Naiditsch-Adams

Arkadij Naiditsch

     Yet another interesting tournament is taking place in Baden-Baden these days, the "Grenke Chess Classic", with Anand Viswanathan, Caruana Fabiano, Michael Adams, Daniel Fridman, Arkadij Naiditsch and Georg Meier. It is a double round-robin, with 2 rounds played so far.
     The most interesting game of the yesterday's round was the one between Arkadij Naiditsch and Michael Adams. It had started as a classical strategic battle with the isolated "d" pawn for black and converted into a fine tactical game then. You can see it here:

     It was a very interesting 7 hours battle and I hope we'll see more games like this one!
     You can find more information on the official site of the tournament: http://www.grenkechessclassic.de/

Spider's style

     The Gibraltar Tradewise Chess Festival has come to it's decisive last 3 rounds. There are three players leading the tournament with 5,5p out of 6: Vitiugov Nikita,Georgiev Kiril and Le Quang Liem.
     Today's round should be a very interesting one, here are the pairings of the top10 boards:

1	9	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2694	5½		5½	GM	Georgiev Kiril	2643	16
2	1	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2758	5		5½	GM	Le Quang Liem	2705	8
3	14	GM	Iturrizaga Eduardo	2650	5		5	GM	Kamsky Gata	2740	2
4	3	GM	Adams Michael	2725	5		5	GM	Tkachiev Vladislav	2650	15
5	21	GM	Salgado Lopez Ivan	2606	5		5	GM	Navara David	2710	6
6	17	GM	Jones Gawain C B	2632	5		5	GM	Shirov Alexei	2708	7
7	10	GM	Short Nigel D	2690	5		5	IM	Larino Nieto David	2497	45
8	5	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2711	4½		4½	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2516	37
9	11	GM	Yu Yangyi	2688	4½		4½	GM	Cmilyte Viktorija	2515	38
10	13	GM	Fridman Daniel	2667	4½		4½	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2505	42

     Adams (who's called by chess players "the spider" because of his playing style) played a very nice game yesterday, against Dzagnidze. Here are some mementos from the game:

Black to move

21...Nfxd5!! 22.exd5- Re2! 23. Rxe2- Rxe2 24. Rd1- Bd4 25.Be1

Black to move

25...Qe8! 26.Nf3- Qe3 27. Qb1- Rxb2 28. Qc1-Qxc1 29. Rxc1-Be3 30. Rd1-c4

Black has a decisive advantage that Adams managed to convert into a full point

     There seems to be a very nice and friendly atmosphere in Gibraltar. There are many other events being organized besides the tournaments. For example, there's been a game played on a huge chess board- 5 Top women vs 5 Top men!

Nana Dzagnindze, Tania Sachdev, Valentina Gunina, Viktoria Cmylite and Stuart Conquest holding the microphone (the main organizer of the event)- from left to right

Le Quang Liem, Gawain Jones, Maxim Vachier-Lagrave and Gata Kamsky (from left to right)

     The men's team turned to be a bit stronger and won the game :)

Gibraltar's famous Rock

     I am very curious to see who's going to be the winner this year!

Playing with monkeys

     The traditional "Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival" has started on the 21st of January. It's one of the strongest Chess Opens in the World and it usually gathers such renown names as Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Adams, Short. This year's edition hasn't been an exception.

Top seed of the tournament- Vassily Ivanchuk- 2758

1	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	UKR	2758
2	GM	Kamsky Gata	USA	2740
3	GM	Adams Michael	ENG	2725
4	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	POL	2723
5	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	FRA	2711
6	GM	Navara David	CZE	2710
7	GM	Shirov Alexei	LAT	2708
8	GM	Le Quang Liem	VIE	2705
9	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	RUS	2694
10	GM	Short Nigel D	ENG	2690

     Here are the Top 10 players from the starting rating list. You can find the full one here: http://chess-results.com/tnr89507.aspx?lan=11

     Though there have been played only 2 rounds, there are already several surprises. The biggest upset of the 2nd round was the loss of Nigel Short (2690) against Teran Alvarez Ismael (2399). Here you can see the game:

Nigel Short

     There's also a nice photo gallery on the official site of the event: https://picasaweb.google.com/MonRoi.Inc/2013TradewiseGibraltarChessFestivalRound1And2?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite#5836460269774758722

     The main attraction of Gibraltar are the very friendly monkeys that one can see almost everywhere.

The former Women's World Champion and the heroine of the last year's edition of Gibraltar

    Hope to see some interesting fighting :)