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, Samuel G A Franklin, Ian D Thompson, David Ledger, Mark Lyell, Bernard Cafferty, James Adair, Boris Furman, Daniel Andersen, Ian Snape, Gavin R Lock, Francis Rayner, 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, Stewart Reuben, Chino Atako, David Oates, George P Salimbeni, Anthony Milnes, Nigel P Donovan, Evangelos Kakkanas, Andrew McClement, Jude A Lenier, Rasa Norinkeviciute, Jens Henrichsen, Alexandra Wilson, David Fryer, Dominic Foord, Adrian O Pickersgill, Timothy Spanton, Michael Raddatz, David Ian Calvert, Antoine Canonne, John Garnett, 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 6; games 1-25 of 150  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. T Kreiter vs A Pickersgill   ½-½ 28 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress D07 Queen's Gambit Declined, Chigorin Defense 2. T Kreiter vs A Canonne   ½-½ 27 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress D07 Queen's Gambit Declined, Chigorin Defense 3. X Guo vs A Milnes ½-½ 41 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress C00 French Defense 4. B Furman vs R Cohen   ½-½ 35 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress E61 King's Indian 5. A Pickersgill vs A Hagesaether   ½-½ 60 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B12 Caro-Kann Defense 6. B Cafferty vs R Cumming   ½-½ 19 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A13 English 7. D Andersen vs M Huizer   ½-½ 36 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A16 English 8. V Heinis vs C Gibson   ½-½ 28 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress E15 Queen's Indian 9. A Wilson vs E Formanek   ½-½ 51 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress C16 French, Winawer 10. T Rendle vs E Kakkanas   ½-½ 48 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B23 Sicilian, Closed 11. P Marusenko vs B Lalic   ½-½ 43 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress C77 Ruy Lopez 12. R Bates vs M Pavlovic   ½-½ 32 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress E71 King's Indian, Makagonov System (5.h3) 13. S Collins vs G Jones   ½-½ 44 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress E97 King's Indian 14. B Chatalbashev vs F Bindrich   ½-½ 45 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress D11 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 15. S Haslinger vs V Georgiev   ½-½ 40 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress C45 Scotch Game 16. R Cohen vs C Atako   ½-½ 64 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B36 Sicilian, Accelerated Fianchetto 17. I Thompson vs J Adair   ½-½ 49 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A37 English, Symmetrical 18. C Gibson vs S Knott   ½-½ 60 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress D85 Grunfeld 19. D Fryer vs K A Islam   ½-½ 36 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress C28 Vienna Game 20. R Kaufman vs P Poobalasingam   ½-½ 23 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress D76 Neo-Grunfeld, 6.cd Nxd5, 7.O-O Nb6 21. V Prosviriakov vs M Goodger ½-½ 43 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress A91 Dutch Defense 22. A Zozulia vs Y Zhou   ½-½ 50 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B70 Sicilian, Dragon Variation 23. J N Sugden vs S Collins   ½-½ 40 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress C80 Ruy Lopez, Open 24. D Ledger vs N Pert   ½-½ 18 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress C15 French, Winawer 25. F Tahirov vs D Sengupta   ½-½ 18 2007 83rd Hastings Chess Congress B06 Robatsch  page 1 of 6; games 1-25 of 150    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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