Fred McKim
04-15-2011, 08:15 PM
Dubai had a rest day today. Four rounds to go.
In Thailand, Jan Gustafsson with the black pieces defeated tournament leader Nigel Short. He takes over 1st along with Francisco Vallejo Pons (ESP). They both have 6 out of 7. The leaders square off tomorrow.
Gustafsson, the 3rd seed is a 31 year old German GM. He was one of the German Olympic team boycotters in 2010, but had a plus score in 2008. He tied for 1st in the 2010 Gibralter Masters and is currently ranked 4th in Germany.
The big news today is the start of the US Championship (St Louis, MO). At 7:10pm EDT play has just passed move 40 on the games still in progress. ..........later: Larry Christiansen had a pretty finish to his game and was one of the few winners today. In fact, the only other winner was Alexander Onischuk, they are both in Group B; two qualify from each group for the finals. The top 5 finishers overall qualify for the World Cup. Gata Kamsky is already qualified by rating, so I’ll have to see what the regulations are, should he be in the top 5, I suspect the 6th place finisher would qualify, in that event. Defending champion and soon to be World Top 10, Hikaru Nakamura is sitting this one out.
http://saintlouischessclub.org/live
In Thailand, Jan Gustafsson with the black pieces defeated tournament leader Nigel Short. He takes over 1st along with Francisco Vallejo Pons (ESP). They both have 6 out of 7. The leaders square off tomorrow.
Gustafsson, the 3rd seed is a 31 year old German GM. He was one of the German Olympic team boycotters in 2010, but had a plus score in 2008. He tied for 1st in the 2010 Gibralter Masters and is currently ranked 4th in Germany.
The big news today is the start of the US Championship (St Louis, MO). At 7:10pm EDT play has just passed move 40 on the games still in progress. ..........later: Larry Christiansen had a pretty finish to his game and was one of the few winners today. In fact, the only other winner was Alexander Onischuk, they are both in Group B; two qualify from each group for the finals. The top 5 finishers overall qualify for the World Cup. Gata Kamsky is already qualified by rating, so I’ll have to see what the regulations are, should he be in the top 5, I suspect the 6th place finisher would qualify, in that event. Defending champion and soon to be World Top 10, Hikaru Nakamura is sitting this one out.
http://saintlouischessclub.org/live