2418 2.5 2722
35 Vallejo Pons Francisco GM ESP 2698 2.5 2620
36 Dzagnidze Nana GM GEO 2550 2.5 2616
37 Weber Tom FM LUX 2310 2.5 2610
38 Bellon Lopez Juan Manuel GM ESP 2404 2.5 2571
39 Erdos Viktor GM HUN 2593 2.5 2563
40 Bologan Viktor GM MDA 2693 2.5 2560
41 Berg Emanuel GM SWE 2627 2.5 2555
42 Melia Salome IM GEO 2449 2.5 2539
43 Onischuk Alexander GM USA 2689 2.5 2533
44 Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2678 2.5 2529
45 El Debs Felipe De Cresce GM BRA 2499 2.5 2484
46 Valgmae Toomas EST 2190 2.5 2475
47 Oberhofer Andre GER 2270 2.5 2470
48 Edouard Romain GM FRA 2634 2.5 2468
49 Speelman Jon S GM ENG 2524 2.5 2463
50 Soffer Ram GM ISR 2489 2.5 2452

2011 Gibraltar (2001 Tradewise Chess Festival)

It seems like yesterday that The Chief named Spain's Monica Calzetta as a female player to keep my eye on.  And over the years I have faithfully done so, in honor of his memory.

In Round 1 of the Masters Tournament, Calzetta defeated the USA's youngest Grandmaster, Ray Robson.  I don't know whether to smile and nod and give a thumbs-up to The Chief, wherever he may now be, or feel sad because Robson, who is a nice young man and one of the USA players besides, lost the game! From the Week in Chess:  The biggest surprise was Monica Calzetta's defeat of US GM Ray Robson which is analysed in depth.  You can find the analysis in the Round 1 report. 

There are 232 players in the Masters Tournament! If I counted correctly, there are 30 chess femmes in the Masters.  Right now I'm only going to report on the top-rated femmes. Standings for R 2 have been calculated - here are full standings.

Summary of top-rated chess femmes (results only):
GM Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS 2570) 2.0
IM Nadezhda Kosintseva (RUS 2552) 2.0
GM Nana Dzagnidze (GEO 2550) 1.5
GM Antoneta Stefanova (BUL 2546) 1.0
GM Viktorija Cmilyte (LTU 2526) 2.0
IM Harika Dronavalli (IND 2520) 1.5
GM Pia Cramling (SWE 2516) 1.0
GM Zhu Chen (QAT 2495) 2.0
IM Anna Zatonskih (USA 2493) 1.0
IM Irina Krush (USA 2483) 1.5
WGM Natalia Pogonina (RUS 2472) 1.5