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Gibraltar Masters (2018) The 16th Gibraltar Masters was a 276-player 10-round Swiss open held in the Caleta Hotel, La Caleta, Gibraltar, from 23 January to 1 February, 2018, as part of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival. This year had a notably strong line-up with top seeds including Aronian, Nakamura, Harikrishna, Vitiugov, Vachier-Lagrave, Navara, Le Quang Liem, and Ivanchuk. Time control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves and 50 more minutes for the next 20 moves, then 15 more minutes until the end of the game, with 30 seconds added per move from move 1. Tournament director: Stuart C Conquest. Chief arbiter: Laurent Freyd. Number of games played: 1320 + 10 = 1330. After 10 rounds, seven players ended on 7.5 points. The rules stipulated a single winner, and only allowed the four players with the best tournament rating performance to proceed to the playoff stage. In the playoff, the winners of the semifinals were Levon Aronian, who beat Richard Rapport, and Maxime Vachier Lagrave, who beat Hikaru Nakamura, thus ending the American's hope of a fourth successive Gibraltar title and a fifth in total. Aronian won both rapid games, but Vachier-Lagrave needed a further pair of blitz games to qualify for the tie-break final, after the two rapid games ended in a draw. The final showdown was thus between Aronian and Vachier-Lagrave. They drew the two scheduled rapid games (with 10 minutes each, and an extra 2 seconds added after each move) and then the first blitz game (3 minutes each plus an add-on of 2 seconds). Finally Aronian managed to win the second blitz game to clinch overall victory, see Gibraltar Masters (Tiebreaks) (2018). Official site: https://web.archive.org/web/2017122... Chess-Results: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr301... Chess.com: https://www.chess.com/news/view/aro... ChessBase: https://en.chessbase.com/post/trade... BritBase: https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pg... chess24: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-t... TWIC: https://theweekinchess.com/chessnew... FIDE: https://ratings.fide.com/tournament... Previous: Gibraltar Masters (2017). Next: Gibraltar Masters (2019)  page 2 of 50; games 26-50 of 1,229  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 26. Gelfand vs R Bellin 1-0 40 2018 Gibraltar Masters E00 Queen's Pawn Game 27. D Anton Guijarro vs P Rout   1-0 39 2018 Gibraltar Masters C11 French 28. I Lopez Mulet vs S P Sethuraman   0-1 51 2018 Gibraltar Masters A21 English 29. E de Haan vs R Edouard   0-1 38 2018 Gibraltar Masters E40 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3 30. N Mohota vs G N Gopal   ½-½ 34 2018 Gibraltar Masters D71 Neo-Grunfeld 31. G Antova vs Buhmann 0-1 35 2018 Gibraltar Masters D37 Queen's Gambit Declined 32. M Gavilan Diaz vs J C Ibarra Jerez   ½-½ 39 2018 Gibraltar Masters C76 Ruy Lopez, Modern Steinitz Defense, Fianchetto Variation 33. W Ju vs V Plotkin   ½-½ 51 2018 Gibraltar Masters A18 English, Mikenas-Carls 34. S Vajda vs Duda   0-1 54 2018 Gibraltar Masters A49 King's Indian, Fianchetto without c4 35. P Lombaers vs I Cheparinov   1-0 55 2018 Gibraltar Masters A13 English 36. T Gara vs Short   ½-½ 65 2018 Gibraltar Masters A07 King's Indian Attack 37. Motylev vs E Sanchez Jerez   1-0 48 2018 Gibraltar Masters C41 Philidor Defense 38. R Sadhwani vs V Akobian   ½-½ 50 2018 Gibraltar Masters B18 Caro-Kann, Classical 39. Vocaturo vs S R Mannion   ½-½ 51 2018 Gibraltar Masters D25 Queen's Gambit Accepted 40. V Bliumberg vs F Bindrich   ½-½ 72 2018 Gibraltar Masters A45 Queen's Pawn Game 41. C Yoo vs A Donchenko   0-1 74 2018 Gibraltar Masters B90 Sicilian, Najdorf 42. N Huschenbeth vs A Meszaros   1-0 54 2018 Gibraltar Masters B07 Pirc 43. N Renman vs Adams 0-1 74 2018 Gibraltar Masters D37 Queen's Gambit Declined 44. Rapport vs V Gandrud 1-0 74 2018 Gibraltar Masters A04 Reti Opening 45. D Horvath vs Sutovsky ½-½ 71 2018 Gibraltar Masters D85 Grunfeld 46. P Papp vs Saric   ½-½ 62 2018 Gibraltar Masters B13 Caro-Kann, Exchange 47. K Georgiev vs J Rapport   1-0 65 2018 Gibraltar Masters A04 Reti Opening 48. S Chanda vs M Lercel   ½-½ 86 2018 Gibraltar Masters E46 Nimzo-Indian 49. O Oglaza vs S L Narayanan 0-1 95 2018 Gibraltar Masters C45 Scotch Game 50. A Muzychuk vs B Serarols Mabras 1-0 51 2018 Gibraltar Masters B18 Caro-Kann, Classical  page 2 of 50; games 26-50 of 1,229    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)   < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 6 OF 6 ·  Later Kibitzing> Feb-03-18    WorstPlayerEver: "I won the tournament!" (With 50 others lol) Feb-03-18    SometimesGood: <JustAnotherMaster: Yes <sometimesgood> MC definitely broke him at bullet, his last hold on hope, now he is like a destroyed fighter after having doing his best and getting destroyed, he has nothing worthy left.> Yes, Naka was the best in 4th generation, but Magnus is a 5th generation fighter. Time to go for ramming! Feb-03-18    SometimesGood: saying this I would prefer Naka's personality to Magnus, not a big fun of these type of guys. Still have to acknowledge his superiority. As human beings I would prefer Wesley, Vishy, Ding and Levon. Add to these Asian guys Adams whose personality is just awesome. Feb-03-18    Boomie: It would have been easy to have three rapid matches with the highest TPR seeded into to second round. But after all, this is an open tournament and how they decide who gets the trophy is not all that important. Feb-03-18    JimNorCal: Wow, I like GM So so much more, now that I blocked some annoying commenters! Feb-03-18    john barleycorn: <JimNorCal: Wow, I like GM So so much more, now that I blocked some annoying commenters!> Yes, if you cannot handle it, ignore it. The issue will not go away but you can have a happy life. Feb-03-18    Absentee: First they fight you, then they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they win. Feb-04-18    WorstPlayerEver: Buy Wesley Soap! Feb-04-18    Justin Flint: https://vimeo.com/71346622 Feb-04-18    SometimesGood: <john barleycorn: if you cannot handle it, ignore it.> ha-ha, right. i don't ignore anyone:) Feb-04-18    SometimesGood: <Absentee: First they fight you, then they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they win.> First they fight you, then they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they lose. Feb-04-18    zborris8: <perfidious> Nakamura's shining career may be waning, but think of the third place finisher here, 18 yr old Benjamin Gledura. Now that guy has a bright future! Feb-05-18    JustAnotherMaster: No one cares about any of you "nutjobs" posting here every day, get a life huh, help out at the homeless shelter or soup kitchen if you are so well off, otherwise stfu. Naka is on fast downward spiral to nothingness, MC can crush him at every speed, and H-Bomb cant even beat 2700s any more, suck-it losers. Feb-05-18    happyjuggler0: <zborris8: think of the third place finisher here, 18 yr old Benjamin Gledura. Now that guy has a bright future!> Actually he didn't finish anywhere close to third place; he finished tied for 26th-49th. http://www.chess-results.com/tnr301... However, his +3 score is indeed impressive against such a field, not to mention at such a young age too. Feb-05-18    zborris8: <happyjuggler0> I think it's your English. You cannot be "tied" for a place. You are "tied' with a "person" meaning you have the same points as that person. That is why prizes are not awarded separately for same point receivers. They are grouped together and divided equally among players with the same points. First place wins the first prize. If the next nine players have the same points, they are "tied" with each other for second place and the money is grouped together and divided equally among them. Anyway, what it is to you? Feb-05-18    Illogic: Of course someone can be tied for a place. Feb-05-18    happyjuggler0: <zborris8>: Someone who finishes third is someone who has 2 people ahead of him. When you have 25 people ahead of you, you are not in third, you are in 26th. Feb-05-18    Ang Dalubhasa: <zborris8> is referencing something that <Wesley So> himself said. I am not sure, though. ^^ Feb-05-18    Ang Dalubhasa: Heck, he's not referencing, that's what he actually said. LOL Feb-05-18    zborris8: <happyjuggler0 --> Ang Dalubhasa> The convo starts about ten posts before this link: Wesley So Feb-06-18    Pulo y Gata: Besides, Nakamura won this tournament and he taught himself chess. Feb-10-18    JimNorCal: <Wow, I like GM So so much more, now that I blocked some annoying commenters!> The downside is that when you go to the "Wesley So" page the comment section is nearly empty! j/k Feb-10-18    AylerKupp: Under the new placement rules, I would like to congratulate Howell, Gupta, Debashis, Duda, Oparin, Hao, Vocaturo, Gelfand, Sethuraman, Sutovsky, Dubov, Fuente, Kobo, Cheparinov, Motylev, Narayanan, Epishin, and Bindrich for finishing in second place! Feb-13-18    BPBurton: Where are the game-logs for the tie-break games? Jul-31-21    Tabanus: <BPBurton: Where are the game-logs for the tie-break games> Here: Gibraltar Masters (Tiebreaks) (2018). These 10 games were added today, 31 July 2021. Jump to page #    (enter # from 1 to 6) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 6 OF 6 ·  Later Kibitzing> NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. 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