Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

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Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by ajay »

Anand is having a horrid time in this tournament as he is not winning the games against players that he is supposed to and in fact losing couple of games to lowly ranked players. He is on the verge of losing the top spot for Indian players for the first time in his career. The difference between Anand (2759.5) and Indian #2 Harikrishna (2758.2) is less than two points in the live rating. In fact as early as tomorrow, If Harikrishna wins his game, India may have a new #1 Indian chess player after more than two decades.

Is it time for Anand to hang his boots. :(

There are 20 Indian players in the field of 150 in the Gibraltar tournament. Harikrishna, who was 4th highest rated player in the tournament after Nakamura, MVL (Maxime Vachier-Lagrave), and Anand, is doing very well as he is tied in points at the top spot after 8 rounds.

The current position of the Indian contingent after 8 rounds is:

Code: Select all

 Rk.   		Rtg    	Name           		Pts.
 
  3	GM 	2755	Harikrishna P.      		6.5
  8	GM 	2639	Sethuraman S.P.     		6.0
 10	GM 	2613	Gupta Abhijeet      		6.0 
 16	GM 	2553	Lalith Babu M R     		6.0
 26	GM 	2642	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 	5.5
 34	GM 	2583	Sandipan Chanda     		5.5
 45	GM 	2525	Gopal G.N.          		5.0
 53	IM 	2427	Padmini Rout  	      	5.0
 59	GM 	2660	Ganguly Surya Shekhar 	 5.0
 72	GM 	2511	Harika Dronavalli   		4.5
 78	GM 	2500	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. 4.5
 83	GM 	2784	Anand Viswanathan   		4.5
 85	IM 	2387	Anurag Mhamal       		4.5
 86	GM 	2518	Vishnu Prasanna. V  		4.5
 88	   	2370	Siva Mahadevan      		4.5
 93	IM 	2460	Prasanna Raghuram Rao	  4.5
 99	IM 	2410	Satyapragyan Swayangsu    4.5
101	IM 	2245	Mohota Nisha        		4.5
113	GM 	2508	Sundararajan Kidambi		4.0
132	WIM	2278	Pratyusha Bodda     		4.0
There are only two Indian players who have score less than Anand's score of 4.5
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by sameerph »

How is he playing so badly all of a sudden ? In chess, one cannot even attribute an injury or anything as an excuse. :D
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by prashanthm »

sameerph wrote:How is he playing so badly all of a sudden ? In chess, one cannot even attribute an injury or anything as an excuse. :D
Anand is not used to playing these open tournaments with so many unknown players, at least for the last two decades...
That was also one of the reasons why he never particularly did well for India at the Chess Olympiads...

He's more used to preparing for one-one or closed round-robin tournaments and he has historically done fantastically well in those formats...

I was surprised at his decision to play this one at all...
I guess he'll take it easy for the last 2 rounds, lose some ELO, drop down to India #2 and will come back strongly once he gets back to playing the formats that he is more comfortable with..... He may have been past his peak, but he ain't that bad...... :goodluck: to him for the Candidates in March-2016

On the other hand, Hari has been an solid and consistent performer over the last two years pegging away at the Top of the ratings list and is now #14, not too far away from getting to Top-10.... He has earned a reputation of being a real solid player playing around the world in Top chess leagues and these open tournaments... It'll be interesting to see how he fares in closed format tournaments...

With his higher rating, I am guessing he'll be in with a chance of playing the Fide Grandprix tournaments starting May-2016 and will be in the mix for the next round of candidates in 2018.... :goodluck:

Sethu has been a rising star for India other than these two... :clap:
I had high hopes on Vidit, but he isn't taking the leap yet... :-(
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by ajay »

Round 9 is going on. Anand has won his match. Sethuraman seems to be winning. Abhijeet and Lalith are in a losing position against Hikaru. Hari, Vidit are under pressure but in a drawish position. Sandipan is also in drawish position.

Update Vidit won! Abhijeet lost. Lalith escaped and can draw his game. However, Sandipan blundered and he is now in losing position. Hari is under lot of pressure and fighting to get half point.
Update Sethuraman won! Lalith seems to be turning the table on his rival with slight advantage. Harikrishna signed the truce ensuring that he remains tied at the top spot.

Here is the match up for Indian players. If I get a chance, I'll update the scores

GM Anton Guijarro David ( 2639 ) 6½ ½-½ GM Harikrishna P. ( 2755 )
GM Nakamura Hikaru ( 2787 ) 6 1-0 6 GM Gupta Abhijeet ( 2613 )
GM Sethuraman S.P. ( 2639 ) 6 1-0 6 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw ( 2727 )
GM Ragger Markus ( 2689 ) 6 ½-½ 6 GM Lalith Babu M R ( 2553 )
GM Jakovenko Dmitry ( 2732 ) 5½ 1-0GM Sandipan Chanda ( 2583 )
GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi ( 2642 ) 5½ 1-0 5½ IM Pichot Alan ( 2517 )
GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar ( 2660 ) 5 --- 5 IM Almagro Llamas Pablo ( 2429 )
IM Padmini Rout ( 2427 ) 5 --- 5 GM Muzychuk Anna ( 2537 )
GM Gopal G.N. ( 2525 ) 5 1-0 5 FM Hauge Lars Oskar ( 2388 )
GM Anand Viswanathan ( 2784 ) 4½ 1-0 4½ Kollars Dmitrij ( 2436 )
GM Vishnu Prasanna. V ( 2518 ) 4½ --- 4½ IM Nagy Gabor ( 2413 )
GM Harika Dronavalli ( 2511 ) 4½ --- 4½ IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu ( 2410 )
IM Anurag Mhamal ( 2387 ) 4½ 0-1 4½ GM Bai Jinshi ( 2507 )
GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. ( 2500 ) 4½ --- 4½ IM Kuipers Stefan ( 2399 )
Siva Mahadevan ( 2370 ) 4½ --- 4½ WGM Lei Tingjie ( 2474 )
IM Prasanna Raghuram Rao ( 2460 ) 4½ --- 4½ Weisbuch Udi ( 2254 )
IM Tan Justin ( 2446 ) 4½ --- 4½ IM Mohota Nisha ( 2245 )
WGM Vojinovic Jovana ( 2352 ) 4 ½-½ 4 GM Sundararajan Kidambi ( 2508 )
IM Houska Jovanka ( 2402 ) 4 --- 4 WIM Pratyusha Bodda ( 2278 )
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by prashanthm »

Fantastic win for Sethu and he is consolidating his newly acquired Top-100 place.... with a live rating of 2657.6 at #94.... :clap:
and will be in the top-pack for the last round tomorrow.. :goodluck:

Eye-catching win for Vidit.... :D

Hari has set up a nice blockade and can't lose this although his opponent has some unexplainable resolve to continue this.... As long as Hari exchanges the queens on d5 to get his e6 pawn to d5, it's a dead draw.... if the pawn remains on e6 while the queens are exchanged, there is no chance, but hari is not going to move his queen out of that d5 square with the e6 pawn supporting it... Although the engines may say otherwise, this is a draw.. :D

Update: Queens are exchanged on d5 and draw agreed... :D
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by Varma »

How come Sasikiran is not playing here? What's going on with him? Any updates?

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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by prashanthm »

Varma wrote:How come Sasikiran is not playing here? What's going on with him? Any updates?

- Varma
Sasi played the Qatar Masters in December-2015...

He has been on a decline since early 2015 and came down from 2682 to his current rating of 2632...
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by prashanthm »

Final Rd pairings have now been made... Hari with white against Li Chao and Sethu with black against Bacrot... :goodluck:

games start 4 hours early tomorrow... around 5 AM EST...


Pairings of top-10 boards...

Code: Select all

GM	Nakamura Hikaru	2787	7 		7 	GM	Anton David 		2639
GM	Maze Sebastien 	2591	7 		7 	GM	Vachier-Lagrave   2785
GM	Harikrishna P. 	2755	7 		7 	GM	Li Chao B			2751
GM	Bacrot Etienne 	2697	7 		7 	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2639
GM	Yu Yangyi   		2747	6½		6½	GM	Jones Gawain CB	2625
GM	Jakovenko Dmitr	2732	6½		6½	GM	Vidit Santosh G	2642
GM	Grandelius Nils	2635	6½		6½	GM	Ragger Markus  	2689
GM	Sutovsky Emil  	2647	6½		6½	GM	Bachmann Axel  	2610
GM	Lalith Babu M R	2553	6½		6 	GM	Rapport Richard	2721
GM	Wojtaszek Rados	2727	6 		6 	IM	Tari Aryan  		2556
Pairings for Indian players...

Code: Select all

 3	GM	Harikrishna P.			2755	7 		7 	GM	Li Chao B		2751
 4	GM	Bacrot Etienne			2697	7 		7 	GM	Sethuraman S.P.		2639
 6	GM	Jakovenko Dmitry 		2732	6½		6½	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2642
 9	GM	Lalith Babu M R  		2553	6½		6 	GM	Rapport Richard		2721
14	GM	Almasi Zoltan 			2684	6 		6 	GM	Gopal G.N.		2525
19	GM	Libiszewski Fabien  	2515	6 		6 	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2660
22	IM	Nakar Eylon				2479	6 		6 	GM	Gupta Abhijeet		2613
24	GM	Blomqvist Erik   		2492	5½		5½	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2784
25	GM	Sandipan Chanda  		2583	5½		5½	GM	Gunina Valentina	2496
30  		Pinho Paulo   			2197	5½		5½	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2518
32	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta 	2515	5½		5½	IM	Prasanna Raghuram Rao	2460
37	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij   	2696	5 		5 	IM	Padmini Rout		2427
40	IM	Nezad Husein Aziz   	2422	5 		5 	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2511
41	IM	Satyapragyan Swayangsu 2410	5 		5 	GM	Zhao Xue		2506
42	FM	Hauge Lars Oskar 		2388	5 		5 	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram V	2500
49	GM	Akesson Ralf  			2435	5 		5 		Siva Mahadevan		2370
55	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi	2508	4½		4½	FM	Mihajlov Sebastian	2335
68	FM	Ripari Marcelo			2310	4½		4½	IM	Anurag Mhamal		2387
72	IM	Mohota Nisha  			2245	4½		4½	IM	Bitensky Igor		2362
84	WIM  Pratyusha Bodda  		2278	4 		4 		Goncalves Jose Antonio	1984
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by prashanthm »

On the top-4 boards who had the most chances to win the title, Naka and MVL win.... Sethu drew with Bacrot... Hari is still trying hard against Li Chao to make his small advantage count, but it doesn't look great...

At the moment, Naka and MVL are tied for the first and are eligible for a blitz play-off.....

Vishy won...
Lalith lost...
Vidit let slip a small advantage and will probably settle for a draw against Jakovenko...

Update: Vidit ends up with a draw, mildly successful tournament for him with a gain of +5.7 ELO....

Sethu has a blockbuster tournament and had a chance to fight for the top prize and gained 19.4 ELO to break into the Top-100... :clap:

Hari is still trying to get past Li Chao for a chance to get join Naka and MVL in the play-off... :goodluck:

Update 2: Hari is still trying to squeeze something out of nothing here...
there are some big bucks on offer...
If he manages only a draw, he'll have to be satisfied with a max of 7,500 Pounds..
But if he wins this game, he'll win at least 15,000 Pounds irrespective of the first prize play-off result... :goodluck:
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by prashanthm »

Hari's game ended in a draw, tied for 3rd place with 5 others including Sethu...
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by jaydeep »

Hari is only 6 elo rating points away from Anand for becoming India's #1 in latest live rating ... So sooner than later we are going to see this is happening.
Image

Other hand I am feeling Anand is may be trying different game plan / opening / moves here and that's why his poor score respect to his standard.
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by prashanthm »

Let's see what Vishy can do at the Candidates in March.... :goodluck:
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by prashanthm »

Here are the final standings for Indians with Rating performance and rating gain/loss....

Code: Select all

Rk.	SNo		Name	Rtg	Pts. 	TB1	rtg+/-
4	25	GM	Sethuraman S.P. 	2639	7.5	2781	19.4
5	4	GM	Harikrishna P. 	2755	7.5	2773	3.5
10	32	GM	Gupta Abhijeet 	2613	7	2716	15
18	23	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 	2642	7	2675	5.7
30	45	GM	Lalith Babu M R 	2553	6.5	2641	12.8
39	36	GM	Sandipan Chanda 	2583	6.5	2577	0.2
41	3	GM	Anand Viswanathan 	2784	6.5	2568	-21.9
45	21	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar 	2660	6.5	2532	-14.1
47	53	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V 	2518	6.5	2517	1.4
50	58	GM	Harika Dronavalli 	2511	6	2617	15.1
55	51	GM	Gopal G.N. 	2525	6	2579	8.3
57	65	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. 	2500	6	2543	7.6
--	91	IM	Padmini Rout 	2427	5.5	2533	15.4
82	123	--	Siva Mahadevan 	2370	5.5	2449	12.1
92	77	IM	Prasanna Raghuram Rao 	2460	5.5	2411	-5.4
121	115	IM	Anurag Mhamal 	2387	5	2433	6.9
125	59	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi 	2508	5	2408	-12.7
126	104	IM	Satyapragyan Swayangsu 	2410	5	2389	-0.8
137	151	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda 	2278	5	2297	5
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by ajay »

Sethuraman surely had a great tournament with a gain of 19.4 pts. His graph is rising and hopefully he'll achieve greater heights. Anand overall lost 21.9 pts, however, he finished well with wins in last two rounds. Those wins are expected from him as not winning would be treated as poor performance.
So Anand has inched up over Hari with a lead of 6 pts. There is a difference between less than 2 pt. lead and 6 pt. lead. Hari is slowly but steadily making progress in uncharted territories, and if Anand does not fall more and make it easier for Hari, he is safe as Indian #1 for at least some more time. But it is good to see that finally Anand has a competition from home too.

Anand better come in good form. The candidates are not too far away. After Zurich tournament (less than 2 weeks away), the next outing for Anand will be the Candidates tournament starting March 10th. Goodluck!
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Re: Gibraltar Chess Festival 2016 - Fall of Anand

Post by rajitghosh »

Where is Koneru Humpy these days? Another talent seems lost.
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