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New Fritz, new friend

Bologan: "If you studythis DVD carefully andsolve the interactiveexercises you will alsoenrich your chessvocabulary, your King’s

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On this DVD, a team ofexperts looks closely atthe secrets of Karpov’sgames. In more than 7hours of video, theauthors examine four

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Sagar Shah shows you onthis DVD how you can usetypical patterns used bythe Master of the past inyour own games. Fromopening play tomiddlegame themes.

A top class European Cupand pure tension at theWorld Cup - these are thefocal points of the presentissue. With video clips byl'Ami, Marin and Shirov,as well as 11 new

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Qatar 2015 round one: A day of surprisesby Sagar Shah

12/21/2015 – Usually the initial games at Open are smooth sailing for the top seeds – but not in the Qatar MastersOpen 2015. There were so many upsets. Magnus Carlsen drew his game, and amongst the 2700+ players, so didHarikrishna, Jakovenko and Ivanchuk. Wei Yi and Nikita Vitiugov were two super GMs who went back with a nil onthe scoreboard, while GM Pavel Tregubov lost to an untitled 12-year-old Iranian. Giant illustrated report fromDoha.

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Round one: A day of surprises

Report from Doha by Sagar Shah

What a start to the Qatar Masters Open 2015! High quality settings, some sparkling games of chess, and loads ofupsets. But before getting in to the specifics about round one let me share my experience as a participant of thisevent. Before arriving in Doha I played at the London Chess Classic. Over there, too, the World Champion waspresent, and so were other great players like Anish Giri, Levon Aronian, Vishy Anand, Alexander Grischuk. But Iwasn’t playing in the same tournament as them. While the ten players faced each other in the elite section,mortals like me battled it out in the FIDE Open. The best I could manage was sitting in the second row of theauditorium at a distance of ten meters from these world class GMs.

At the Qatar Masters, things are completely different! You get to play in the same tournament as the world-classsuper GMs. This means that you can casually walk over to their boards and watch their games in close proximity.Sometimes these top players come over to your board to kibitz your game! For many of us just playing in thesame tournament as these legends and being in the same tournament hall as them is enough to get our money’sworth. This unique opportunity of trying to match your wits against the best players in the world is only offered ina few tournaments in a calendar year, and the Qatar Open is one of them.

A panoramic view of the beautiful playing hall

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Fresh from his exploits at the London Chess Classic,Magnus Carlsen faced an opponent rated 336 points below him

Nino Batsiashvili had the opportunity of her lifetime to battle it out against the World Champion

Ivanchuk has a closer look at the game as the 2015 Georgian Women’s Championsensationally held the World Champion to a draw in 57 moves

The opening didn’t really go so well for Magnus, who played the Benko Gambit with reversed colours. But aftersome inaccuracies by his opponent the Norwegian had a typical slight edge, which he more often than notconverts. This was increased to a tangible advantage, and it seemed as if Nino Batsiashvili would bite the dust. Buton the 32nd move Carlsen made a highly uncharacteristic mistake, allowing his opponent to activate her rook.After that the moves just flowed for the Georgian player as she secured the half point without any particulardifficulties. It must be said that Nino played much higher than her rating and this is a clear indication that the World

Champion will not have it easy in the first open event that he is playing after a gap of eight years.

Vladimir Kramnik did score the full point, but it was only after a tense strugglewhere both players had their share of chances

Bela Khotenashvili tried her best against Kramnik but couldn’t emulate the success of her team-mate

Here's a question from the game analysis below:can't Black simply recapture the knight – and why not?

[Event "Qatar Masters Open 2015"] [Site "Doha QAT"] [Date "2015.12.20"] [Round "1.2"] [White "Khotenashvili,Bela"] [Black "Kramnik, Vladimir"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E10"] [WhiteElo "2496"] [BlackElo "2796"] [Annotator"Sagar Shah"] [PlyCount "118"] [EventDate "2015.12.20"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Bd6 6.Nc3 O-O 7. Bg2 c6 8. O-O dxc4 9. e4 Be7 10. Qe2 b5 11. Rfd1 Bb7 12. Bg5 Nbd7 13. h4 h6 14. Bf4 Re8 15. Bh3b4 16. Na4 Qa5 17. b3 c5 18. Ne5 cxb3 19. axb3 cxd4 20. Nb2 d3 21. Nbxd3 Qb6 {Diagram [#]} 22. Nc4 {Whilethis move is not at all bad and White has excellent compensation for the pawn, the Georgian player had a muchclearer way to gain a completely equal position.} (22. Be3 $1 Qb5 (22... Nc5 $6 { It is not such a great idea tostep in to this pin.} 23. Bg2 Qb5 24. Bxc5 Bxc5 25. Nc4 $44 {[%cal Gd3e5,Ga1a5]}) (22... Qc7 23. Rac1 Qa5(23... Qd8 24. Nxf7 Kxf7 25. Bxe6+ Kxe6 26. Nf4+ Kf7 27. Qc4+ $18) 24. Ra1 Qc7 25. Rac1 $11) 23. Nxf7 $1 {Astunning sacrifice. Do you see why the knight cannot be taken?} Kxf7 $4 (23... Bf8 $13) 24. Bxe6+ $3 Kf8 (24...Kxe6 25. Nf4+ $18 {[%cal Ge2b5]}) 25. Nf4 $1 Qxe2 26. Ng6# {What a pretty variation!}) 22... Qb5 23. Bg2 a524. Bd6 e5 25. Qe3 Bd8 26. Ndb2 Nb6 27. Qc5 Qxc5 28. Bxc5 Nxc4 29. Nxc4 Bxe4 30. Bxe4 Nxe4 31. Bxb4 Bxh432. Rxa5 Bf6 33. Re1 Rab8 34. Ra4 Ng5 35. Kg2 e4 36. Nd6 Re6 37. Nc4 Nf3 38. Rb1 Bd4 39. Bd6 Rb5 40. Ra8+Kh7 41. Ra2 g5 42. g4 f5 43. gxf5 Nh4+ 44. Kg1 Nxf5 45. Bh2 e3 46. fxe3 Nxe3 47. Rd2 Bc5 48. Rd7+ Kg6 49.Ne5+ Kh5 50. Nd3 Bb6 51. Kh1 Ng4 52. b4 Re2 53. Bg1 Bxg1 54. Kxg1 Kh4 55. Nc5 Ne5 56. Rd6 Kg3 57. Rxh6Nf3+ 58. Kh1 Rxb4 59. Rf1 Rh4+ 0-1

Anish Giri calculates the final winning continuationwhich gave him victory over India’s latest GM S.L. Narayanan

Anish played a game which every chess coach in the world would condemn. After twelve moves he had developedonly his queen to the c2 square, while all the other pieces were on their initial square. On the other hand hisopponent had castled, got out his knight, centralized his queen, and his rook stood on e8. Yet the position wasnicely balanced. That’s what hyper-modern play is all about. It was a highly interesting battle which is worth goingover.

[Event "Qatar Masters Open 2015"] [Site "Doha QAT"] [Date "2015.12.20"] [Round "1.3"] [White "Giri, Anish"][Black "Sunilduth Lyna, Narayanan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A28"] [WhiteElo "2784"] [BlackElo "2494"] [Annotator"Sagar Shah"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "2015.12.20"] 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. e3 Bb4 5. Qc2 O-O 6.Nd5 Re8 7. Qf5 d6 8. Nxf6+ gxf6 9. Qc2 e4 10. Ng1 d5 11. a3 Bf8 12. cxd5 Qxd5 {[%csl Ga1,Gc1,Gf1, Gg1,Gh1]Diagram [#] Look at the position after 12 moves! None of Giri's pieces have been developed and Black has nearlyfour of them playing. Yet White is doing okay, mainly because he has no weaknesses.} 13. Ne2 Bf5 14. b4 $5{Highly ambitious play. Anish hasn't completed his development but finds time to push another pawn!} a5 15. Nc3Qe6 16. b5 Ne5 17. Nxe4 $1 {Making a move like Nxe4 requires a lot of belief in your calculating abilities. f3 andd3 is coming up and hence Black doesn't have a good discovery.} Nd7 18. d3 Bxe4 19. dxe4 Nc5 20. Bb2 Rad8 21.Rc1 $6 (21. f3 $5 {Would have retained an advantage for White as now Be2 followed by 0-0 is coming up and

there is no real good way for Black to take advantage of his lead in development.} f5 $2 22. Qc3 $1 $18) 21...Nxe4 22. Bd3 Nxf2 $1 {A fine shot which puts the ball back in the Dutch GM's court. What does he do now?} 23.Bxh7+ (23. Kxf2 $2 Qxe3+ $19 {[%cal Gd8d3]}) (23. Qxf2 Rxd3 $17) 23... Kg7 24. O-O $1 {This was theresource on which Giri had pinned his hopes. Black has only way to wriggle out of the mess but unfortunately isunable to find it.} Nd3 $2 (24... Ng4 $1 { would have given Black an equal position. But this is far from easy tocalculate.} 25. Rf3 (25. Bf5 Qxe3+ $1 26. Kh1 Nxh2 $1 27. Kxh2 Bd6+ 28. Kh1 Rh8+ $19) 25... Nxe3 26. Rxf6Nxc2 27. Rxe6+ Kxh7 28. Rxe8 Rxe8 29. Rxc2 Bd6 $11) 25. Bxd3 Qxe3+ 26. Kh1 Rxd3 (26... Qxd3 27. Bxf6+Kg8 28. Bxd8 $18) 27. Rxf6 $1 {A deadly discovered check is difficult to prevent.} Kg8 28. Rcf1 Qe2 29. Qc4 $1Rd7 30. Rg6+ {A very interesting battle but it must be said that the Dutch super GM was surely given a scare byhis young Indian opponent.} 1-0

Sergey Karjakin had little difficulty in dispatching his Egyptian opponent IM Ezat Mohamed

Wesley So played the talented young Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina. The American grandmaster made sure thathe gave his opponent absolutely no chance as he slowly but surely converted his position in to a win.

Chinese number one at this event Li Chao started off his campaign with a win over Samy Shoker

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has faced Alexander Grischuk 38 times in over the board play, but it was the first time hefaced the Russian’s wife Natalia Zhukova. The Azeri grandmaster won the game in 49 moves.

Evgeny Tomashevsky showed what a virtuoso endgame player he is by winninga 4 vs 3 knight endgame with pawns on the same side against IM Vahap Sanal

[Event "Qatar Masters Open 2015"] [Site "Doha QAT"] [Date "2015.12.20"] [Round "1.8"] [White "Sanal, Vahap"][Black "Tomashevsky, Evgeny"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B14"] [WhiteElo "2487"] [BlackElo "2744"] [Annotator "SagarShah"] [PlyCount "128"] [EventDate "2015.12.20"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Qb3 Bg77. cxd5 O-O 8. Be2 Nbd7 9. Bf3 Nb6 10. Nge2 Bg4 11. Bxg4 Nxg4 12. a4 Nf6 13. a5 Nbxd5 14. Qxb7 Qd6 15. Qb3Rab8 16. Qd1 Rfc8 17. O-O Qa6 18. Re1 e6 19. Qc2 Nb4 20. Qb1 Nd3 21. Rd1 Nxc1 22. Rxc1 Bh6 23. Rc2 Qd324. Qd1 Qxd1+ 25. Rxd1 Rc4 26. Ng3 Rd8 27. Nf1 Nd5 28. g3 Nb4 29. Re2 Rcxd4 30. Rxd4 Rxd4 31. Re5 Bf8 32.Rb5 Nd3 33. Ne3 Rb4 34. b3 Nc1 35. Rxb4 Bxb4 36. Nb5 Bxa5 37. Nxa7 Bb6 38. Nc6 Bxe3 39. fxe3 Nxb3 40. Kf2{Diagram [#] Is this position objectively winning for Black? Maybe not. What is useful for the practical player is tosee how Tomashevsky makes use of his chances and step by step strengthens his position. His plan can be brokenup into the following points. 1. Centralize the king. 2. Centralize the knight. 3. Look out for tactical chances. 4.Keep posing micro problems to the opponent.} Nc5 41. Kf3 f6 $1 {This move gets starts the journey of centralizingthe king.} 42. g4 Kf7 43. h4 e5 44. e4 Ke6 {Step one achieved the king has been centralized. The next step now isto centralize the knight.} 45. Ke3 Kd7 46. Nb4 Kd6 47. Kf3 Nb3 $1 48. Ke3 Nd4 {The knight is well placed. Ofcourse if White were careful now it would not be so easy to make progress. But he makes an error and we see howalert the Russian is.} 49. Nd5 f5 $1 50. gxf5 (50. g5 {was better.}) 50... Nxf5+ $5 (50... gxf5 {was alsointeresting, the point being that we could create a protected passed pawn with f5-f4+.}) 51. Kf2 Ne7 (51... Nxh4$2 52. Nf6 $1 h6 53. Ng4 h5 54. Nf6 Ke6 55. Nh7 $11 {The knight on h4 is trapped and Kg3 will end the game in adraw.}) 52. Nf6 h6 53. Ng4 Ng8 {Keeping the pawns flexible.} 54. Ke3 Ke6 55. Kf3 h5 56. Nh2 Nh6 57. Ke3 Kf6

58. Nf3 Nf7 59. Nh2 $2 {The losing mistake of the game. Some may blame just this move for White's loss, but Ithink it is the persistent pressure put on by Tomashevsky which resulted in Sanal making his final mistake.} g5 $1{The power of this move is not so easy to understand.} 60. hxg5+ Kxg5 $1 {Black is winning unconditionally,mainly because his king goes to h3 and then the knight joins in, after which there is no way to stop the h-pawn.}61. Kf3 Kh4 62. Kf2 Kh3 63. Nf1 Ng5 64. Ng3 Kg4 {h4 is coming up and the e4 pawn will fall. Sanal threw in thetowel. A masterful endgame show by the Russian Champion.} 0-1

The battle between two Indians: Pentala Harikrishna survived a few anxious momentsbefore he drew against the talented Aravindh Chithambaram

The 16-year-old Aravindh will take on Magnus Carlsen tomorrow. By the way Aravindh already has a +1 scoreagainst the World Champion – he beat him in a simultaneous exhibition in Chennai in 2013!

Dmitry Jakovenko’s 14-year-old opponent IM Amin Tabatabaei had him on the ropes. The Russian had topress the emergency brakes and somehow draw the game in an opposite coloured bishop endgame.

The defending champion Yu Yangyi – he won the 2014 Qatar Masters –made a solid start with a fine win over GM Neelotpal Das

One of the biggest upsets of the round was surely Wei Yi’s defeat…

… at the hands of Indian IM Shardul Gagare, 260 rating points lower

Wei Yi as Black (to play) resigned in this position.Can you find the best way for him to put up resistance?

The game was quite a fine positional feat by Shardul. However, in the last (above) position it seemed that theChinese GM missed a brilliant defensive opportunity. Whether the game would have ended in a draw or not is adifferent question altogether – the brilliant defensive move had to be tried.

[Event "Qatar Masters Open 2015"] [Site "Doha QAT"] [Date "2015.12.20"] [Round "1.12"] [White "Gagare,Shardul"] [Black "Wei, Yi"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E10"] [WhiteElo "2470"] [BlackElo "2730"] [Annotator "SagarShah"] [PlyCount "106"] [EventDate "2015.12.20"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 b5 5. Nc3 b4 6. Na4 Bb7 7.Bg5 h6 8. Bxf6 Qxf6 9. e4 d6 10. a3 Nd7 11. axb4 cxb4 12. Qd2 Rb8 13. Be2 Be7 14. O-O O-O 15. Nd4 Rfc8 16.b3 Bf8 17. Rae1 Re8 18. Bd1 g6 19. Nc2 a5 20. Nd4 h5 21. g3 Rbc8 22. f4 e5 23. Nb5 exf4 24. gxf4 Ba6 25. Na7Rc7 26. Nc6 Bh6 27. Qf2 Bc8 28. Kh1 Qg7 29. Qg3 Bb7 30. Nxa5 Ba8 31. Bf3 Kh8 32. Bg2 Qd4 33. Rd1 Qa7 34.Nc6 Bxc6 35. dxc6 Rxc6 36. e5 Ra6 37. exd6 Re3 38. Qf2 Rxb3 39. Qxa7 Rxa7 40. Bc6 Nb8 41. Bb5 Ra3 42. Rfe1Kg7 43. Re8 Rb7 44. Re7 Rxb5 45. cxb5 Rxa4 46. Rb7 Ra8 47. d7 Nxd7 48. Rbxd7 Rb8 49. R7d5 Kf6 50. R1d4 Bf851. Rd8 Bc5 52. Rxb8 Bxd4 53. Rd8 {Wei Yi resigned the game at this point seeing that his bishop is attacked, andif he moves it b6 followed by b7-b8 is threatened. After b6 he cannot play Bxb6, as then Rd6+ will pick up thepiece. Yet, here Black has a miraculous defence which was overlooked by the Chinese grandmaster.} -- (53... Bb6$3 { Can you believe this! This is the only way in which Black can fight on, although most probably even this isobjectively lost. But it is not so easy to prove it.} 54. Rd6+ Ke7 55. Rd2 (55. Rxb6 $2 b3 $1 {The a and c-files areuseless as a1 and c1 will be covered after b2. And there are no other squares available.} 56. Rb7+ Ke8 57. Rb8+Ke7 $11) 55... Ke6 56. Kg2 {Slowly White should win this as he will activate his king and break the fortress.However, this sequence starting with Bb6 was definitely worth trying over the board by Wei Yi.}) (53... Be3 $2 54.b6 $1 Bxb6 (54... b3 55. b7 b2 56. b8=Q $18) 55. Rd6+ $18) (53... b3 $2 54. Rxd4 b2 55. Rb4 $18) 1-0

Nikita Vitiugov, 2724, had pretty much a forgettable day as he lost to…

…IM Xu Yinglun from China, rated 254 points below Vitiugov

[Event "Qatar Masters Open 2015"] [Site "Doha QAT"] [Date "2015.12.20"] [Round "1.13"] [White "Vitiugov,Nikita"] [Black "Xu, Yinglun"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B90"] [WhiteElo "2724"] [BlackElo "2470"] [Annotator "SagarShah"] [PlyCount "120"] [EventDate "2015.12.20"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e67. a4 Nc6 8. f4 Be7 9. Be2 Qc7 10. O-O O-O 11. Kh1 Re8 12. Bd3 Bd7 13. Nb3 Nb4 14. a5 e5 15. Bb6 Qc8 16.Nd2 exf4 17. Rxf4 Be6 18. Bd4 Nc6 19. Bg1 Ne5 20. Be2 {Black has an extremely comfortable Sicilian position.His knight on e5 is well placed. It can be a good question as to what exactly is the knight doing on d2? Xu Yingluntakes the break which is a dream for every Sicilian player.} d5 $1 { After this Black is just better. Vitiugov decidesthat it is time to change the pace of the game and sacirfices an exchange. But it is more like out from the fire andin to the frying fan.} 21. Rxf6 Bxf6 22. exd5 Bg4 23. Nde4 Be7 24. Bxg4 Qxg4 25. Qxg4 Nxg4 {White does nothave enough compensation for the exchange. Let's just look at a few more moves to see how the Chinese playerconverts his advantage.} 26. d6 Bf8 27. Bb6 f5 $1 28. d7 Red8 29. Bxd8 Rxd8 30. Nd2 Bb4 $1 31. Nc4 Bxc3 32.bxc3 Rxd7 33. Re1 Nf2+ 34. Kg1 Ne4 35. Ne3 g6 { Black gave back his material but now has a clear positionaladvantage. The c-pawns are horribly weak and the endgame was quite instructive.} 36. c4 Nc3 37. Nd5 Nxd5 38.cxd5 Rxd5 39. Re8+ Kf7 40. Rh8 Kg7 41. Rb8 Rd7 42. Kf2 Rc7 43. Ke3 Rxc2 44. Rxb7+ Kh6 45. Kf3 Rc3+ 46. Kf4Ra3 47. g3 Rxa5 48. h4 Ra3 49. Ra7 a5 50. Rb7 Ra1 51. Kf3 a4 52. Ra7 a3 53. Kg2 a2 54. Kh2 g5 55. Ra6+ Kh556. hxg5 Kxg5 57. Ra7 h5 58. Ra4 h4 59. gxh4+ Kh5 60. Kh3 Rh1+ 0-1

Ex-FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov continues with the same hairstylehe sported in the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in October

Radoslaw Wojtaszek from Poland beat GM Irina Krush with black

Vassily Ivanchuk tried quite hard but couldn’t win against IM Ma Zhonghan

The highly original and creative attacker Anton Korobov

12-year-old Alireza Firouzja from Iran scored a huge upset by beating GM Pavel Tregubov

[Event "Qatar Masters Open 2015"] [Site "Doha QAT"] [Date "2015.12.20"] [Round "1.52"] [White "Firouzja,Alireza"] [Black "Tregubov, Pavel V"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A07"] [WhiteElo "2372"] [BlackElo "2589"] [Annotator"Sagar Shah"] [PlyCount "83"] [EventDate "2015.12.20"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 Bf5 4. c4 e6 5. cxd5 exd5 6.d3 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 Nc6 8. O-O O-O 9. Bg5 d4 10. Bxf6 Qxf6 11. Nd5 Qd6 12. Nxb4 Qxb4 13. Nd2 Ne5 14. Rc1 Rac815. a3 Qb6 16. b4 {Black's position is pretty fine out of the opening. He should simply go c6 here. InsteadTregubov makes a careless move and is immediately punished.} Rfe8 $6 17. Rc5 $1 {The threat of f4 followed byNc4 and also Rxe5 followed by Nc4 makes Black's task very difficult.} Bg4 (17... f6 18. f4 $18 {[%cal Gc5f5]} Ng419. Nc4 Qa6 20. Ra5 Qe6 21. Bd5 $18) 18. Rxe5 $1 Rxe5 19. Nc4 Qf6 20. Nxe5 Qxe5 21. Bxb7 Rb8 (21... Bxe222. Re1 Bxd1 23. Rxe5 Rd8 24. Rc5 $16 {is quite a huge edge for White.}) 22. Bf3 Bh3 (22... Bxf3 23. exf3 $16{A solid extra pawn.}) 23. Re1 $16 {The 12-year-old boy from Iran confidently went on to convert his extrapawn.} a5 24. Qd2 axb4 25. axb4 Qb5 26. Bg2 Be6 27. Rc1 Qxb4 28. Qxb4 Rxb4 29. f4 h6 30. Rxc7 g5 31. Rc5gxf4 32. gxf4 Kg7 33. Kf2 Rb2 34. f5 Bd7 35. Rd5 Bc8 36. Bh3 Kf6 37. Rxd4 Ke5 38. Rh4 Ba6 39. d4+ Kd5 40.Bg2+ Kc4 41. Rxh6 Bb5 42. Rd6 1-0

Providing free drinking water is not so uncommon in many tournaments…

…but at Qatar the organizers went a step further and provided free cookies and biscuits…

… but also freshly cut fruit!

A lot of people are watching the Qatar Masters Open 2015. Are you one amongst them?Be sure not to miss the round two action at 15.00 hours local time.

Watch it live on Playchess!

When the games are running, clicking on the above link will take you to our live broadcast. It is free and open toall – as a Premium Account member you have access to the Live Book, Chat, chess engine analysis – all in yourbrowser, on a notebook, tablet or even your smartphone. And the Let's Check function will show you what themost powerful computers in the world think of the current position, as each move is being played. Below are thefour most-watched boards.

Note that you can download PGNs of the running games(to analyse with your regular software) and even start anengine in the above broadcast window. The arrow buttonsallow you to play through the moves backwards andforwards. The f and g-buttons are self-explanatory.

Did you notice something special about the pictures in this report? We have included shots of each of the 2700+participant playing in the tournament.

Photos by Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India

Pairings/Results of Round 1 on 20.12.2015 at 15:00

Bo. Ti. Name Rtg Res. Ti. Name Rtg

1 GM Carlsen Magnus 2834 ½-½ IM Batsiashvili Nino 2498

2 GM Khotenashvili Bela 2496 0-1 GM Kramnik Vladimir 2796

3 GM Giri Anish 2784 1-0 IM Sunilduth Narayanan 2494

4 WGM Goryachkina Aleksandra 2493 0-1 GM So Wesley 2775

5 GM Karjakin Sergey 2766 1-0 IM Ezat Mohamed 2490

6 GM Shoker Samy 2489 0-1 GM Li Chao B 2750

7 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2748 1-0 GM Zhukova Natalia 2488

8 IM Sanal Vahap 2487 0-1 GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2744

9 GM Harikrishna P. 2743 ½-½ GM Aravindh Chithambaram 2486

10 IM Tabatabaei M.Amin 2482 ½-½ GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2737

11 GM Yu Yangyi 2736 1-0 GM Neelotpal Das 2475

12 IM Gagare Shardul 2470 1-0 GM Wei Yi 2730

13 GM Vitiugov Nikita 2724 0-1 Xu Yinglun 2470

14 GM Krush Irina 2468 0-1 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw 2723

15 GM Korobov Anton 2713 1-0 FM Moroni Luca Jr 2466

16 IM Ma Zhonghan 2463 ½-½ GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2710

17 GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2710 1-0 IM Ly Moulthun 2462

18 IM Ali Marandi Cemil Can 2454 ½-½ GM Ni Hua 2693

19 GM Moiseenko Alexander 2689 ½-½ IM Lorparizangeneh Shahin 2454

20 GM Venkatesh M.R. 2451 0-1 GM Howell David W L 2688

21 GM Matlakov Maxim 2684 1-0 IM Kashlinskaya Alina 2448

22 IM Firat Burak 2446 0-1 GM Hou Yifan 2683

23 GM Adhiban B. 2669 ½-½ IM Puranik Abhimanyu 2442

24 IM Sagar Shah 2441 ½-½ GM Fedoseev Vladimir 2664

25 GM Duda Jan-Krzysztof 2663 1-0 IM Vogel Roven 2439

26 IM Wang Yiye 2438 0-1 GM Dubov Daniil 2655

27 GM Bologan Viktor 2654 1-0 FM Basso Pier Luigi 2438

28 Fang Yuxiang 2438 1-0 GM Khismatullin Denis 2654

29 GM Akopian Vladimir 2648 ½-½ IM Padmini Rout 2437

30 IM Aryan Chopra 2436 0-1 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2648

31 GM Khairullin Ildar 2647 ½-½ GM Carlsson Pontus 2433

32 FM Abdusattorov Nodirbek 2429 ½-½ GM Shankland Samuel L 2646

33 GM Sjugirov Sanan 2646 1-0 FM Rohan Ahuja 2426

34 IM Nezad Husein Aziz 2425 0-1 GM Swiercz Dariusz 2646

35 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2644 1-0 IM Seyb Alexander 2425

36 IM Vignesh N R 2422 ½-½ GM Nguyen Ngoc TS 2642

37 GM Sethuraman S.P. 2639 1-0 FM Gholami Aryan 2422

38 FM Haria Ravi 2416 ½-½ GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2638

39 GM Piorun Kacper 2637 1-0 Mohammad Nubairshah 2414

40 WGM Saduakassova Dinara 2407 0-1 GM Grandelius Nils 2632

41 GM Naroditsky Daniel 2628 1-0 Siva Mahadevan 2400

42 IM Saiyn Zhanat 2394 ½-½ GM Lenderman Aleksandr 2626

43 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2622 1-0 IM Abhishek Kelkar 2393

44 WGM Abdumalik Zhansaya 2390 ½-½ GM Bartel Mateusz 2620

45 GM Ipatov Alexander 2619 1-0 FM Li Di 2389

46 IM Slavin Alexey 2388 0-1 GM Zhang Zhong 2619

47 GM Lu Shanglei 2618 ½-½ IM Christiansen J-S 2385

48 IM Khademalsharieh Saras. 2380 ½-½ GM Hamdouchi Hicham 2597

49 GM Vocaturo Daniele 2597 ½-½ IM Karavade Eesha 2379

50 IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy 2377 0-1 GM Bok Benjamin 2594

51 GM Bluebaum Matthias 2590 1-0 IM Li Ruofan 2372

52 Firouzja Alireza 2372 1-0 GM Tregubov Pavel V. 2589

53 GM Esen Baris 2562 ½-½ Roy Prantik 2370

54 IM Guramishvili Sopiko 2368 0-1 GM Rambaldi Francesco 2560

0 Twittear

55 GM Dzagnidze Nana 2559 0-1 IM Tissir Mohamed 234656 WIM Bivol Alina 2344 0-1 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2542

57 IM Lin Chen 2532 1-0 Dai Changren 2328

58 Raja Harshit 2325 1-0 IM Svane Rasmus 2529

59 GM Xu Jun 2526 ½-½ WGM Pourkashiyan Atousa 2322

60 IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen 2319 ½-½ GM Bromberger Stefan 2521

61 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2521 1-0 FM Goriatchkin Jouri 2318

62 WFM Vaishali R 2313 0-1 GM Al-Sayed Mohammed 2520

63 GM Harika Dronavalli 2513 1-0 WIM Derakhshani Dorsa 2307

64 IM Piasetski Leon 2287 0-1 GM Sundararajan Kidambi 2513

65 GM Schroeder Jan-Christian 2511 ½-½ WGM Bartel Marta 2271

66 WIM Pratyusha Bodda 2260 0-1 IM Yuffa Daniil 2504

Schedule for Playchess Commentary

Day Round Time English German

Sun 20 December Round 1 3 PM Yasser Seirawan Sebastian Siebrecht

Mon 21 December Round 2 3 PM Daniel King Sebastian Siebrecht

Tue 22 December Round 3 3 PM Simon Williams Sebastian Siebrecht

Wed 23 December Round 4 3 PM Daniel King Thomas Luther

Thu 24 December Round 5 3 PM Simon Williams Thomas Luther

Fri 25 December Rest day

Sat 26 December Round 6 3 PM Mihail Marin Thomas Luther

Sun 27 December Round 7 3 PM Simon Williams Sebastian Siebrecht

Mon 28 December Round 8 3 PM Daniel King Sebastian Siebrecht

Tue 29 December Round 9 12 PM Yasser Seirawan Sebastian Siebrecht

Links

Official tournament site

Download all games in PGN

The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the serverPlaychess.com. If you are not a member you can download a freePlaychess client there and get immediate access. You can also useChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

Sagar ShahSagar Shah is an International Master from India with two GM norms. He is also a chartered accountantand would like to become the first CA+GM of India. He loves to cover chess tournaments, as that helpshim understand and improve at the game he loves so much. He maintains his own chess blog.

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Topics

Qatar Masters Open 2015, Qatar

See also

Qatar 2015 Rd1: Surprises, upsets – what a start!12/20/2015 – In a massive open with many of the best players in the world, upsetsare expected, but even the most jaded viewers were left gawking in round one. Thefirst and foremost was Magnus Carlsen held to a draw with white by IM NinoBatsiashvili. While that stood out, so did 11-year-old Abdusattorov’s draw against GMSam Shankland. Express report with all results and games. [Discuss]

Qatar Masters starts on Sunday12/20/2015 – It is one of the biggest events of the year 2015. We count 77 GMs, withtop stars like Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Anish Giri, Wesley So, VassilyIvanchuk at the top. The average rating of the entire field of 141 players is 2526. TheOpening dinner took place on Saturday and we bring you some candid pictures of theplayers and of Doha, captured by Amruta Mokal. [Discuss]

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kramink retains his title as "women slayer" he have very few loses against top woman this being confirmed especially when you know that he defeats polgar 14 to 0 with no single win and he defeats yifan 1 to zero

in Kramnik's game analysis, what happens after 23...Bf8? This is not obvious to me how whitesaves the knight.

Carlsen was enterprising with a reverse Benko opening but his opponent cleverly defused it byreturning the pawn -- the Norwegian realized there was just not enough complexity left in theposltion to risk a loss. I think we have to give his opponent credit for not botching the game. AndCarlsen credit for not overreaching.

I love this tournament. Pitting world-class players against "average" joes and janes (albeit committedprofessionals) brings excitement and interest to the game.

Exciting to see magnus playing in an open tournament (swiss paired?). Even more exciting to getrandomly paired against magnus. The most exciting of which is to hold a draw against him.

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