Wesley So won his Round 5 game against the former World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik, in the 4th Vugar Gashimov Memorial – Shamkir Chess 2017. As such, So reclaimed the 2nd place in the live ratings ranking:
Meanwhile, Sergey Karjakin also won in this round against another former FIDE World Champion, Veselin Topalov.
Vladimir Kramnik won his game against Pentala Harikrishna in Round 4 of 4th Vugar Gashimov Memorial — Shamkir Chess 2017. The rest of the match-ups were drawn.[replay]
[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/shamkir-2017-round-4-results.csv”]
Thus, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov still leads at the end of Round 4, with 5 more rounds to go:
The defending champion, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, defeated Pavel Eljanov in Round 3 of the 4th Vugar Gashimov Memorial – Shamkir Chess 2017, to take solo lead after the round with 2.5 points.
[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/shamkir-2017-round-3-results.csv”]
Replay all Round 3 games below:[replay]
[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/shamkir-2017-ranking-after-round-3.csv”]
Replay all Shamkir Chess 2017 games.
| White | Results | Black |
|---|---|---|
| Round 1 (April 21, 2017) | ||
| Eljanov, Pavel | 1-0 | Radjabov, Teimour |
| Topalov, Veselin | ½-½ | Adams, Michael |
| Karjakin, Sergey | ½-½ | Harikrishna, Pentala |
| So, Wesley | 0-1 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar |
| Wojtaszek, Radoslaw | ½-½ | Kramnik, Vladimir |
| Round 2 (April 22, 2017) | ||
| Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | ½-½ | Karjakin, Sergey |
| Adams, Michael | ½-½ | So, Wesley |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | ½-½ | Radjabov, Teimour |
| Harikrishna, Pentala | 0-1 | Eljanov, Pavel |
| Wojtaszek, Radoslaw | 0-1 | Topalov, Veselin |
| # | Name | Pts | SB |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eljanov, Pavel | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | 1.5 | 1 |
| Topalov, Veselin | 1.5 | 1 | |
| 4 | Adams, Michael | 1 | 1 |
| Karjakin, Sergey | 1 | 1 | |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | 1 | 0.5 | |
| 7 | Harikrishna, P. | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Radjabov, Teimour | 0.5 | 0.5 | |
| So, Wesley | 0.5 | 0.5 | |
| Wojtaszek, Radoslaw | 0.5 | 0.5 |
Replay the games here.
GM Wesley So is now officially the No. 2 chess player in the world, in the March 2017 FIDE Ratings list, up one notch from last month’s.
Moreover, it should be noted that this is the first time that there are 5 2800+ players in the list, after MVL made a comeback to the 2800-club.
[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/fide-top-20-march-2017.csv”]
GM David Anton Guijarro
David Anton Guijarro beats Veselin Topalov in the penultimate Round 9 of Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017 ([replay]) to take the solo lead with 1 round to go. He might only be the 24th seed (ELO 2650) coming into this tournament, but he finds himself ahead of household names in the chess world such as Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Michael Adams, Boris Gelfand, and especially Fabiano Caruana.
Caruana is having a hard time in this tournament after he lost to Nigel Short in the 6th round and drew with several lower rated players in earlier rounds before that, thus he’s at No. 12 in the ranking after Round 9. He’s currently at 3rd place in the live ratings with 2819.7. He’s set to face Varuzhan Akobian in the final round.
Following his outstanding performance in Tata Steel Masters 2017, Wesley So is now the world’s number 3 in the official FIDE Ratings List, with a rating of 2822.
Despite the Live Ratings indicating So as now No. 2 after Fabiano Caruana dropped some ELO points to today’s 2820, Caruana’s sub-optimal performance from Gibraltar are not yet in for the official tally.
Levon Aronian gained some ELO points as well from Tata Steel, to settle for 7th to 8th place, with a rating of 2785.
This is Wesley So‘s 56th game without a loss. His last loss was in Round 4 of Bilbao Masters Final 2016 against the World Champion, Magnus Carlsen, where he finished fourth. Moreover, this is his third super-tournament title in a row, following the Sinquefield Cup and London Chess Classic.
Wesley So, playing as black, won his final round game against Ian Nepomniachtchi. This win enabled So to secure the Tata Steel Masters 2017 title, his first for Tata Steel, with a clear point ahead of the runner-up, Magnus Carlsen.
Replay Round 13 games below:[replay]
This win also enabled So to rank second in the Live Ratings, after Fabiano Caruana lost to Nigel Short in Round 6 in Gibraltar, just 16 ELO points behind the World Champion:
