Luck or unintended sadism, forcing two players to play blitz games and in the process entertain non-paying spectators – after a grueling day at the office – is how the trophy was decided this evening at the Isle of Man International. Congrats to the Polish superstar for his endurance skills!
Both Naiditsch and Wojtaszek tied for first in the ‘real’ tournament with 7 points from 9 games. Hearty congrats to both gentlemen!
It was quite a week! Many of the world’s elite grandmasters gathered on the Isle of Man for the traditional (?) tournament and fight it out for the first prize of 50,000 English Pounds. Kudos to the organizers and sponsors for providing the spectators with a very interesting show of fighting chess! I don’t remember when I enjoyed playing over so many games from a single tournament…
gm Shirov – gm Kramnik IOM 28.10.2018 (0-1)
One of the most watched games from the 9th round was Shirov vs Kramnik. Uncompromising as usual, Shirov managed to create some dynamic possibilities with his passed a-pawn, only to lose it for nothing when in time trouble. The resulting 4 vs 3 Rook and Pawn ending is instructive and worth close study by the readers.
Shirov and Kramnik have been competitors for the past 30 years!
Another game that I watched with much anticipation was Nigel Short vs Prasanna Vishnu. (I hate to admit this publicly, but Nigel’s games are almost always the first games that I play over. His style of play is almost as unique as is his colourful personality. Today was just not his day…)
gm Vishnu – gm Short IOM 28.10.2018 (1-0)
There is a first time for everything…
gm Grischuk vs gm Vachier-Lagrave IOM 28.10.2018 (1-0)
