Games

Standings after 5 rounds1.Nakamura, HikaruUSA2784*.0.½11..13½2.Gelfand, BorisISR2755.*..½1½½1.3½3.Mamedyarov, ShakhriyarAZE27531.*..½½.½½34.Carlsen, MagnusNOR2864...*½0½1.135.Andreikin, DmitryRUS2713½½.½*..½½.2½6.Caruana, FabianoITA277400½1.*.1..2½7.Karjakin, SergeyRUS27820½½½..*..½28.Anand, ViswanathanIND2786.½.0½0.*1.29.Morozevich, AlexanderRUS2760.0½.½..0*½1½10.Kramnik, VladimirRUS28030.½0..½.½*1½Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Official website: http://dilijan2013.fide.comChess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Round 5 resultsNakamura, Hikaru - Andreikin, Dmitry½-½Gelfand, Boris - Morozevich, Alexander1-0Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar - Caruana, Fabiano½-½Carlsen, Magnus - Anand, Viswanathan1-0Kramnik, Vladimir - Karjakin, Sergey½-½Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Official website: http://dilijan2013.fide.comChess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Nobody is safe on top of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship. After a third round that saw two perfect-score frontrunners fall with the white pieces, Monday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis was more of the same for the leader. FM Luke Harmon-Vellotti entered atop the standings with 2.5/3 points, but he fell in glorious fashion to FM Samuel Sevian in round 4. The full-point victory was one of four on the day, with only one draw in the round between IM Victor Shen and FM Jeffrey Xiong. Report by Brian Jerauld.The standings remain tight, with seven of the ten players still within one point of each other, entering round 5. California 17-year-old IM Daniel Naroditsky now sits atop the leaderboard on the proverbial hot seat and, with two wins and two draws in four rounds, is the last player in the field without a loss. Four players sit in a tie for second place, a half-point behind Naroditsky with 2.5 points.Not 20 moves into Naroditsky’s game versus FM Atulya Shetty, things looked to be headed into a dead draw, which would have created a six-way tie for first place. Shetty gave fight with the French defense, producing an isolated queen’s pawn. It was one Naroditsky was up to the task of blockading, but unfortunately it was black’s only slight weakness.But Shetty missed 19. … Bxd4 20. Bxd4 f6, which would have ushered in an opposite-colored bishop endgame and left white with no prospects. Naroditsky capitalized, with a powerful 24. Qg3 to set up the winning Re5 on the next move. Shetty blundered his major pieces to a knight fork soon after, and Naroditsky closed the game with some great back-rank tactical work.“I just misevaluated the position,” Shetty said of his drawing chances. “I thought he would be able to keep pushing for awhile, with me suffering. I guess it was an easier draw than I thought it would be.”Harmon-Vellotti had been nothing short of impressive through the first three rounds, including a win over IM Kayden Troff and a draw with Naroditsky, the field’s two highest-rated players. But his fourth-round match on Monday versus Sevian was a quick reminder that there would be no getting comfortable in this field.Boise, Idaho’s 14-year-old pride looked solid through the earlygoings of a Ruy Lopez, prompting Grandmaster commentators Yasser Seirawan and Ben Finegold to comment on Harmon-Vellotti’s polished openings thus far in the tournament. But the middlegame held a different story.If 16. c4 was confusing, then 18. Nfg5 was downright wrong. The former move, in a position that looked primed for white to push b4, greased the wheels for Sevian to come on the attack, and the latter simply sent a minor piece into the barbs of the enemy camp for no compensation.“It was just one of those games where everything I calculated just didn’t work,” Harmon-Vellotti said. “I thought b4 didn’t work, because I was losing material – but I’m not. Then c4 was supposed to start this crazy kingside attack, where I thought I could get d4 and have something – but I don’t. Then Nb6, [Sevian] had several refutations – but I didn’t see any of them.”Troff converted a solid endgame into a full point in his match versus FM Yian Liou. The Utah IM and reigning U-14 World Champion, who turned 15 while playing in his first U.S. Championship in May, came out clean against the Queen’s Gambit-Declined Slav defense and found himself with an early advantage. Liou’s 17. … b6 was suspect, especially without his king castled, and Troff created the first weakness in his opponent’s army with an isolated c-pawn.But he fell a bit flat on his choice of attack, opting for 19. Bb5 which was met by Ra7, and Troff voluntarily traded minor pieces and queens to speed toward the endgame. But Liou missed 23. Bf6, which would have brought the devastating 24. … Bd4+ and paved the way for an easy draw. Instead, Troff cleaned up in an excellent rook-and-pawn endgame. Liou’s choice of 23. a5 was the one he wanted back.“It wasn’t miscalculating as much as i

Swedish Grandmaster Nils Grandelius won the 2nd Golden Sands open tournament that was held on 10-18th June in the Bulgarian sea resort Golden Sands.Grandelius defeated Indian GM Arun Prasad in the last round to complete the tournament with 7,5/9 points. Vladislav Nevednichy and MR Venkatesh were also victorious to catch Zbynek Hracek and Vladimir Georgiev on the shared second place.WGM Mary Ann Gomes was the best placed woman with 6,5 points.Last round videoFinal standings:1 GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2544 – 7.5 2 GM Hracek Zbynek CZE 2625 – 7 3 GM Nevednichy Vladislav ROU 2580 – 7 4 GM Georgiev Vladimir MKD 2532 – 7 5 GM Venkatesh M.R. IND 2506 – 7 6 GM Solak Dragan TUR 2598 – 6.5 7 GM Nabaty Tamir ISR 2579 – 6.5 8 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2554 – 6.5 9 IM Ashwin Jayaram IND 2472 – 6.5 10 GM Arun Prasad S. IND 2522 – 6.5 11 GM Spasov Vasil BUL 2565 – 6.5 12 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2600 – 6.5 13 GM Petrosian Tigran L. ARM 2649 – 6.5 14 IM Raznikov Danny ISR 2491 – 6.5 15 GM Rusev Krasimir BUL 2556 – 6.5 16 GM Chatalbashev Boris BUL 2560 – 6.5 17 GM Sengupta Deep IND 2548 – 6.5 18 GM Vajda Levente ROU 2617 – 6.5 19 WGM Gomes Mary Ann IND 2408 – 6.5 20 GM Solodovnichenko Yuri UKR 2565 – 6 21 GM Svetushkin Dmitry MDA 2605 – 6 22 GM Blagojevic Dragisa MNE 2524 – 6 23 GM Mareco Sandro ARG 2557 – 6 24 IM Bernadskiy Vitaliy UKR 2475 – 6 25 FM Bonafede Alessandro ITA 2353 – 6 26 GM Abasov Nijat AZE 2492 – 6 27 GM Grover Sahaj IND 2478 – 6 28 IM Givon Asaf ISR 2415 – 6 29 GM Shyam Sundar M. IND 2502 – 6 30 GM Sveshnikov Evgeny LAT 2512 – 6 31 GM Gopal G.N. IND 2522 – 6 32 GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian ROU 2565 – 6 33 IM Narayanan Srinath IND 2464 – 6 34 GM Drenchev Petar BUL 2485 – 6 35 IM Debashis Das IND 2482 – 6 36 IM Galinsky Timofey UKR 2439 – 6 37 IM Karthikeyan Murali IND 2435 – 6 38 IM Rombaldoni Axel ITA 2484 – 6 39 FM Ali Marandi Cemil Can TUR 2383 – 6Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Earlier today Schneider came out on top in a rapid-fire four-handed finish to Event 29 $5,000 H.O.R.S.E.  It was Schneider’s second bracelet of the summer, fourth overall, with both coming in the multiple-game H.O.R.S.E format. The Arizona-native couldn’t have been happier to win another H.O.R.S.E. title. “If you’re just a No-Limit Hold’em player, you really don’t learn a lot of skills that are valuable in poker,” he said. “[Learning H.O.R.S.E.] makes you think really hard about how to play certain games and gives you an edge in all games.” Schneider took down a $258,000 first-place prize for winning his fourth WSOP bracelet. Back in 2007 Schneider put together a spectacular run that included three final tables and two WSOP bracelets. It was enough to earn Schneider WSOP Player of the Year. Considering Schneider now has five cashes at the 2013 WSOP and two bracelets, he’s certainly in the running for this year’s POY. Daniel Negreanu is currently in the lead with just 20 more points than Schneider. Mueller Nearly Misses Becoming 8th Canadian Winner of the Year Greg Mueller   The final four of Event 29 also featured Greg Mueller, Benjamin Scholl and Viatcheslav Ortynsiky but Schneider held a massive chip lead. The entire event was extended by one day when the final four were still battling it out until 2 a.m. yesterday. Mueller had a shot at becoming the astounding eighth Canadian to win a bracelet in this year’s series but instead busted in third place for $129,600. Schneder isn’t done either. He was already thinking about taking a run at third bracelet of the summer just minutes after winning his second. “I feel really good about it,” he said. “I really do. I don’t know what it is. It’s like there’s something in the water or something. I feel like I’m playing well and I’m sensing what’s going on with other players.” Here’s a look at the complete final-table payouts: 1st: Tom Schneider - $318,955 2nd: Benjamin Scholl - $197,228 3rd: Greg Mueller - $129,600 4th: Viatcheslav Ortynsiky - $94,664 5th: Chris Klodnicki - $70,093 6th: Adam Friedman - $52,613 7th: David Benyamine - $40,039 8th: Konstantin Puchkov - $30,876 Visit www.pokerlistings.com

At the BCAPL State tourney, I along with all the other Open players had to race to 5 in the women's 8ball division. If one was an Advanced player, then you had to race to 6. This was noted with the letter "A" next to your name on the scoresheet.So I play one of my teammates in my very first match of the second day, at 10am. This is for 9th place. We are both happy to still be in the tourney, but we also pick on each other because we love being teammates. :)She sends me a text and asked if I was awake about 30 minutes before our 10am match.I replied, "Um, yes."She replies, "You better bring your game because I plan to kick your ass." I said, "Same to you. LOL."As I finished getting ready, I then sent her another text."Hey, they moved our match to noon. See you then."She replies, "Really? Who told you that? I heard they just moved it to 1pm."LMAO!We are both screwing with each other, basically saying we don't want to play each other because it's gonna be a tough match.Our match had not moved at all and was still planned as scheduled for 10am.I get there about 9:50am and go to our table. She already has the score-sheet at our assigned table but she is in the bathroom.I look down at our score sheet and the bitch wrote an "A" next to my name!!Funny girl!!

By Debbie Burkhead Seats are still available for the second annual poker seminar, sponsored by Poker Player Newspaper, with former World Champion, Tom McEvoy, and 2008’s Online Player of the Year, David “The Maven” Chicotsky. Attendees will enjoy a full-day of poker information and lunch, with snacks and beverages served throughout the day. The price of the seminar also includes entry into the 5 pm satellite for a chance to win a $600 seat into the Poker Player of the Year tournament. The seminar will be held in the Conference Center at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas on July 3 with the Poker Player of the Year event on July 4 at noon. The seminar will begin at 9 am-12 pm followed by lunch until 1 pm and end at 4:30 pm. The information you will take away from the seminar is worth many times more than the small fee of $390. Last years’ attendees placed high in the Poker Player of the Year tournament, proving the value of this expertise. read more

The Borgata Summer Poker Open Championship drew 296 entries and a total buy-in of $740,000, easily covering the $500,000 prize pool guarantee.They'll play down to a winner by Thursday as Day 2 started today with 174 players still in the hunt.Follow all the action at our live tournament blog and check the Borgata Summer Open Schedule for more tournament action. The Open runs to June 21.