Vitiugov takes it all

    The Gibraltar Tradewise Chess Festival ended yesterday. It was an exciting last round, followed by an even more exciting play-off.

1	9	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2694	7½	½ - ½	7½	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2711	5
2	6	GM	Navara David	2710	7	½ - ½	7½	GM	Short Nigel D	2690	10
3	30	GM	Zhao Xue	2554	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2758	1
4	16	GM	Georgiev Kiril	2643	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Adams Michael	2725	3
5	8	GM	Le Quang Liem	2705	7	0 - 1	7	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2590	24

Here's the Vitiugov-Vachier-Lagrave draw:

The Regulations of the tournament said that if there was to be a tie for the 1st place, the players must play a blitz play-off (10m +5s each). So, Nigel Short, Sandipan Chanda, Vitiugov Nikita and Vachier-Lagrave Maxime ( all scoring 8p out of 10) played a mini-ko. Short won against Sandipan and Vitiugov against Vachier-Lagrave. Once more, Short had to play a play-off for the 1st place- like the lat year- when he beated Hou Yifan and took the 1st prize. The luck wasn't on his side this time and he lost against Vitiugov with a 1,5-0,5 score.

Nikita Vitiugov-The winner of Gibraltar

    Zhao Xue took the 1st women's prize, scoring an impressive 7,5p out of 10, making a draw against Ivanchuk in the last round.

    Congratulations to the winners and I hope I'll manage to play in Gibraltar next year too! ;)

Taking shortcuts

     It's been a very interesting round in Gibraltar yesterday, with many decisive results, as you can see below:

1	2	GM	Kamsky Gata	2740	6	½ - ½	6½	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2694	9
2	8	GM	Le Quang Liem	2705	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Short Nigel D	2690	10
3	16	GM	Georgiev Kiril	2643	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2758	1
4	21	GM	Salgado Lopez Ivan	2606	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Adams Michael	2725	3
5	15	GM	Tkachiev Vladislav	2650	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2711	5
6	6	GM	Navara David	2710	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2590	24
7	7	GM	Shirov Alexei	2708	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Oparin Grigoriy	2478	49
8	17	GM	Jones Gawain C B	2632	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Yu Yangyi	2688	11
9	30	GM	Zhao Xue	2554	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Fridman Daniel	2667	13
10	35	GM	Cramling Pia	2518	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	2723	4
11	41	GM	Al-Sayed Mohammed	2507	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Iturrizaga Eduardo	2650	14
12	22	GM	Ehlvest Jaan	2603	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Larino Nieto David	2497	45
13	26	GM	Muzychuk Anna	2582	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Gunina Valentina	2490	47
14	51	IM	Muzychuk Mariya	2471	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Vazquez Igarza Renier	2565	27
15	28	GM	Felgaer Ruben	2557	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Tania Sachdev	2403	71

     The draw on the 1st board was a fighting one, with Vitiugov trying for a win. Kamsky found a way out in an endgame, with a pawn down-but it was never enough for a decisive advantage.
     It seemed that it would be a draw on the 2nd board too, after the opening, but white failed to see the dangers of the position and Nigel outplayed Le Quang Liem. You can see the game here:

Nigel Short and Jovanka Houska enjoying the dinner

     Another encounter that I wanted to watch was the Muzychuk Anna-Gunina Valentina one, but there was unfortunately no live cover of the game. It was particularly interesting because Anna lost in the last round of the Women's European Championship against Gunina last year and with it, she lost the gold medal. She managed to take revenge this time and I can't wait to see the game.

     There are 2 more rounds to be played and the 2 players who are leading so far are Nikita Vitiugov and Nigel Short,with 7p out of 8.They will play against each other today. 

On whom would you bet your money-on the Russian youth or on the English experience?