Chess Go Spinny

 The 4NCL , Britain's only professional chess league, has, like many chess events, been disrupted by the ongoing pandemic. The 2019-20 season was aborted six rounds in; there was no 2020-21 season, and the 2021-22 season was an experimental format for that season only: a Swiss system (chosen so that if it needed to terminate early, the final finishing positions would still be reasonable ones). The twelve teams who finished at the top of the Swiss that year would be in Division 1 in the new 2022-23 season, and my team, West Is Best, were one of the lucky twelve. This was naturally always going to be a tricky season to negotiate, and the way the draw was done meant we could expect a rocky start: the top six finishers of the previous season were paired to face the teams finishing 7th-12th in the first six rounds of the season, thus maximizing the chances of exciting promotion and relegation clashes occurring towards the end. Thus, arriving at the Daventry Court Hotel on the Saturday,...

 How would tournament leader Harry Grieve approach Round 9 ? He knew beforehand that a draw would be sufficient to get him a GM norm and a playoff place (or outright victory if N Pert - Arkell was a draw), and many people speculated that he would play a very solid opening to maximize his drawing chances. Not a bit of it; he played a very adventurous opening in which he sacrificed the exchange early on, and ended up sacrificing another one later. For a long while, it wasn't clear what the result would be, and when Pert got an early advantage against Arkell and smoothly converted it, the organizing team were gearing themselves up for a playoff. It turned out not to be necessary; the complications eventually resolved in Grieve's favour, and he ended up delivering mate in a position where his opponent's two queens were useless to prevent it. He thus won the tournament outright, as well as obtaining his final IM norm (and the title) and first GM norm. Nick Pert finished second, ...

My apologies for the severe delay to this round report - I came down with Covid immediately after the British, and a combination of recovery from that and difficult home circumstances meant I found it difficult to write. It's not often that a GM loses in twelve moves, but this happened in Round 8 of the British Championship, as Danny Gormally's championship hopes ended very quickly against John Emms. The other games on the top boards lasted considerably longer, with Wadsworth - N Pert and R Pert - Arkell being hard-fought draws; this allowed Harry Grieve to take sole lead going into the last round with a win against Eggleston. This win also wrapped up the Under-21 title for Grieve, as Jonah Willow could only draw against Brandon Clarke. With Balaji also having wrapped up the Under-18 title, this meant that the only subsidiary title still in the balance was the women's championship; draws for Lan Yao and Katarzyna Toma and a win for Sheila Jackson meant that all three compe...

 Going into Round 7 , Keith Arkell and Harry Grieve were tied for the lead. Their draw against each other meant that a number of people could go on to draw level with them, and three took the opportunity: Nick Pert (who beat Kirk), Matthew Wadsworth (who beat Emms) and David Eggleston (who beat Clarke, effectively ending the latter's GM norm hopes). Those five people are tied on 5½, with Gormally and Richard Pert just behind them on 5. My hopes of achieving a high placing in this tournament gurgled away this round, as I got into what proved to be a very bad position early on against Jonah Willow, and lost convincingly.

The top board pairing in Round 6 was a hard-fought but solid draw, meaning Keith Arkell maintained his position at the top; he was caught by Harry Grieve, who won quickly against Danny Gormally. Those two are now the leaders on 5; there is a chasing pack of seven people on 4½, one of them Nick Pert, who took an early advantage against me and didn't give me anything in the way of swindling chances. For the first time in the tournament, there is an outright leader in the women's championship - Katarzyna Toma and Lan Yao had matched each other's results exactly in rounds 1-5, but Yao pulled ahead in round 6 by beating Charlie Storey, while Toma could only get a draw against Steve Dishman.

 The top-board clash in Round 5 was a rather tame and uninspiring draw in ten moves. This meant that a decisive game on board 2 would likely produce a sole leader, and Keith Arkell duly delivered. In true Arkell style, he won the game in the ending. He now leads the tournament with 4½ points, ahead of six players (R Pert, Clarke, Grieve, Emms, Wadsworth and Gormally) on 4. Harry Grieve's TPR so far of 2599 means he is just about on course for a GM norm, never mind the IM norm that would also be very valuable. I am half a point behind the chasing pack, on 3½, after a nice win against Stephen Dishman, who went into an opening line that, while maybe not really all that good for white, I have a very good record in. My reward for this win is to face top seed Nick Pert.

 Danny Gormally's position in the lead of was short-lived, as he lost in Round 4 to Brandon Clarke. Clarke is now one of five joint leaders, along with Kirk (who beat Derakhshani), Arkell (who beat Price), Richard Pert (who beat Domenech) and Grieve (who was the only lower-seeded player to win at the top, with a win against Nigel Davies). Grieve's results so far are enough to have taken him clearly over the 2400 barrier, although as yet he does not have enough norms for the IM title. My own game was a bit of a horror show; my opponent's attacking instincts were more switched on than mine, and he built up a lovely attack that forced me to give up my queen for a rook and a piece. He then really should have gone on to convert that to victory, but nerves and time worked against him, and he ended up blundering his queen. Well, I'll take the lucky victories along with the good ones.

 Danny Gormally took the sole lead in round 3 of the British, as he beat Robert Eames while the other two games in the top scoregroup were drawn. His reward is a game against Brandon Clarke, who convincingly beat me after I failed to cope with his opening preparation. There are eleven players in the chasing pack on 2½, with local interest there represented by Keith Arkell of Paignton and William Claridge-Hansen of Exeter. Also up there is Gwilym Price, who followed up his previous excellent results with a win against James Jackson; he is so far gaining 40 points from just three games.

Round 2 of the British was one where I had a classic frustrating experience; although I would, at the start of the game, have been happy with a draw with black against a player rated 130 points above me, it was nevertheless a game where I'd had a winning position and let it slip through my fingers. Elsewhere in the round, the story at the top of the tournament was the familiar one of seeds mostly getting through - although there was one major exception; first-round giant-killer Bob Eames repeated his feat, this time against Chris Ward. However, the story at the bottom of the tournament was very different, as six players who started the round on 0 lost to lower-rated opposition. This included Peter Wells, whose loss with white to 1982-rated Thomas Donaldson was the major shock of the tournament so far.

 It's that time of year once again, and I am at Torquay for the British Championship . It's normally a bit earlier in the summer - last week of July or first week of August - but has been moved back a couple of weeks so as not to clash with the Olympiad. (As it happens, only two of the relevant countries' Olympiad players - Lan Yao and Katarzyna Toma - are playing, but the capacity was there for the others to do so if they wished.) In the absence of the England team members, the top seed and favourite is Nick Pert, the only player in the tournament rated over 2500. But he may not have it easy, with twelve other 2400+ rated players in the event. Round 1 was the classic top half v bottom half first round, but with the narrow rating band the British lies in, the seeds didn't have it all their own way - two bottom-half players, Gwilym Price and Robert Eames, managed to win against Peter Wells and Jonah Willow respectively, with another nine managing draws. My own game was ...

  Paul Morphy  One of the interesting features of chess is how the development of chess in a region can be sparked by the emergence of a world-class player who captures the public imagination; the number of strong Indian players who have made it to 2600 since Viswanathan Anand reached the elite in the 1990s is a good example, as is the rising profile of Norway since Magnus Carlsen did the same thing in the 2000s. And the subject of this piece, Paul Morphy (1837-1884), is one of the earliest examples of the phenomenon. The USA had some strong players in the mid-19th century, but nobody really on the level of Europe's best; since then, though, they have had world-class players in most eras, including one world champion (Fischer) and three other players who challenged directly for the world title (Marshall, Reshevsky and Caruana). So what was Morphy like as a player, and how did he come to have such a hold over the popular imagination? Well, one answer is that he was unquestiona...

Keith Arkell's game in Round 9 finished pretty quickly, as he got into a bad position out of the opening against Richardson and accepted an early draw. Mine was also quite swift, as I won a pawn against Brown and converted the advantage in the ending. Keith and I spent the remainder of the session enjoying the sun outside and watching the other results come in. And the way those other results came in mostly worked in my favour: Peter Wells's win against Camacho Collados wrapped up the tournament for him, and when Alistair Hill managed to hold against Maksimenko, I realized that I'd come equal third . Not a bad showing for my first tournament back, although the loss of 13 rating points is not something I am keen to repeat. 1st: Wells 8 2nd: Arkell 7 3rd=: Camacho Collados, Richardson, Rudd, Murphy, Maksimenko 6 Richardson and Murphy, as the highest placed not-already-qualified eligible players, qualify for the 2023 British Championship (venue unknown as of t...

Round 8 saw Peter Wells take the sole lead, as he beat Thomas Brown, while Keith Arkell could only draw with Maksimenko. In the other game in the top scoregroups, Camacho Collados defended well against a spirited attack from Smith and emerged the winner in the last game to finish. The second-last game to finish was my game against Hugh Murphy, which will surprise anyone familiar with the speed with which I play. Mind you, when the game goes on past move 80, that tends to happen. Having gone a pawn down in the middlegame, I ended up having to struggle for a long time in a queen ending, and was lucky to escape with a draw.

Keith Arkell needed his swindling technique once again in Round 7 , as he somehow managed to win a two-pawns-down rook ending against Nilsson. This win kept him neck and neck with Peter Wells, who beat Olivia Smith: the two of them now led the field by a clear point. In the chasing pack on 5, Smith was joined by Camacho Collados (who beat Hill), Maksimenko (who beat Waddington) and Brown (who beat Menadue). My own game was not one for the anthologies; after getting a nice position out of the opening against Sam Jukes, I made a horrible blunder that dropped the exchange, but somehow managed to claw it back and win anyway.

In both the previous rounds, there was a dramatic game near the top, but Round 6 featured a dramatic non- game near the top instead. Borna Derakhshani withdrew on the day of the round, giving his opponent, Olivia Smith, a free point. She was joined in the lead on 5/6 by Peter Wells, who beat Richardson, and Keith Arkell, who won a topsy-turvy game against Camacho Collados. My chances of doing anything of note in the tournament were pretty much ended here, as I got horribly tangled up in a Benoni against Alistair Hill. Sometimes these technically bad but interesting to play positions end up resolving in black's favour, but this was just never the case here.

You win some, you lose some. Having beaten the top seed in the morning, John Richardson was brought down to earth in Round 5 by losing to Olivia Smith. This result brought Smith into the joint lead, as the other games involving the players in the 3½ score-group all ended in draws. I managed to keep myself just half a point behind the leaders by winning a long endgame grind against Roger de Coverly; in a King's Indian position with mutual bad bishops, my bad bishop proved to be more useful than his in the endgame.

With tournament leader Derakhshani taking a bye in Round 4 , this created an excellent opportunity for members of the chasing pack to join him in the lead. And, unfortunately for me, Peter Wells was one of the ones who did so, absolutely crushing me with the Trompowsky. He was, unsurprisingly, joined by Camacho Collados, who beat Brown, and Arkell, who beat Blackburn, but the other decisive result was a surprise: John Richardson beat top seed Maksimenko in a theoretical line that has appeared a few times this year in the FIDE Grand Prix.

Round 3 was the round where the real heavyweight clashes of the tournament began, and it showed in the results; of the nine players who started the day on 2/2, only one, FM Borna Derakhshani, made it to 3/3, with a win against Alistair Hill. Together with a clean sweep of decisive results in the 1½ scoregroup, this meant that there was a chasing pack of nine players on 2½.  My game against Keith Arkell was one of those topsy-turvy games that often characterizes our encounters; after getting a big advantage from the opening, Keith overlooked a freeing move that allowed me to get a good position; I then misplayed a winning middlegame and allowed him to escape into a drawn - although not trivially so - ending.  

Round 2 was also reasonably comfortable for the seeded players, with only Jukes's draw against Nilsson preventing them from getting a clean sweep in the 1/1 scoregroup. Midway through the round, though, this didn't look exactly assured: both Bullen-Camacho Collados and Arkell-Menadue could plausibly have gone the other way. My pairing was against an 18-year-old Welshman called Ifan Rathbone-Jones, who played everyone's favourite traditional drawing weapon, the London System. I went for an aggressive counter involving ...Qb6 and ...Bf5, and ended up with a nice position that I managed to convert quickly.

Well, it's been a long time, but I have finally returned to over-the-board tournament play. From the 7th to the 12th of July, I was playing in the South Wales International , an event which I play every year if I can. This event has moved around a lot; over my time playing in it, it's been held in Caerleon , Treforest , Penarth , and two venues in Cardiff ; this year, like in 2019 when it last ran, it was held in Bridgend , at the Best Western Heronston Hotel . This has never been the strongest of events - my rating of 2331 this year gave me a starting seeding of 6 - but it has a wonderfully friendly atmosphere, and has a great track record of its competitors coming back year after year. Round 1 , as is the way of seeded Swisses, featured rating differences of at least 400 points on every board, and the inevitable bloodbath mostly came about, but there were a few lower seeds who escaped - three managed draws, including young Welsh player Hugo Fowler managing a draw against top ...

 One of the longest running events in English chess is the County Championships, and though the number of competing counties has declined over the years, the events are still keenly contested. Previous editions of this event have had a big finals day somewhere in the Midlands, but representations from the more far-flung counties have persuaded the ECF to allow competing teams to arrange for their final to be played at a more mutually convenient venue. Thus, of the six finals being contested that day, only one, Yorkshire v Middlesex in the U-1850s, was played in what would be considered a normal Leicestershire venue. People who've followed my county games over the years will know that, although I live in Devon, I normally play for Somerset, where I grew up - and indeed I have been playing for them in the WECU Online Championships over the past couple of seasons. But I had managed not to play any over-the-board chess for Somerset by the time the national stages of this year's e...

 With Nakamura winning group A, and thus ensuring himself 20 points, and nobody with more than 4 points qualifying from groups B-D, the knockout stage of the third Grand Prix was a bit of an anticlimax, as Nakamura and Rapport had already ensured their places in the Candidates. Still, there was some exciting chess played to finish off the event. Semi-final Both standardplay games in the Nakamura-Mamedyarov semi were draws. Meanwhile, So's win in the first game against Tabatabaei was cancelled out by the latter's win in the second. Thus both games ended up going to rapidplay playoffs.   Both these playoffs ended up finishing 2-0, to Nakamura and So respectively, and thus these two players met in the final. Final So could not make anything of a slight edge in the first game in the final; in the second, Nakamura went straight for one of the standard early repetitions in the Berlin, and thus caused this match to also go to rapidplay playoffs.   The first of these playoff game...

 With groups B and C ending with a tie for the lead, there were playoffs to determine who went through from those groups. The Group C playoff was quite a straightforward affair: So won the first game with black against Shankland, and then held (although not totally convincingly) with white to reach the semi-final against Tabatabaei. The Group B playoff, however, was where all the action was. Mamedyarov won the first game, but Keymer took back in the second to take it to the next stage of playoffs, at a faster time control. Mamedyarov won both those playoff games to get to a semi-final against Nakamura.

Group A Oparin-Aronian was a complex tactical battle in which one mistake could be decisive, and Aronian was the one who made it. This meant that Oparin had a chance of qualifying if Esipenko could get a result against Nakamura, but it was not to be; the American defended skilfully and notched up the full point.   Final scores: Nakamura 4, Oparin 3½, Aronian 3, Esipenko 1½ Group B Mamedyarov-Dubov was a fairly tame draw. This meant that one of the players in the other game would at least reach a playoff; as it turned out, it was Keymer, whose kingside attack against Dominguez won him the exchange and the game.   Final scores: Mamedyarov and Keymer 3½, Dominguez 3, Dubov 2   Group C Shankland forced a quick draw by repetition against Vachier-Lagrave. This proved to be enough to get him to the playoffs when the other game, despite So's having a slight edge throughout, also ended in a draw.  Final scores: So and Shankland 3½, Predke and Vachier-Lagrave 2½ Group D This ...

  Group A Oparin's tenure at the top of the group was short-lived, as he was beaten by Nakamura. Aronian joined Nakamura in the lead by demolishing Esipenko; it emerged afterwards that Esipenko had mistaken the orders of the round 5 and 6 games and had prepared for Nakamura instead. Group B Dominguez-Mamedyarov was a fairly uneventful draw. Dubov, needing a win against Keymer to keep his qualification chances alive, sacrificed a piece for an attack; this resulted in an ending where he had several pawns for the piece. Enough compensation, but no more than that, and this game was also a draw. Group C Predke sacrificed a pawn early on against Shankland and never quite got enough for it. Vachier-Lagrave's game against So was a complex battle in Nimzo-Indian theory, and So emerged the victor after a tense struggle. Group D Yu will have been kicking himself after this game, as he blundered in a winning position against Tabatabaei; the latter managed to wriggle out with an ingenious p...

 Round 3 Group A This was the one that got away for Oparin, as he got a winning position against Nakamura, but couldn't find the right move. Even after that, he had a much better position, but it gradually slipped to a draw. In the other game, Aronian briefly held a clear advantage against Esipenko, but again a failure to find the right continuation led to a draw. Group B Mamedyarov-Dominguez was an interesting game, in a state of dynamic equality throughout, but accurate play from both sides meant it ended up as a draw. In the other game, Keymer demolished Dubov to leave the latter a point adrift at the bottom of the group. Group C Shankland was better throughout against Predke, but it lead to one of those frustrating rook endings where he could make no progress despite his extra pawn. So's game against Vachier-Lagrave meanwhile had a load of early exchanges that led to a draw there as well. Group D Giri-Vitiugov was an exciting opposite-side castling game where black ended up...

 With Richard Rapport having set a marker with his 20 points from events 1 and 2, it was now time for event 3 to see if anyone else could hit that mark. While there were a few combinations of results, all involving Nakamura reaching the semi-finals but not winning the event, that could have created a tie on that score, it was widely expected that the Grand Prix qualifiers would be Rapport and one other. It helped him that both of the event 1 finalists, Nakamura and Aronian, were drawn into the same group, and also that Andreikin, runner-up in event 2, had withdrawn for personal reasons. He was, as in event 1, replaced by Esipenko. The other big news with regard to Candidates places was that Karjakin had been suspended by FIDE for breaching the FIDE code of ethics ; assuming this stands, it opens up a Candidates place for the highest-placed eligible player not already qualified. This may prove to be Ding Liren. Round 1 Group A Aronian had found an improvement on his  game again...

 Semi-finals Rapport went through to the final fairly easily, winning smoothly with white against Vachier-Lagrave, and then drawing the second game. The Giri-Andreikin match was much tighter, with Giri having multiple opportunities to win, but eventually losing the second tie-break game from a position in which he had been doing well.   Final The first game of the final was a rather tame affair, as Andreikin chose a drawish variation with white. It later emerged that his family had arrived on a delayed flight, and he'd been up most of the night worrying about them. The second game was much more entertaining, with Rapport making the bold decision in a time-scramble to avoid a draw by repetition, and it proved to pay off, as he won shortly afterwards. Overall Grand Prix standings Rapport is now the leader in the clubhouse with 20 points from his two events. Given the way the event 3 draw has panned out (with Aronian and Nakamura in the same group), he can only fail to qualify fo...

Round 5 Group A Two relatively short draws ensured that Grischuk was out, leaving Andreikin and Shankland half a point ahead of Bacrot going into the final round. Group B Giri happily agreed a draw with some play left against Harikrishna, knowing that he would then only need a draw in the final round to qualify. The game between Tabatabaei and Vitiugov lasted rather longer, but that too was drawn.  Group C Rapport took a full-point lead in the group by beating Vidit with black. In the other game, Shirov managed his first win of the Grand Prix by beating Fedoseev. Group D  Predke missed a golden opportunity to notch up his first win, as he failed to spot a blunder by Mamedyarov, and the game was eventually drawn. The other game saw Vachier-Lagrave reach a Q+3 v Q+2 ending against Yu, but with all the pawns on the same side, he could not make any serious progress, and thus his lead remained at just half a point. Round 6 Group A Huge drama on the final day in this group; Grischuk...

Round 3 Group A Nothing much happened this round, with two rather tame draws in opposite-coloured bishop endings in both Andreikin-Shankland and Grischuk-Bacrot. Group B Two draws here as well, with Harikrishna-Giri the more interesting of the two, as Giri forced a rather unusual perpetual to draw a queen for a rook down. Group C Rapport's win over Vidit meant the two tied for the lead at the half-way stage. In the other game, Fedoseev beat Shirov. Group D Two more draws here, in this most finely tied of groups. In both games, white ended up a pawn up in a rook ending, but in neither case was it sufficient to win. Round 4  Group A Andreikin sacrificed a piece against Grischuk in a middlegame without queens; accurate defence from the latter meant the game ended in a perpetual. In the other game, Shankland had an advantage against Bacrot but couldn't quite convert it, and this game was also drawn. Group B Two very quiet and uneventful draws in this group, which left Giri in a ver...

Group A Bacrot-Andreikin had a flurry of tactics in the middlegame to take play into an ending with R+P v B+N, but neither side could make anything of this imbalance. In the other game, Grischuk's bad start continued as he lost to Shankland. Group B Harikrishna obtained what should have been a winning attack against Tabatabaei, but couldn't convert it, and the game ended in a draw by repetition. In the other game, Giri extended his lead with a nice kingside attack against Vitiugov. Group C Shirov-Rapport was the sort of game people use to disparage the Petroff Defence: a game with a symmetrical pawn structure, opposite-coloured bishops and an early queen exchange, resulting in an unventful draw. Meanwhile, Vidit won a nice positional game against Fedoseev. Group D Vachier-Lagrave and Mamedyarov's game was one to draw the spectators, with white sacrificing both his rooks to force perpetual. The other game, Predke-Yu, was a somewhat quieter draw, although not without its own ...

  Note: I am reporting on this event while visiting my family. Coverage of it will be complete, but it may not be particularly timely. The second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix has started, this time in the Serbian capital Belgrade. Ding Liren's visa struggles have continued, and he has withdrawn from this event and from the Grand Prix as a whole. Dmitri Andreikin, however, has recovered from COVID, and has taken Ding's place in this event, thus keeping his qualification hopes alive. However, it has suddenly become unclear just how many qualification places there actually are, and who would be eligible to take them up. Thanks to an ongoing geopolitical crisis , it is possible - although so far not confirmed either way - that players from Russia may not be allowed to take part in the Candidates. As two Russians, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergey Karjakin, have already qualified, this would leave gaps in the tournament - which could potentially be filled by players from the Grand Prix. ...

 The two semi-finals went in similar ways. Aronian and Nakamura, having been given white in the first game, both took full advantage of it to win, and then followed this up with a draw with black to reach the final. This led to an Aronian-Nakamura final. Both normal time games were exciting affairs ending in draws by repetition, which led to rapidplay playoffs. The prevailing opinion was that Nakamura, as a renowned rapidplay specialist, would have the advantage there, and so it proved, with his winning the play-off 2-0. This makes for an excellent start for Nakamura in his quest to qualify for only his second candidates. With the first of three tournaments down, the Grand Prix scores are as follows (players not expected to play another game are in italics): Nakamura 13 Aronian 10 Rapport and Dominguez 7 So, Wojtaszek and Esipenko 4 Vidit and Dubov 3 Grischuk, Harikrishna and Fedoseev 2 Oparin, Bacrot, Keymer and Shirov 0 World Championship 2022 Index  

It was decision day for the groups, and they resolved as follows: Group A: Esipenko had a winning position for quite some time against Nakamura, but couldn't find the right way to convert it, and a draw meant it was the American who advanced. In the group's dead-rubber game, Grischuk beat bottom seed Bacrot, although the latter had missed a spectacular win early on. Final scores: Nakamura 4, Esipenko 3½, Grischuk 3, Bacrot 1½ Group B: An unusual opening from Oparin looked to have him in trouble against Wojtaszek, but he defended tenaciously to hold the draw. This allowed Rapport to leap into joint first place by grinding down Fedoseev in an ending. Final scores: Rapport and Wojtaszek 3½, Fedoseev 3, Oparin 2 Group C: This had already been settled the day before, and Aronian and Dubov took the opportunity to have an afternoon off with an early draw. Vidit and Keymer played for considerably longer, but their game too was a draw.  Final scores: Aronian 4½, Dubov and Vidit 3, Key...

 We're reaching the business end of the tournament now, and it's starting to become clear who will and will not qualify for the knockout stage: Group A: Nakamura won a fine attacking game against Grischuk to end the latter's chances of qualification, while Esipenko outplayed Bacrot in a fine positional game. With Nakamura and Esipenko playing in the final round, this ensured one of the two will qualify outright. Scores after round 5: Nakamura 3½, Esipenko 3, Grischuk 2, Bacrot 1½ Group B: Oparin needed to beat Rapport to maintain any chance of qualifying, but, despite having a better position for a long time, could only draw. The other game, between Fedoseev and Wojtaszek, was also a draw, maintaining their lead at the top of the group. Scores after round 5: Fedoseev and Wojtaszek 3, Rapport 2½, Oparin 1½ Group C: Aronian won a tactical melee against Keymer, which proved to be enough to win the group with a round to spare when Dubov-Vidit ended in a draw. Scores after round...

 The last round before the rest day left all the groups in the balance, with every competitor still having a technical chance of reaching the knockout stage. Group A: Grischuk had the better of it for most of his game against Esipenko, but could not get more than a draw out of it. In the other game, Bacrot repeated the line from his round 3 game, and was more successful this time, reaching a draw by repetition against Nakamura. Scores so far: Nakamura 2½, Grischuk and Esipenko 2, Bacrot 1½ Group B: Rapport-Wojtaszek was a solid game by both sides where black successfully neutralized white's pressure to force a draw. This allowed Fedoseev to join Wojtaszek in the lead by beating Oparin. Scores so far: Wojtaszek and Fedoseev 2½, Rapport 2, Oparin 1 Group C: Keymer went for an ambitious line of a "poisoned pawn" nature against Dubov, but it backfired on him and he lost quickly. Meanwhile, Aronian hung on to a full-point lead with a solid draw against Vidit.   Scores so far:...

 We've approached the half-way stage of the group stage, and there's still all to play for. Group A: A symmetrical position proved to have more life in it than apparent at first glance in Grischuk-Nakamura, but the complications eventually fizzled out to a draw. In the other game, Esipenko won a nice attacking game against Bacrot. Scores after round 3: Nakamura 2, Grischuk and Esipenko 1½, Bacrot 1. Group B: Wojtaszek maintained his lead at the top of the group with a draw against Fedoseev that he may have been disappointed not to win. In the other game, Oparin-Rapport had all three results possible for a long time, but eventually it reached a draw too. Scores after round 3: Wojtaszek 2, Rapport and Fedoseev 1½, Oparin 1. Group C: Aronian won a very smooth positional victory against Keymer, while Vidit exploited an inaccuracy by Dubov to get his first win of the tournament. Scores after round 3: Aronian 2½, Vidit 1½, Dubov and Keymer 1. Group D: Shirov's gambit play agai...

 The first FIDE Grand Prix tournament continues, and just like in round 1, there were three decisive games and five draws. Group A: Grischuk managed to fray the nerves of his fans by reaching a bad position and getting very short of time against Bacrot, but he managed to pull it back and earn a draw. In the other game in the group, Nakamura won with a nice combination against Esipenko. Group B: Rapport managed to recover from his shock defeat in round 1 with an interesting win against Fedoseev. Wojtaszek maintained his lead with a draw against Oparin which he might have been disappointed not to win. Group C: Keymer and Vidit rattled out a lot of moves very quickly to end up in an opposite-coloured bishops ending that petered out to a draw. In the other game, Aronian equalized quickly with black against Dubov, and that game was also a draw. Group D: Dominguez won a double-edged game against Shirov, the first black win of the tournament. In the other game, Harikrishna found a good li...