With Errol Tiwari
The DDL Topco Juices Independence eight round swiss system chess tournament begins this morning at 10 am at the Kei Shar’s sports club in Hadfield St.
DDL has put up a prize fund of $50,000 for the tournament which is being held in a junior and a senior category. Three rounds will be played today, three rounds next Sunday, and the final two rounds will be played on Independence day. Chess players throughout the country are invited to participate in the tournament and are asked to bring along their chess sets and clocks. The time limit is 90 minutes per player for each game.
In international news, it was grandmaster Wang Yue of China, Norway’s child prodigy Magnus Carlsen and newcomer Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan who tied for first place in the first FIDE Grand Prix chess tournament in Baku. The event is part of a series of six tournaments which will be held over a two-year period. Twenty-one of the highest ranked grandmasters in the world were selected by FIDE to participate in the tournament.
The winner of the Grand Prix series will play an eight-game match with the winner of the World Cup tournament to determine a challenger to the world chess champion in a match to be held in 2010.
Meanwhile, at the strong M-Tel Masters tournament being played in Bulgaria, it is Vassily Ivanchuk who is leading the field by a full point after seven rounds of the round robin ten-round tournament. Ivanchuk has not lost a game so far, beating the favourite and former world champion Veselin Topalov.
The tournament ends today.
Here Ivanchuk faces the teenager Radjabov in the Sveshnikov variation of the Sicilian defence. Radjabov introduces a novelty on move 21, interfering with Ivanchuk’s plans. The game ended in a peaceful draw causing Ivanchuk to lose his first half point of the tournament.
Ivanchuk,V (2740) – Radjabov,T (2751)
4th M-Tel Masters Sofia BUL (6), 14.05.2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 Bg7 11.Bd3 Ne7 12.Nxe7 Qxe7 13.c3 f5 14.Nc2 0-0 15.0-0 Rb8 16.exf5 e4 17.Be2 Bxf5 18.Nb4 Qg5 19.f4 exf3 20.Bxf3 Rbe8N!!
After the Radjabov novelty White decides to keep it safe with 21.Nc6. Critical was 21.Na6 or 21.Qd6. The text move leads to mass exchanges, and with accurate play the game ended peacefully. 21…Be5 22.Nxe5 dxe5 23.Qc1 Qxc1 24.Raxc1 Be6 25.Rfe1 f6 26.Rcd1 Rd8 27.Bb7 a5 28.Bc6 b4 29.cxb4 axb4 30.a4 Rxd1 31.Rxd1 Rc8 32.Be4 f5 33.Bd5 Bxd5 34.Rxd5 Rc2 35.b3 Rc3 36.Rxe5 Rxb3 37.Rxf5 Ra3 38.a5 b3 39.Rb5 Kg7 40.h3 b2 41.Rxb2 Rxa5 ½-½. DRAW
