Indians gained 83.20 Elo overall

Indians gained 83.20 Elo overall
By Arvind Aaron

Hikaru Nakamura of the United States of America won the Gibraltar Masters beating Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 3-2 in the tie-break after the players tied for first on 8/10 in the 257-player Swiss. Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine won the women’s best score prize.

The Gibraltar Chess Festival will soon see a tie-break match between titleholder Hikaru Nakamura of United States of America and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France. Both remained undefeated on 8/10. Nakamura played at 2811 while the Frenchman played better at 2838. They never met in the 10-round Swiss and are facing each other in the tie-breaks only.

At the start of the final round, two Indians were among the 8 leaders and had title chances. Harikrishna as white had a pawn on the seventh rank but in the rook and opposite colour bishop ending the Chinese Li Chao was able to pull off a draw. Sethuraman (black) and Bacrot drew a level rook and bishop ending from the Ruy Lopez. Nakamura and Vachier won and reached eight points and the semi-rapid tie-break games are underway for the title,

Anand recovered with two wins in the end. It was a painful event with two defeats in the middle. He finished on 6.5/10 and loses about 21.90 Elo. In the end, Anand tied for the 18-43rd places.

Harika had a memorable event beating Short and scoring 6/10 to gain 15.10 Elo. Padmini Rout gained 15.40 Elo. Harika and Mariya Muzychuk scored the same six points but Anna Muzychuk went ahead to seven points beating Arab pride GM Salem A R Saleh (UAE) in the final round. A total of 257 players from 51 nations took part in this global meet represented by players from all continents.

Indians gained 83.20 Elo overall from this Masters section. Our rating losers totalled 54.90 led by Anand 21.90, Ganguly 14.10 etc. Our gainers totalled 137.20 and it was led by Sethuraman 19.40, Padmini Rout 15.40, Harika 15.10, Abhijeet Gupta 15 etc.

Final placings (points order only): 1-2. M Vachier-Lagrave (Fra), Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 8/10 each; 3-7. E Bacrot (Fra), S.P. Sethuraman (Ind), P Harikrishna (Ind), Emil Sutovsky (Isr), Li Chao (Chn) 7.5 each; 8-17. Abhijeet Gupta (Ind), Sebastien Maze (Fra), D Jakovenko (Rus), Anton David (Esp), Lazaro Bruzon (Cub), Richard Rapport (Hun), Vidit Gujrathi (Ind), Zoltan Almasi (Hun), Edouard Romain (Fra), Gata Kamsky (USA) 7 each; 18-43. M.R. Lalith Babu, Sandipan Chanda, V Anand, Surya S Ganguly, V Vishnu Prasanna 6.5 each…257 players.