83rd Hastings Chess Congress (2008)

PARTICIPANTS (sorted by highest achieved rating; click on name to see player's games) Gawain Jones, Vadim Malakhatko, Nidjat Mamedov, Boris Chatalbashev, Stuart Conquest, Milos Pavlovic, Vladimir Georgiev, Bogdan Lalic, Mark Hebden, Daniel Gormally, Deep Sengupta, Valery Neverov, Nicholas Pert, Sebastian Bogner, Falko Bindrich, Stewart Haslinger, Simon Kim Williams, Farhad Tahirov, Glenn Flear, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury, Sam E Collins, Swayangsu Satyapragyan, Andrew Greet, Yang-Fan Zhou, Jovanka Houska, Shakil Abu Sufian, Thomas E Rendle, Edward W Formanek, Raymond S Kaufman, Richard A Bates, Florian Dinger, Simon J B Knott, Kh Aminul Islam, Vladimir Prosviriakov, Jack Rudd, Anna Zozulia, Yochanan Afek, Jovica Radovanovic, Petr Marusenko, Mehdi Hasan, Peter Poobalasingam, Robert Eames, Ian D Thompson, Samuel G A Franklin, David Ledger, Mark Lyell, Bernard Cafferty, James Adair, Boris Furman, Daniel Andersen, Ian Snape, Francis Rayner, Gavin R Lock, Alan Grant Kerr, Akash Jain, Felix J Kwiatkowski, John N Sugden, Christopher Briscoe, Oliver Jackson, Mark Huizer, Jack Lee, Erkin Gurbanzade, Vincent Heinis, Arne Hagesaether, Martyn Goodger, George E O'Toole, James Mansson, George Dickson, Sabine Fruteau, Chino Atako, Stewart Reuben, David Oates, George P Salimbeni, Anthony Milnes, Nigel P Donovan, Evangelos Kakkanas, Andrew McClement, Jude A Lenier, Rasa Norinkeviciute, Jens Henrichsen, David Fryer, Alexandra Wilson, Dominic Foord, Adrian O Pickersgill, Timothy Spanton, Michael Raddatz, David Ian Calvert, John Garnett, Antoine Canonne, Christoph Gibson, Rodrigo Ringor, Melvin J Young, Rhys Cumming, Elliott Auckland, John Rety, Xi-Yang Guo, Ronnie Cohen, Manuel Jesus Conde Chijeb, James S Macrae, Joseph Quinn, Tom O'Neill, Enyi Uche, Thomas Kreiter

page 1 of 20; games 1-25 of 499  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. R Ringor vs I Thompson   0-1 42 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress C05 French, Tarrasch 2. M Goodger vs S Franklin   1-0 24 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B50 Sicilian 3. J Lee vs Y Zhou 0-1 52 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress E92 King's Indian 4. A Pickersgill vs M Young   0-1 46 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B22 Sicilian, Alapin 5. J Rety vs J N Sugden   0-1 49 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress E91 King's Indian 6. N Donovan vs R Cohen   1-0 26 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B10 Caro-Kann 7. J Henrichsen vs A Milnes   1-0 51 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A81 Dutch 8. C Atako vs T Spanton   1-0 38 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B27 Sicilian 9. G O'Toole vs A Hagesaether   0-1 32 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B10 Caro-Kann 10. P Poobalasingam vs A Jain 1-0 15 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B22 Sicilian, Alapin 11. D Foord vs G Dickson 0-1 59 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A67 Benoni, Taimanov Variation 12. S Reuben vs E Gurbanzade   0-1 27 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A26 English 13. R Norinkeviciute vs E Auckland   0-1 72 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A16 English 14. X Guo vs E Kakkanas   0-1 63 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B48 Sicilian, Taimanov Variation 15. B Cafferty vs E Uche   ½-½ 30 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A15 English 16. J Radovanovic vs B Lalic   ½-½ 32 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress E01 Catalan, Closed 17. T O'Neill vs C Gibson   0-1 41 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B96 Sicilian, Najdorf 18. J Garnett vs A McClement   ½-½ 43 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A45 Queen's Pawn Game 19. T Kreiter vs M Raddatz   0-1 36 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A04 Reti Opening 20. J Adair vs J Quinn   1-0 31 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress C86 Ruy Lopez, Worrall Attack 21. J S Macrae vs G Salimbeni   0-1 55 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A48 King's Indian 22. D I Calvert vs M Conde 1-0 39 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A01 Nimzovich-Larsen Attack 23. J Lenier vs A Canonne   ½-½ 43 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B40 Sicilian 24. A Wilson vs R Cumming   0-1 49 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress C88 Ruy Lopez 25. J Mansson vs D Andersen 1-0 12 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A15 English  page 1 of 20; games 1-25 of 499    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jan-04-08    acirce: <There's times I've felt that way acirce but I take the spirit of the game to move 40 anyway.> That's your right. I'm not telling you what to do - so don't tell others what they should do either. Jan-04-08    roberts partner: Williams has the norms for the GM title but not yet the 2500 rating. His current 01.08 rating is 2482. He is gaining rating points at Hastings, but has a history of blowing up in late rounds of an event. These circumstances make it absolute practical sense for him against his 2569 No 2 seeded opponent to take a half point whicb puts him nearer his 2500 rating goal and keeps him at worst in shared second place with two rounds to go. As for Malakhatko, it's a quick half point as Black and keeps him well placed. Jan-04-08    protean: <If you check Chessbase.com they have some good and recent comments on the topic.> I agree they are "recent". <Williams has the norms for the GM title but not yet the 2500 rating.> Yeah, I was just about to write about that - not that he needs to justify it anyway. Jan-04-08    acirce: Not only that, they are also "comments". Jan-04-08    Nepa Pugna: Peace be with you acirce. Jan-04-08    unsound: <don't tell others what they should do either> So it's OK to tell people what not to do, as in this case? Quite a conundrum. Jan-05-08    Stonehenge: Wow, Mamedov-Chatalbashev draw in 8 moves, just as I had predicted. Not kidding. Jan-05-08    roberts partner: It's now offficial that Williams's 12-move draw with Malakhatko gave him a 2500 rating and the GM title. Jan-05-08    Phil Holden: <So it's OK to tell people what not to do, as in this case? Quite a conundrum.> Lovely reply. Jan-06-08    ahmadov: <Stonehenge: Wow, Mamedov-Chatalbashev draw in 8 moves, just as I had predicted.> I just heard on TV that Mamedov is leading in this tournament but that short draw is not pleasant at all... Jan-06-08    jamesmaskell: Chessbase is reporting Simon K Williams now has his GM norm. Well done ol' chap, another English GM! Jan-06-08    brankat: Mamedov - Malakhatko = a draw in 9 moves :-) I sure hope some of the other players catch up to them. Jan-06-08    brankat: B.Lalic -Flear = a draw in 8 moves. What a disgrace. At least G.Jones vs N.Pert resembles a game of Chess. Jan-06-08    malthrope: <brankat: B.Lalic -Flear = a draw in 8 moves. What a disgrace. At least G.Jones vs N.Pert resembles a game of Chess.> Yes <brankat> it's sometimes very difficult to fathom the demeanor of last rounds... Sometimes they are filled with fight and sometimes they are filled will only fright! (self descriptive). ;) Jan-06-08    esticles: Um <cg>, your tourney result is wrong. Malakhov did not win "by an entire point" -- he tied with Mamedov and Neverov at 7.5 followed by 6 others at 7. The crosstable is the second chart at <http://www.hastingschess.org.uk/200...; ; the first is NOT in order of finish. Jan-06-08    Stonehenge: <esticles> You'd better post that at chessgames.com chessforum Jan-06-08    pawnofdoom: Haha Malakhato did all that work to get first place with 7.5/10 and his performance is only 2400. Does that earn him a rating gain anyway? Or will his rating go down from this tournament? Jan-07-08    Illogic: <Some days you don't feel like playing, it's as simple as that.> I wonder, did the players give back a portion of their appearance fee for the days they didn't feel like playing? Jan-07-08    Shams: <I wonder, did the players give back a portion of their appearance fee for the days they didn't feel like playing?> you can't run hard on every play. do you expect athletes to give back their salaries too? tournaments are marathons, not sprints. Jan-07-08    Eric Schiller: The analogy is wrong. A chess tournament isn't a marathon, it is like a boxing match. Sometimes boxers take rounds off, losing points, to regain their strength. The crowd doesn't like it, but experienced fans and commentators understand the need. No one says a fight is less great because a round or two was used for rest. Jan-07-08    drik: <No one says a fight is less great because a round or two was used for rest> The analogy is wrong - the boxers save their strength for a final effort to win ... the chess players refuse to make a final effort to win. In the final rounds of this tournament Mamedov drew in 9!! & 14!! moves - what was he regaining his strength for ... the journey home? Jan-07-08    acirce: Mamedov drew so that he would be guaranteed shared first in the tournament, i.e. the very opposite of your accusation that they <refuse to make a final effort to win>. Jan-07-08    Illogic: <you can't run hard on every play. do you expect athletes to give back their salaries too? tournaments are marathons, not sprints.> If an athlete didn't 'run hard' for 20% of a full game (the equivalent of what Mamedov did, taking off two out of the ten rounds), then yes, I would absolutely expect him to lose some salary (presumably getting fined), or to get benched. Jan-09-08    Robin01: I can understand why some players do not like the short draw. However, I can also understand taking a draw to finish in the money, because most chess players I know are not rich and most need the extra cash. So although I do not like such short draws myself, I understand them and understand they are just part of the game. Jan-09-08    pawnofdoom: <on the short draw discussion> I myself never accept short draws. I don't think I've ever gotten a tournament draw in less than 50 moves before, except for this one occasion, where my opponent was scared he would lose. If we drew, then we would be guaranteed at least both of us tying for second, with a chance of both of us tying for first. But in the end, we both tied for 2nd and got like 500 dollars. However, the thing weird about that game was that he actually had a +2 advantage according to Fritz after 18 moves, but he was too scared to play on and offered the draw just for the money. < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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