5th Gibraltar Chess Festival

This event is now underway featuring the cream of English talent. In the Masters tournament, Michael Adams world number 9 is the top seed. The UKs youngest ever Grandmaster David Howell will be seeing if his new title brings him extra success, as he plays alongside other young English stars such as Gawain Jones, Andrew Greet and Thomas Rendle. Round 1 saw "Girl Power" triumph over the top seeds, as Irina Krush beat the number two seed Akopian. Let's hope the girl power rubs off on ECF player of the year Jovanka Houska. Good luck to all competitors. You can watch live games from all the events here www.gibraltarchesscongress.com

Click here to view the Gibraltar Chess Festival Photo album.

Round 7 Summary by Sean Hewitt

After the storms of the weekend, the sun was shining brightly yesterday, and so was the chess. Decisive results were the order of the day as Sokolov won a fine game against Sulskis, Adams recovered from the previous days reverse to beat Sandipan, Naamura won the shortest game of the day against Epishin whilst Akopian, Areschenko and Sutovsky all won.

So, Sokolov [2652] now leads outright with 6/7. Chasing him are 9 GM's including Mickey Adams [2735] and Vladimiar Akopian [2700] with the latter tackling the leader today in Round 8 where he has the benefit of the white pieces. A full point behind the leader on 5/7 are no less than 13 players. One thing is sure. Tame draws in the final two rounds will not win the Gibraltar Masters!!

Round 6 Summary by Sean Hewitt

Round 6 saw some of the most dramatic chess in the Gibraltar Chess Congress so far. Kaidanov tried to create another example of a "steel king" marching his king all the way from e1 to e6 and then back to d1 with queens, rooks and bishops still on the board for both sides. Vadim Milovs king stayed on h8 behind the cover of a white pawn on h7 for msot of the game. Unfortunately for Kaidanov, the Swiss GM held his nerve and managed to force a trade into a won ending after many adventures and mutual time trouble. Definitely one of the highlights of the tournament to play through and enjoy! The other big news was Ukrainian GM Zuhar Efimenkov's win over top seed GM Michael Adams. It was the last game to finish and despite the best efforts of the Englishman he could not establish a blockade in an ending of opposite coloured bishops and one rook each. This means that there are 6 way tie composing of Milov, Sokolov, Gurevich, Sulskis and Efimenkov. Tomorrow the clash on board one of the two stars of today, Efimenkov and Milov will be a anticipated battle.

A special mention also to English IM Bellin, Robert who beat the legendary Viktor Korchnoi with black in Round 4 on Saturday.

(15) Korchnoi,Viktor (2629) - Bellin,Robert (2381) [A84]

Gibtelecom Masters (4.15), 26.01.2007

1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.e3 d5 5.Nf3 c6 6.Ne5 Be7 7.f4 0–0 8.Be2 Nbd7 9.0–0 Nxe5 10.fxe5 Ne4 11.Nxe4 fxe4 12.Rxf8+ Bxf8 13.Bd2 Bd7 14.Bg4 b5 15.c5 a5 16.Qe1 g6 17.Qg3 Bg7 18.h4 Qe7 19.Qh3 h6 20.Rf1 a4 21.Qg3 Ra7 22.Qe1 Qd8 23.Rf4 Bc8 24.Bh3 Bd7 25.Kf1 Bc8 26.Ke2 Kh7 27.Kd1 Kg8 28.Qg3 Kh7 29.Be1 Qe7 30.Bg4 Qd8 31.Qh3 Qe7 32.Be2 Qd8 33.g4 Qe7 34.g5 h5 35.Qf1 Qe8 36.Bb4 Kg8 37.Kc2 Bd7 38.Qd1 Bc8 39.Bd2 Bd7 40.Rf2 Bc8 41.Rg2 Qf7 42.Qe1 Qd7 43.Qd1 Qf7 44.Be1 Bd7 45.Rf2 Qe8 46.Rf4 Bc8 47.Bb4 Bd7 48.Kc3 Bc8 49.Qf1 Bd7 50.Bd1 Bc8 51.b3 axb3 52.Bxb3 Bd7 53.a3 Bc8 54.Qe1 Bd7 55.Rf2 Qa8 56.Kb2 Qd8 57.Bd1 Be8 58.Rf4 Bd7 59.Be2 Be8 60.Bf1 Bd7 61.Bh3 Bc8 62.Kb3 Qc7 63.Qg3 Qd8 64.Kc2 Qe7 65.Kd1 Qd8 66.Ke2 Qe7 67.Kf2 Qd8 68.Kg1 Bd7 69.Kh2 Qe8 70.Bf1 Bc8 71.Be2 Qd8 72.Rf1 Bd7 73.Rf6 Bxf6 74.gxf6 Be8 75.Bxh5 Kh8 76.Bxg6 Bxg6 77.Qxg6 Rh7 78.Qg4 Qg8 79.Qh3 Rh5 80.Be1 Rf5 81.Qg2 Qxg2+ 82.Kxg2 Rf3 83.Bf2 Kh7 84.Bg1 Kg6 85.Bf2 Kh5 86.Kg1 Kg4 87.Kg2 Kh5 88.Kg1 Kg6 89.Kf1 Kf7 90.Kg2 Rf5 91.Bg3 Rh5 92.Kh3 Rh8 93.Be1 Rg8 94.Kh2 Kg6 95.Ba5 Ra8 96.Bb4 Kh5 97.Kh3 Ra7 98.Kg3 Ra6 99.Kh3 Ra8 100.Kg3 Rg8+ 101.Kh3 Rg1 102.Ba5 Rf1 103.Bd8 Rf3+ 104.Kg2 Kh6 105.Ba5 Kh5 106.Bd2 Kxh4 107.Bc1 Kg4 108.Bd2 Rg3+ 109.Kh2 Rh3+ 110.Kg2 Rh7 111.Bc1 Ra7 112.Kf2 Ra4 113.Ke2 b4 114.axb4 Rxb4 115.Kd2 Kf3 116.Kc2 Ke2 117.Bd2 Rb7 118.Bc1 Rh7 119.Bd2 Rh2 120.Bc1 Ke1+ 0–1

Round 3 Summary by Sean Hewitt

Adams, Sokolov and Ramesh lead the way

Whilst a large number of the top seeds have been on the wrong end of upset results, the fact is that the number one seed Michael Adams has been going about his business with a minimum of fuss. He beat Israeli GM Alon Greenfeld today in an Open Spanish. At 2735 he has been a real heavyweight in the chess world for over a decade.

Dutch GM Ivan Sokolov has had his share of long games and today he also got to the magic 3/3 by defeating Australian GM Ian Rogers in a Queens Gambit Exchange. He just got pressure and managed to keep applying it until the black position gave way. Joining them was Indian IM R.B. Ramesh who is continuing his good run of form by defeating Isreali Emil Sutovsky on the black side of a queenless middle game arising from a Spanish opening. Tomorrow will see if any of these three will take the sole lead. The field boasts an impressive 35 GM's. It is an interesting discussion whether tournaments like this are the way of the future, no appearance fees, good prizes and no early draws allowed.

Round 2 Summary by Sean Hewitt

Upsets continued in the second round of the Gibtelecom Masters at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar with Swiss GM Vadim Milov losing to former Commonwealth champion RB Ramesh. The Indian managed to find his way through the tactics to an impressive win. Also last year’s winner Bulgarian GM Kiril Georgiev found the going tough against former women’s world champion Zhu Chen. On the Black side of an exchange Slav, usually designed to bore people to tears she threw up her pawns on the kingside and left her king in the centre. Although her position looked risky she was the one who finally was able to threaten the unstoppable mate!

Unfortunately the evenings team blitz tournament had to be cancelled. This enjoyable affair was not played because of the late finish (10.45pm) of Australian GM Ian Rogers and young Indian IM Deep Senguta. They played 121 moves in a game which had begun as a Winawer French, the Australian only getting the upper hand in the fifth hour! Maybe the older generation will have a say in the Gibtelecom Masters after all!