02.02.2012 – Seventeen-year-old Women's World Champion Hou Yifan is simply unstoppable. In the penultimate round of the 2012 Gibraltar Chess Festival she outplayed Super-GM Alexei Shirov with black. Yifan is now in the sole lead and and her tournament performance currently stands, as the tournament bulletin puts it, "at a colossal 2892". Watch the final games on Thursday at 11 a.m.
The 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is taking place from Tuesday, 24th January to Thursday, 2nd February 2012 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The event is the tenth in the series held on the Rock, the second to be sponsored by Tradewise Insurance with technical support by Gibtelecom. The rate of play: 40 moves in 100 minutes plus 20 moves in 50 minutes plus 15 minutes for all remaining moves with 30 seconds per move added from the start.
"Hou Yifan is a game away from winning the strongest open chess tournament in history" said the tournament press release in caps. "No-one here in Gibraltar at the 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival can quite believe it. A quiet, polite, 17-year old girl, here with her mother, is a game away from winning the strongest Open chess tournament in history. In her wake, some of the best chess players in the world."
Hou Yifan, from China, has beaten one elite player after another in the last few days – including Judit Polgar, the highest ranked female player of all time. At the start of the event Hou Yifan, the reigning women's world champion, was ranked number 25. But nine days later she has beaten four players rated over 2700, and her tournament performance currently stands at a colossal 2892.
On Thursday (2nd February) she faces Shakriyhar Mamedyarov, the cheerful Azeri grandmaster, rated 2747 and number 14 in the world. All eyes will be on Gibraltar to see if Hou Yifan can claim the first prize of £20,000 – as well as the top female award of £10,000. The latter of course is a foregone conclusion.
The sensation of Gibraltar 2012: Chinese GM Hou Yifan
Top standings after nine rounds
Ti. Name 1 GM Hou Yifan 2 GM Adams Michael 3 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 4 GM Short Nigel D 5 GM Sasikiran Krishnan 6 GM Bologan Viktor 7 GM Le Quang Liem 8 GM Almasi Zoltan 9 GM Howell David W L 10 GM Movsesian Sergei 11 GM Svidler Peter 12 GM Negi Parimarjan 13 GM Erdos Viktor 14 GM Sutovsky Emil 15 GM Gustafsson Jan
The above table includes only players with 6.5 points and more, i.e. theoretical contenders for first place. The full table can be found here. There we see Judit Polgar in 17th place and Nana Dzagnidze in 18th, both with 6.0/9 points, the same as Alexei Shirov in 21st and Maxime Vachier Lagrave in 29th. There are also some females in this group: former women's world champions Zhu Chen (27th) and Antoaneta Stefanova (34th), together with Swedish GM Pia Cramling (31st).
Octogenarian Viktor Korchnoi (above left) has also chalked up 6.0/9 and is in 42nd place. Koneru Humpy and Anna Muzychuk, Hou Yifan's nearest rivals in the FIDE women's rating list, are at 5.5/9 lower down on the table. They share this slot with Anna's sister Mariya, Natalia Zhukova, Anna Zatonskih, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Soumya Swaminathan, Jovana Vojinovic and Jovanka Houska, with Irina Krush and Lela Javakhishvili following at 5.0/9. It is gratifying to see so many strong female players participating in Gibraltar.
GM Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez (above right), who is Pia Cramling's husband, is also playing in the event and, with 5.0/9 is in 93rd position. That's their daughter Ana in the middle.
So what are the pairings for the final round on Thursday? The ones you will want to watch, on live broadcast on the official site and on Playchess (links at the end of this report) are the following:
| No. | Name | Rtg |
Pts.
|
Pts.
| Name | Rtg | |
| 25 | Hou Yifan | 2605 |
7½
|
-
|
7
| Mamedyarov Shakriyhar | 2747 |
| 14 | Bologan Viktor | 2680 |
7
|
-
|
7
| Adams Michael | 2724 |
| 11 | Sasikiran Krishnan | 2700 |
7
|
-
|
7
| Short Nigel D | 2677 |
| 10 | Movsesian Sergei | 2700 |
6½
|
-
|
6½
| Svidler Peter | 2749 |
| 21 | Gustafsson Jan | 2643 |
6½
|
-
|
6½
| Almasi Zoltan | 2717 |
| 22 | Negi Parimarjan | 2641 |
6½
|
-
|
6½
| Le Quang Liem | 2714 |
| 23 | Erdos Viktor | 2634 |
6½
|
-
|
6½
| Sutovsky Emil | 2703 |
| 27 | Howell David | 2603 |
6½
|
-
|
6
| Shirov Alexei | 2710 |
Just a stairway down from the Caleta Hotel is the warm and sunny beach
A beach party – no doubt our readers will soon identify all these players for us
Beauties on the beach
Photos: Ray Morris-Hill, Zeljka Malobabic of Monroi
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