Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 Archives - Chessentials https://chessentials.com/tag/sharjah-grand-prix-2017/ Chess blog about chess tactics, chess games and chess books Tue, 29 Jan 2019 22:28:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://chessentials.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/cropped-vjeks2-2-1-32x32.png Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 Archives - Chessentials https://chessentials.com/tag/sharjah-grand-prix-2017/ 32 32 Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 – Round 9 https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-9/ https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-9/#comments Tue, 28 Feb 2017 21:29:06 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=1410 THREE WAY TIE AT THE TOP, GRISCHUK WINS ON TIEBREAK I would like to start the Sharjah Grand Prix – Round 9 report with the words of my favourite computer game character Arthas (a.k.a. the...

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]]> THREE WAY TIE AT THE TOP, GRISCHUK WINS ON TIEBREAK

I would like to start the Sharjah Grand Prix – Round 9 report with the words of my favourite computer game character Arthas (a.k.a. the Lich King):

“Ohhh… at last…”

arthas
One of the heroes of my childhood… and another reason of not accomplishing many things in life…

Because that line perfectly describes my feeling after the end of the first leg of the Chess Grand Prix 2017… First leg in which 3 out of every 4 games ended in a draw (Source: Chess Base article), and out of those draws, the majority was rather boring, short and lifeless.

After all, when even one of tournament co-winners complains of lack of content in his games, this speaks for itself about the quality of the games.

Fortunately, another tournament co-winner saved the tournament of being a total disaster with his agressive and entertaining play. And since Caissa is quite merciful, after suffering a painful loss in penultimate round, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was rewarded with a brilliant win in the last round.

The only drawback of the win is that it wasn’t the best present for Hou Yifan’s 23rd birthday. But I think that she won’t be too disappointed with her performance, since scoring 4/9 in this stellar field is definitely a good result for her. A result that proves she belongs in this company, and that with sufficient experience she may hope for more in the future.

Oh, and if it matters to anyone, it was Alexander Grischuk in the end who had the best tiebreak and who won the tournament as a whole in the end.

grischuk-two
Only plus two is enough for a win

All in all, I have followed more exciting events. I think this tournament is a perfect reminder why Sofia rules have been introduced in the first place.

GAME ANALYSIS: SHAKHRIYAR MAMEDYAROV – HOU YIFAN

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]]> https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-9/feed/ 2 Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 – Round 8 https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-8/ https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-8/#respond Mon, 27 Feb 2017 22:16:14 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=1405 GRISCHUK WINS AND JOINS THE LEADERS WHILE THE UNLIMITED DRAWS CONTINUE By now there is no doubt that my sports betting career is definitely over even before it began. Because even the slightest hope of avoiding...

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]]> GRISCHUK WINS AND JOINS THE LEADERS WHILE THE UNLIMITED DRAWS CONTINUE

By now there is no doubt that my sports betting career is definitely over even before it began.

Because even the slightest hope of avoiding infinite draws in the later rounds of Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 dissappeared with the round 8.

Once again, there were only two out of nine decisive games. The first winner was, surprisingly, by his own admission, “out-of-form“ Pavel Eljanov, who won against an even more “out-of-form” Jon Ludvig Hammer with the Black pieces.

The other hero responsible for at least some entertainment for chess spectators is Alexander Grischuk. So far he hasn’t been under the spotlight in this tournament, but he has played a rather solid chess, and today he managed to outplay the ever-strong Mamedyarov.

The game was pretty uneven. Initially, Grischuk built up a large advantage due to Mamedyarov missplaying the opening. However, in the middle game, Sasha missed the best way of utilizing this advantage, and let Mamedyarov completely back in the game. However, in an even endgame, Mamedyarov commited several inaccuracies and finally went down in a nice grinding display.

GAME ANALYSIS: ALEXANDAR GRISCHUK – SHAKHRIYAR MAMEDYAROV

The game analysis with commentary is given below. Hint: Click on any move and the pop-up board will appear:

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]]> https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-8/feed/ 0 Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 – Round 7 https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-7/ https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-7/#comments Sun, 26 Feb 2017 11:35:59 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=1391 LI CHAO B OUTPLAYS ELJANOV, SALEM WINS AGAINST RIAZANTSEV There is nothing worse then being out of form in a chess super tournament. After Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 – Round 7, Pavel Eljanov and Alexander...

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]]> LI CHAO B OUTPLAYS ELJANOV, SALEM WINS AGAINST RIAZANTSEV

There is nothing worse then being out of form in a chess super tournament. After Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 – Round 7, Pavel Eljanov and Alexander Riazantsev are probably very well aware of that fact, as they both changed their evaluation of the tournament from bad to terrible with the round 7 losses.

Both games were very attractive for the winning side. Salem A.R. Saleh finally improved his tournament somewhat by outplaying his opponent in a sharp advance Caro Kann. A timely 15 f6! won an exchange for White, and although the position wasn’t very clear afterwards, Black missed his way in the complications, and Salem scored an attractive victory.

Although this was a brilliant game, it was slightly one sided. Therefore, the game between Li Chao B and Eljanov was slightly more appealing to me, because I was more familiar with the opening, and since it was grandiose strategic battle where both sides commited mistakes.

GAME ANALYSIS: LI CHAO B – PAVEL ELJANOV

 

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]]> https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-7/feed/ 2 Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 – Round 6 https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-6/ https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-6/#respond Sat, 25 Feb 2017 14:18:54 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=1385 GRISCHUK SURVIVES, NEPO WINS A BRILLIANCY, RAPPORT ALSO WINS Round six of the Sharjah Grand Prix 2017, played after a free day, still hasn’t changed the ongoing trend of a great number of quick draws. In the...

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]]> GRISCHUK SURVIVES, NEPO WINS A BRILLIANCY, RAPPORT ALSO WINS

Round six of the Sharjah Grand Prix 2017, played after a free day, still hasn’t changed the ongoing trend of a great number of quick draws. In the sixth round there were only two decisive games.

However, out of the 5 draws, the one between Nakamura and Grischuk really stands apart. Because at one point in the game, Nakamura had 100 minutes (!!) on the clock and the Grischuk was down playing on increment.

Considering that the position was highly tactical and complicated, it seemed impossible to Grischuk to navigate and find the best moves.

However, they don’t call him “time trouble junkie” for no reason, as he managed to defend excellently, even with the time issues. Finally the game ended in a draw, although there must have been at least one point where Nakamura could have extricate more and play for the win.

The game without annotations is given below.

hikaru-nakamura1

The other hero of the round, apart from Grischuk, was the Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi. 

I have to mention here that I am his big fan, because apart from chess, he is quite active in the Dota Community as well. And since mere mention of Dota makes me nostalgic, reminding me of the countless hours I wasted in the childhood instead of working on my chess, my love for Nepo is self evident.

Although being a fan of someone whose  surname you can’t pronounce, not to say write, correctly, is not a thankful occupation to have 🙁

Anyway, in the round six Nepo played a brilliancy. Li Chao B risked to much by repeating a variation of the Petroff he played previously in round one, as it presented ideal preparation opportunity for Nepo. And boy did he prepare, sacrificing a piece for a pawn and achieving total domination of the Black’s pieces.

In Dota words, Li Chao let Nepo get farmed too easily early in the game, and later when he got too fat it was too late to do anything against it.

dota2
If only day had a couple of extra hours …

 

GAME ANALYSIS – IAN NEPOMNIACHTCHI – LI CHAO B

 

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]]> https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-6/feed/ 0 Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 – Round 5 https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-round-5/ https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-round-5/#respond Wed, 22 Feb 2017 22:29:29 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=1371 ADAMS “HAMMERS” HAMMER, GRISCHUK AND JAKOVENKO ALSO WIN For the third time in the last couple of days, my favourite GM Michael Adams will be the star of the Sharjah Grand Prix round report. Because...

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]]> ADAMS “HAMMERS” HAMMER, GRISCHUK AND JAKOVENKO ALSO WIN

For the third time in the last couple of days, my favourite GM Michael Adams will be the star of the Sharjah Grand Prix round report.

Because after analyzing his yesterday’s loss against Shakriyah Mamedyarov, today he managed to recover with a grandiose technical win against the second of the World Champion, Jon Ludvig Hammer.

In a popular line of the Italian opening, Hammer played the uncommon 8… Kh8, which had some logic behind it, but turned out to be not the best against a continuation 10 Na3!? chosen by Adams.

In the resulting middlegame White had the slight advantage, which transformed in slightly bigger advantage when everything apart from rooks and one minor piece was exchanged. Black faced a hard (if possible) defensive task, but Adams convincingly exploited his chances and opponent’s certainty and went on to score an important win.

Apart from Adams, both Grischuk and Jakovenko scored their first wins, against out-of-form Eljanov and Riazantsev.

Particularly bizzare was Jakovenko’s game:

In the remainder of the post, the detailed analysis of the Adams – Hammer game is given.

GAME ANALYSIS : MICHAEL ADAMS – JON LUDVIG HAMMER

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]]> https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-round-5/feed/ 0 Sharjah Grand Prix 2017 – Round 4 https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-4/ https://chessentials.com/sharjah-grand-prix-2017-round-4/#respond Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:15:36 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=1365 MAMEDYAROV JOINS MVL ON TOP, LI CHAO BEATS THE OUT OF FORM “PROFESSOR” During the weekend I played for my chess club Polet Buševec in a local team event. Luckily I am fortunately enough to...

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]]> MAMEDYAROV JOINS MVL ON TOP, LI CHAO BEATS THE OUT OF FORM “PROFESSOR”

During the weekend I played for my chess club Polet Buševec in a local team event.

Luckily I am fortunately enough to have a teammate who is probably even more passionate about chess then I am. Whenever we are travelling as a team, we bore our colleagues to death with commentary of the current and past chess events, and current and past brilliant players.

This weekend we managed to reach a very smart conclusion that Shakh Mamedyarov is one of the elite players who if often overlooked, and who is immensly strong.

I am pretty glad that so far the Sharjah Grand Prix has confirmed our evaluation. Because after missing a win yesterday in round three, he once again played super sharp, agressive and creative game, and managed to score a victory in round four.

Apart from that brilliant game, which will be analyzed in detail in this post, the round wasn’t particularly exciting. The series of draws can be described with an adjective that comes to mind upon remembering the famous English Grandmaster under the name Nigel.

No i didn’t mean boring, I meant Short…

short
I think that Nigel is surely fed up already with all the variations of the Short joke throughout his life. I still hope this one is one of the worst, though.

The only other decisive game saw the demolition of the out-of-the-form Professor Evgeny Tomashevsky by strong chinese grandmaster Li Chao.

One round before the free day, the tournament is led by MVL and Mamedyarov.

But there is still a lot of play to come.

GAME ANALYSIS – MAMEDYAROV – ADAMS

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