Isle of Man Masters 1-9 October

Tim Harding

There will be some Irish interest in the Isle of Man Masters being played 1-9 October.

Entries so far are listed at:
http://www.iominternationalchess.com/players/masters.html?limitstart=0

(Headed by Caruana, Nakamura and So!)

Irish registered entries are Keith Allen (Isle of Man resident), Paul Wallace, Luke Scott, Rudolf Tirziman.

The Irish players last year had a very tough time and the tournament this year is even stronger. Maybe one or two can pull off a giant-killing feat.

Joedryan

That looks like a fantastic tournament.

Tim Harding

Joedryan wrote: »

That looks like a fantastic tournament.

Yeah, I had thought of playing but the dates clash with an important family event, so maybe next year.
You should consider playing Gibraltar (24 Jan-2 Feb 2017); don't leave it too late to enter as it tends to book out by November.

Tim Harding

Tim Harding wrote: »

There will be some Irish interest in the Isle of Man Masters being played 1-9 October.

(Headed by Caruana, Nakamura and So!)

Irish registered entries are Keith Allen (Isle of Man resident), Paul Wallace, Luke Scott, Rudolf Tirziman.

The Irish players last year had a very tough time and the tournament this year is even stronger. Maybe one or two can pull off a giant-killing feat.

Yes, Dr Paul Wallace (2210, resident in England) beat an Indian GM, Shyam Sundar (2552) in round one. Today he lost with Black, no disgrace, to Italian GM Brunello (2556).

The other Irish players are on 0/2.

Tim Harding

All the Irish players in the Isle of Man masters got a result today.
Paul Wallace drew with his IM opponent and if he can keep this up would be in line for an IM norm.
He is on 1.5/3 with an Rp over 2500.
Some readers may recall seeing Paul in the 2014 Irish Championship; he is in his mid-50s and is a GP in the English midlands.

Keith Allen actually drew yesterday and again today.

Rudolf Tirziman beat an unrated English opponent and Luke Scott beat a player from Wales rated 2278.

The round 4 draw is not yet up but board 1 tomorrow will be Shirov v Vidit as they are the only players on 3/3. Most of the favourites are on 2.5.

Tim Harding

Shirov (only player on 4/4) has decided to take a bye tomorrow so he will share the lead on 4.5/5 with whoever in the top group can win:
So v Rodhstein; Eljanov v Naiditsch (all those on 3.5) and Caruana (3) v Movsessian (3.5).

Today Grandelius-Nakamura was a boring draw and Caruana was rather lucky to escape with a draw against Salem Saleh, being two pawns down at one point.

There are a lot of very strong players on 3/4 who could yet win the tournament.

Unfortunately Paul Wallace lost today (with Black) but tomorrow has White against a 17-year-old Indian IM. That could be a tough pairing but a draw would be a good result. Paul now has his full quota of titled opponents so if he could rack up wins in the late rounds he could at least get close to the 2300 target for FM though he "only" has 1.5 so far.

Rudolf Tirziman beat an FM today so has 2/4 and plays a Japanese IM tomorrow.

Keith Allen had another draw and is on 1.5; tomorrow he plays Indian GM Gagare who is 19.

Luke Scott lost today so is on 1/4 but still gets an Italian FM tomorrow.

In the Major Colm Buckley has 1/5/2 and in the Minor Chris Armstrong has 1/2.

Tim Harding

Bad day at the office: all the Irish players in the Masters lost.

Pavel Eljanov was the only winner today on 3.5 pts so he will have White against Shirov tomorrow in round 5. The big shock was Nakamura losing with White to Benjamin Bok of the Netherlands who played a great attacking game.

Colm Buckley has 2.5/3 in the Major; what club is he from? I don't see him on the ICU ratings.

In the Minor, Chris Armstrong (who lost and is on 1/3) has had his federation changed on chess-results.com from "IRL" to "NIR" which is not a valid FIDE federation. Maybe this is the same player who insisted at Gibraltar this year that he would not play under the Irish flag?

Meanwhile in Moscow, all five games in the Tal Memorial ended in a draw, for the second day in succession, so Nepomniachtchi still leads by half a point. Last round tomorrow starts at 11am Irish time.

cdeb

Colm is on the ratings list as Portmarnock (last on the Sep '12 list)

Tim Harding

Keith Allen won today; the other Irish players in the Masters lost but their Rp is still slightly higher than their FIDE rating.

Colm Buckley won again and is the only person on 3.5/4 in the Major; he will have Black against the only player on 4/4.

Eljanov beat Shirov and is now in the sole lead with 5.5/6 and three players including Caruana are on 5.

Ion Nepomniachtchi won the Tal Memorial with Anish Giri second.

Tim Harding

Today Rudolf Tirziman won to reach 3/7, the same score as Keith Allen who drew with GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant of Scotland (formerly Georgia), who is probably still the strongest female player in these islands. Excellent result.

Luke Scott drew to reach 1.5 which is the same score as Paul Wallace who unfortunately has suffered four consecutive losses after his excellent start. On the video coverage Paul could be seen briefly on the table behind Nakamura. GM Simon Williams, commentating, remarked on Paul's excellent moustache!

At the top of the tournament, Eljanov won to reach 6.5 and will have White tomorrow against Caruana, who is the only player on 6. Wesley So is sole third on 5.5. Two rounds to go. The big bunch of 5 need wins tomorrow to have a chance of second place and board 2 will be Nakamura-So, with Hikaru looking to get revenge on their Sinquefield Cup game.

In the Major, Colm Buckley lost today so is joint fourth but his opponent now has 5/5. A win with White in round 6 (of 7) would probably move Colm up to second.

Millionaire Chess has started in Vegas and round 4 begins at 11pm Irish time. It's not quite as strong this year (no Nakamura, McShane or Le Quang Liem) and there are just four players on 3/3. The group on 2.5 (which includes Gawain Jones) are still in with a good shout of playing for the big money.

Tim Harding

Correction to my last: Millionaire Chess is being played in Atlantic City this year. After two days and four rounds nobody is on 100 per cent; nine including Gawain Jones on 3.5/4.

Round 8 of Isle of Man starts at 1.30pm; there should be some exciting games.

Tim Harding

Just to wrap things up:
Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine) won on tiebreak from Fabiano Caruana.
Irish final scores:
Keith Allen and Rudolf Tirziman 4/9
Paul Wallace 3.5
Luke Scott 1.5.
Paul beat Luke in round 8.

Rudolf, who had no draws (!), played seven title opponents. He seems to have gained some FIDE rating points; Keith and Paul were about par and Luke lost a few points.

Colm Buckley finished on 4/7 in the Major.

Over in Atlantic City, English GM Gawain Jones (a frequent visitor to Irish events) has qualified for Millionaire Monday which starts at 4pm IST on chess24. In fact he won the 7-round event and so could rest while others played off for the last three places. Rapid-play format today.