The JR Chess Report (Super Sunday Edition): Adams wins in Gibraltar; Zhukova takes ladies' top prize [View All]

[Jack Rabbit]

Mickey Adams Wins Gibraltar in Playoff; Zhukova Takes Ladies' Prize



The 2010 Master's Open of the eighth annual Gibtelecom Chess Festival ended Thursday with British grandmaster Mickey Adams winning a four-way blitz playoff against Paco Vallejo, Jan Gustafsson and Chandra Sandipan, while Ukraine's Natalia Zhukova, the wife of reigning Russian national champion Alexander Grischuk, won the tournament's coveted women's prize.

Adams had been at or near the top from wire to wire. His 7½ points out of the scheduled ten rounds were matched by eight other players, with the top four palyers by tie break going to the blitz rounds. The five players who scored 7½ points who did not qualify were grandmasters Gata Kamsky, Etienne Bacrot, Sergei Movsesian, Geetha Narayanan Gopal and American international master Alex Lenderman.

The playoff was held immediately after completion of the final round. In the first round of mini-matches, Mr. Adams was paired with Herr Gustafsson and el señor Vallejo took on Sandipan Shahib. El señor Vallejo won the first game and held Sandipan to a draw in the second, thus earning the right to go through to the final. Mr. Adams lost his first game to Herr Gustafsson, but took advantage of a blunder to win the second, setting up an armageddon game in which Adams played White and was obligated to win. Adams succeded in defeating Gustafsson in 46 moves, setting up the final match between Admas and Vallejo. Adams won the first game and drew the second to claim the tournament championship.

Ms. Zhukova played a whale of a tournament scoring 7 points to win the women's prize and a grandmaster norm. She played on the top board and drew against Adams in the seventh round and entered round eight still tied for first place when she lost to Gustafsson. She bounced back in round nine to defeat reinging world women's champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and drew her final game to edge out the second ranked woman in the world, grandmaster Koneru Humpy of India, for the top woman's prize.




Journeyman GM Wins Moscow Open



Russian grandmaster Konstantin Chernyshov, the tournament's 46th seed with an Elo score of 2556, won the Moscow Open today with 7 points in nine rounds after drawing his final game against young Vietnamese grandmaster Le Quang Liem.

Le, Russian veteran Evgeny Bareev and Russian GM Ernesto Inarkiev also scored 7 points with Chernyshov taking the tile on a superior tie break score.

In the women's tournament, sixteen-year-old Nazi Pakidze edged out her fellow Georgian Salome Melia on tie beaks to take first place. Both ladies scored 7½ points out of a passible nine. (Ms. Pakidze's first name is the Georgian equivalent of Natalie and not a practical joke played on her by her parents.) Both won their final games today; Ms. Pakidze defeated reinging Russian girls' champion Valentina Guinina while Ms. Melia took down Chinese grandmaster Zhao Xue, who entered the final round with 7 points, a half point ahead of the field.



Aeroflot Open Begins Tuesday



The ninth annual Aeroflot Open, the most prestigious open tournament on the chess calendar, begins Tuesday in Moscow.

As of now, the top seed is the defending tournament champion, French grandmaster Etienne Bacrot. Bacrot edged out Slovenian GM Alexander Moiseenko on tie breaks to win last year's edition. Moiseenko will also be present this year.

The winner of the Aeroflot Open will again be seeded to the Dortmund Sparkassen this summer.



Bundesliga: Baden Baden Storms through Berlin



The mighty team from the Baden Baden Chess Club played this weekend in Berlin and maintained its perfect score with 18 match points to lead the German Bundesliga with a perfect score after 9 matches.

Baden Baden defeated the Königs Tegel Chess Club from Berlin today by a score of 6½-1½. Yesterday, Baden Baden skunked the Berlin Chess Federation team, 8-0.

Etienne Bacrot, Jan Gustafsson, Arkadik Naiditsch, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Fabiano Caruana each scored victories in both matches to contribute to Baden Baden's success this weakend.

The team from Solingen, whom Baden Beden defeated in the first round this season in October, is in second place with 16 match points. Mickey Adams, also in from Gibraltar, also scored a point and a half for Baden Baden over the weekend.

On the weekend of February 27 and 28, Baden Baden will be in Heidelburg to play against Breman and Hamburg.



Calendar

27th Ciudad de Linares 12-25 February. Aronian, Gashimov, Gelfand, Grischuk, Topalov and Vallejo.

Reykjavik Open 24 February-3 March.

Bundesliga 0910, Rounds 10-11, Mülheim, Heidelburg, Solingen, Trier. 27-28 February.

European Individual Championships, Rijeka (Croatia) 5-19 March.

Melody Amber Rapid/Blindfold Tournament, Nice. 12-25 March. Aronian, Carlsen, Domínguez, Gelfand, Gashimov, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Kramnik, Morozevich, Ponomariov, Smeets and Svidler.

Philadelphia Open 31 March-4 April. This replaces the Foxwoods Open after the Foxwoods Resort announced expected room rate hikes.

Russian Team Championships, Dagomys 1-12 April.

Women's Grand Prix, Nalchik 23 April-6 May.

Anand-Topalov Match for the World Title, Sofia 23 April-10 May.

Grand Prix, Astrakhan (Russia) 9-25 May.

US Championship, St. Louis 13-25 May.

Chicago Open 27-31 May.

Women's Grand Prix, Jermuk 23 June-6 July.

World Open, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania 29 June-5 July.

Women's Grand Prix, Ulan Bator (Mongolia) 29 July-12 August.

World Junior Championships, Chotowa Czarna (Poland) 2-17 August.

Chess Olympiad, Khanty Mansiysk 19 September-4 October.

European Club Cup, Plovdiv 16-24 October.

Women's Grand Prix, Vina del Mar (Chile) 27 October-9 November.

World Youth Championships, Halidiki (Greece) 19-31 October.

FIDE Women's Knock Out (Women's World Championship), Turkey 2-25 December.