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Alexander Grischuk Beats Ding Liren in a Mini Match

ding-liren-alexander-grischuk

From 19th to 22nd July the Chinese number one Ding Liren, with a rating of 2778 currently number eight in the world, and Russian grandmaster Alexander Grischuk, with a rating of 2747 currently number 18 in the world, played a four-game match in Wenzhou, China. Grischuk won the first game from a worse position and Ding Liren did not manage to equalise the score in the following three games. Grischuk won the match 2.5-1.5.

— ChessBase

It seems like mini-matches are a thing right now. In May, Ding Liren played Wesley So in a 4-game mini-match as well. Then, more recently, there was the Biel Chess Festival 2016 and Gelfand vs Inarkiev Match 2016.

See the Grischuk vs. Liren match games below: [replay]

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave wins Dortmund 2016 with One Round To Go

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL) is slated to win the Dortmund’s Sparkassen Chess Meeting after 6 rounds and a round more to go. Chess.com writes:

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave continued to look nigh untouchable in round six of Dortmund’s Sparkassen Chess Meeting. Victory (against Ruslan Ponomariov) moved him to 5.0/6 and clinched first place with a round to go. Clinching first would be a remarkable achievement in any tournament, but it is especially impressive in a seven-round tournament like Dortmund.

This enabled MVL to chart his way up in second place in the current Live Ratings list:

live-ratings-july-17-2016

Standings after round 6 follows:

FIDE Ratings List July 2016

The FIDE Ratings List updated for July 2016 is here. Check out the top 20 in the table below.

FIDE Ratings Top 20--July 2016

RankNameCountryRatingGames
1Carlsen, MagnusNOR28550
2Kramnik, VladimirRUS28120
3Caruana, FabianoUSA28109
4Vachier-Lagrave, MaximeFRA279810
5Aronian, LevonARM27920
6Nakamura, HikaruUSA27870
7Giri, AnishNED27859
8Ding, LirenCHN27783
9Karjakin, SergeyRUS27739
10Anand, ViswanathanIND27700
11So, WesleyUSA27700
12Mamedyarov, ShakhriyarAZE276412
13Topalov, VeselinBUL27610
14Svidler, PeterRUS27590
15Li, Chao bCHN27580
16Harikrishna, P.IND27559
17Rapport, RichardHUN275213
18Grischuk, AlexanderRUS27470
19Navara, DavidCZE274519
20Eljanov, PavelUKR27379

Grand Chess Tour 2016 Standings — after Paris and Leuven

Carlsen Wins Grand Chess Tour Leuven

After winning the rapid rounds with an impressive 4/4 performance on Day 2 of the tournament, World Champion Magnus Carlsen even cemented his dominance with an 11/18 performance in the blitz rounds.

leuven-blitz-2016-final-crosstable

Thus, making him the runaway winner of the combined rapid and blitz games that comprise the whole of the Grand Chess Tour 2016 — Your Next Move — Leuven, Belgium. Final combined results follow:

combined-results-leuven-2016-final

Wesley So makes it to the 2nd place at the conclusion of this Leuven leg. He is followed, this time closely behind, by Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand, by half a point each.

Wesley So in great shape so far in Grand Chess Tour 2016

Wesley So finished the first half of the blitz rounds of Your Next Move — Grand Chess Tour 2016 at second place with 5 points out of 9, although, tied with Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, and Hikaru Nakamura. Levon Aronian is slightly ahead at 5.5 points.

Crosstable after nine rounds of blitz games:

gct-your-next-move-2016-blitz-cross

With three-quarters through the tournament, Carlsen is still ahead in the combined score (rapid scores are multiplied by two):

Leuven Rapid Day 2: An Impressive 4/4 Performance by Carlsen

The rapid rounds are over for the Grand Chess Tour 2016: Your Next Move in Leuven, Belgium. A great performance was posted by the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, as he won all of his 4 games against three of the former world champions: Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, and Vladimir Kramnik, plus Anish Giri. In the process, he clinched the top spot with 18 rounds of blitz games to go in the tournament.

Chessbase:

If day one of the rapid games in Leuven was full of surprises, day two was no less so, though thankfully not due to record numbers of blunders. Vishy Anand started the day with a win, but after two losses lost the lead as he was caught up by Wesley So. In the meantime, Magnus Carlsen showed he was back and managed to win the rapid phase after a fabulous 4/4.

The final crosstable of the rapid games follows:

Blunderfest in Leuven

Chess.com describes the first day of the rapid games in Your Next Move, Grand Chess Tour 2016, in Leuven, Belgium, as bluderfest:

Viswanathan Anand leads the Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour after five rounds of rapid chess. The first day of rapid saw a number of huge blunders that made the playing hall seem haunted.

That’s actually what makes the tournament more exciting and attract more spectators in the process. I guess that’s the purpose of rapid games, to bring out the human-nature in the world’s top grandmasters.

Remember, you can catch the rest of the rapid games in GCT Leuven 2016 LIVE here.

Photo credit: Grand Chess Tour.