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The 4th Gibraltar Masters was a 126-player 10-round Swiss tournament held in the Caleta Hotel, La Caleta (Catalan Bay), Gibraltar, from 24 January to 2 February 2006, as part of the Gibtelecom Gibraltar Chess Festival. Prize fund: GBP 30,000, with GBP 4,000 to the winner. ... [more]
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Player: Alexey Shirov
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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 7 OF 8 ·
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| Feb-02-06 | | iron maiden: Yeah, I think Nakamura brought a big audience when he competed in last year's festival. |
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| Feb-02-06 | | Inf: please i would love to see granda-zuñiga invited.. please eric make it happen!!! :D |
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| Feb-02-06 | | Inf: i would kill to see a live game of granda-zuñiga on chessgames.com :) |
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| Feb-02-06 | | quicksilverbg: <What's the story with you guys? Men and Women WC's, the young Cheparinov and here Kiril Georgiev is winning Gibraltar --- is there anything special about the Bulgarian chess school?> Bulgaria has had some exceptional talents not only in chess but also in mathematics, informatics and other areas of science. So it is probably about IQ uplift of the whole nation rather than special education. |
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| Feb-02-06 | | VishyFan: <Eric Schiller: Which GMs would you like to see invited? The organizers are interested in your opinions!> how about Pentala Harikrishna, the young Indian Star?.... |
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| Feb-03-06 | | shr0pshire: <Eric Schiller> I would love to see Bu Xiangzhi. He is a very dynamic player and someone on the rise I believe. :) Also it is always nice to have a clash of east meets west ideologies even on the chess board. shr0p |
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| Feb-03-06 | | VishyFan: <Eric Schiller> How about Koneru Humpy and Parimarjan Negi of India...... |
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Feb-03-06
 | | Eric Schiller: Attention all Women!!
This year the tournament had $3000 in special prizes for women. Next year that amount will be raised to $20,000! The overall prize fund of $60,000 will be more than doubled, with many more amateur prizes. And don't forget the best game prize of $2000!
(the offcial prizes are in pounds, I've counted 1 pound = $2 for the numbers above.) Start planning now! |
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Feb-03-06
| | Eric Schiller: Gibraltar Masters Prize List
1st Kiril Georgiev Bulgaria 8.5 £6000
2= Nigel Short England 7.5 £3500
Emil Sutovsky Israel 7.5 £3500
4= Vladimir Akopian Armenia 7 £715
Alex Areshchenko Ukraine 7 £715
Zahar Efimenko Ukraine 7 £715
Mikhail Gurevich Turkey 7 £715
Zoltan Gyiesi Hungary 7 £715
Alexi Shirov Spain 7 £715
Sergey Volkov Russia 7 £715
Women’s 1= Antoaneta Stefanova Bulgaria 6.5 £1000
Chen Zhu China 6.5 £1000
Natalia Zhukova Ukraine 6.5 £1000
U18 Mary Ann Gomes India 5.5 £375
Kruttika Nadig India 5.5 £375
2450-2549 Mohamad Al Sayed Qatar £750
2350-2449 Juan Bellon Lopez Spain £750
2250-2349 Harald Borchgrevink Norway £750
2100-2249 Khaled El Amari Morocco £750
Best Game Prize Julen Arizmendi Spain £1000
For his win with black in R4 against Zahar Efimenko
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| Feb-03-06 | | shr0pshire: <Eric Schiller> Well if I go next year, which is a remote possibility I better start training now. Because I will have to aim for fourth place, because it looks like it will cover most of my expenses. And how cool would that be if I could take off a week or so of law school to play in an all expense paid chess trip. lol. You are going to have me day dreaming at the thought of this all through classes. lol. Time to put the axe to the grind stone. :)
shr0p |
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Feb-03-06
| | Eric Schiller: <shr0p> Come on, Best Game Prize 1000 pounds. that's the one to aim for! I'll be posting a photo spread on Monday, when I'm back home. That might provide even more incentive. But watch out for the competition! Pia Cramling's daughter will be 4 years old at next year's event, and with two GMs for parents (she's married to Juan Bellon Lopez) she's going to cause trouble! |
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| Feb-03-06 | | plimko: <Eric Schiller> How about Fabiano Caruana? He's now MI and is born in 1992. |
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| Feb-04-06 | | diagonal: ... and of course the notorious' Peter K. Wells and Shirov for a third consecutive and decisive encounter (they played each other in a row at the Gibtelecom Festival last and this year *smile*), they should open the first round next year, really! (e.g. in soccer world championships there is also a "pre-fixed" open game) ... then certainly the medal winners Kiril Georgiev as Champ, Short and Sutovsky; the young ones as already pointed out, especially Nakamura, more women, one or another guy aged over 75 years and as a personal wish, additional nomination: "Big Al" (Alexander Beliavsky), he recently had really bad luck in crucial last rounds, but he will strike back! PS: Why Mr Karpov does not want to compete in an Open Swiss chess event? |
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| Feb-04-06 | | walker: < diagonal><Why Mr Karpov does not want to compete in an Open Swiss chess event?> Here is an exert from Karpov's interview on this matter and a link... Tournaments are shrinking in size, and disappearing altogether from the calendar – this is a huge problem. Linares and Dortmund have significantly reduced the number of participants. Just consider, in the world’s five biggest tournaments (that is, the two above, plus Wijk aan Zee, the Poikovsky tournament that bears my name, and Sofia), there are a total of just 41 places! This only leaves open tournaments, which I, for example, would never play in. I am firmly convinced that, for a world class player, playing in open tournaments is a big mistake, because such tournaments destroy one’s style.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail... |
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| Feb-04-06 | | Jim Bartle: "Such tournaments destroy one's style..."
I think that's a highly questionable claim. It's true if the player has no discipline, but only if a player begins to think he can defeat anybody. Sounds as if Karpov just doesn't want to be exposed to new situations. Plus, as I've commented concerning Viktor Korchnoi in Gibraltar, it's a great opportunity for lower-ranked players to test themselves against one of the greats. Actually we ought to convince Kramnik and Leko to play some open tournaments, shake 'em up a bit. |
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| Feb-05-06 | | diagonal: thanks a lot, both! Interesting interview with Karpov and amazingly the title is "chess could disappear from the face of the earth" - exactly that could happen to some extend, if all the greats are refusing Opens! Then there would only rest a very, very small de-facto closed group of ELO 2700+ rated players (there is already a strong tendency to such concentration). What about the unique ambience of an Open with hundreds of members of the chess family playing together, and – possibly maybe - get a chance to test themselves with a real big shot?! I suppose that it's - first of all - more difficult to defense a high rating in an Open event than in a closed (double-) rounded tournament with well known opponents (and no danger of loosing against a so-called nobody) and enough time to prepare the plannings... honesty is sometimes rare. My claim: Playing an Open or not reveal one's true character! I did not realize concerning Kramnik, Leko: are there other candidate's for a "watch list" of players notoriously refusing competing in Opens? |
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| Feb-05-06 | | Jim Bartle: Kramnik/Leko: I don't think they play opens often at all, but haven't heard them argue against them. My point above is you need to play a more aggressive style in Opens, not just draw and draw until you get a good position to go for a win. I think part of Karpov`s resistance is that there's no way for him to "win" an Open, since it would be expected. Meanwhile even second place would be a terrible loss, plus everybody else would be gunning for him. Sort of like tossing Roger Federer into your state amateur tennis championships. (Well, not that extreme, but to some degree...) |
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| Feb-04-06 | | diagonal: well, I obviously agree, that you can't just make draws in Opens (with black and then win one or the other white game); the analysis of Karpow's real reasons to stay absent sounds highly plausible – but for instance for Shirov or other Elo 2700+ top players (besides, Karpov is now about no. 29 in the FIDE rating – saying "about" because "frozen" Kasparov is still in the FIDE-lead as no. 1), there is even more strongly the same dilemma: Not to win the Open is already quite a big loss! Furthermore, there is evidence that Karpov is one of the rare real nature born talents, a prodigy and strategic genius; no wonder he is still absolutely world top in (closed) rapid chess tournaments, it seems to me that he is concentrating on such "rapid exhibition", and as usual of course his financial & chess-political business stuff. Nevertheless, the chess family lives in principal from those who are willing to play regularly and not from those who are (most of the time or even totally) volunteerly absent! Please keep in mind that in tennis even the no.1 of the entry list (with exact tableau) is always facing in the first rounds minor players (e.g. Federer lost at the Olympics in Athen spectacularly soon and was then knocked-out, it’s pure k.o.-system, not appropriate for chess tournaments) and the top (eight) players do not only play the for Grand Slams and the final Masters at the end of the year but are also widely competing in other major (and even minor) tournaments – and an Open as the now traditional Gibtelecom is a major event, certainly with more validity (no offense) than a rapid exhibition. Accidentally, I still wonder whether somebody seeing behind the curtains can figure out the reputated players afraid of playing Chess Opens... |
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| Feb-04-06 | | Jim Bartle: Do players at the elite closed events get guaranteed advances? That could be a reason they play only those events, since I don't think Opens pay appearance fees. |
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| Feb-04-06 | | diagonal: The monetary implications: good point, I didn't think of that! At least partly an understandable "professional" explanation; although for instance Short - who took part - is quite well known for good counting (FIDE - separation with the splitting world chess championship 1993!!) and there are good prices at the top of the Open but logically only for the very best classified of the crowd. It could be a mix of various reasons (including sadly individualistic anxiety). |
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| Feb-04-06 | | Knight13: 3 Players with White played 1. f4 and all of them lost. Not a good opening to play against IMs and GMs these days. |
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Feb-05-06
 | | Joshka: <EricSchiller> Well thanks Eric for asking Korchnoi his opinion! That was very kind of you!:-) |
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| Feb-06-06 | | Stefan Lukke: <Eric Schiller> while I was at Gibtelecom Chess Festival (2006) I heard a rumour that there was to be a rating restriction for the Open in 2007 (over 2100 maybe?) to strengthen the field somewhat. Do you know if this is a serious consideration? I think it would be a very good idea as there appears to be a growing popularity. This would surely also increase the number who enter the Challengers tournament which is below 2100s and has had a relatively low entry previously. What do you think? |
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Feb-06-06
| | Eric Schiller: <knight13> I'm thinking of trying to improve the score at the People's Open in 2 weeks :-) <stefan> it is just an idea being tossed around, I doubt it will happen. Reuben is examining all sorts of options next year. I'm sure he'll look at the discussion here for ideas. |
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Feb-06-06
| | Eric Schiller: I've posted a bunch of photos at http://www.chesscity.com/gibtelecom... |
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