Nakamura On 5.0/5 At Gibraltar Masters

GM Hikaru Nakamura started with 5.0/5 at the Gibraltar Masters. He leads alone at the half-way point.

The Masters section of the 2015 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival took off on Tuesday, January 27th — only two days after the Tata Steel tournament. The first round was covered already, so let's look at what happened after.

As early as the second round two leading contenders were held to draw by their lower-rated opponents. GM Das Debashis of India got into trouble againt GM Veselin Topalov but managed to keep the game very complicated. After an amazing tactical sequence White had RNB vs Q and the players shook hands soon. A great fighting draw!

GM Peter Svidler stayed true to his favorite Grünfeld against IM Dennis Wagner, who had prepared very well. The game was always about equal.

Bigger upsets were GM Emil Sutovsky's loss to GM Vishnu Prasanna and GM Simen Agdestein going down against GM M.R. Venkatesh.

Everyone who plays the Torre Attack is hoping to win his game like GM Richard Rapport did against IM Aryan Tari. The Norwegian might have been slightly naive to open that h-file there!

GM Hou Yifan's win in this second round meant that she moved to first place on the women's live rating list, ahead of Judit Polgar. Later in the tournament she would drop below again, so it might take a bit longer before she becomes the first woman to rank above the great Hungarian player.

13 players reached 3.0/3 and only one of them was an IM. The Icelandic champion, Gudmundur Kjartansson, had an execellent start with wins against GM Mateusz Bartel and GM Axel Bachmann. He's back with his feet on the ground after losses against GM Peter Svidler and GM Surya Ganguly.

GM Pentala Harikrishna won a nice game as White. Below the moves and his explanation taken from the live show, every day on Chess.com/TV during the rounds:

After four rounds only four players were left with a perfect score: GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Renier Vazquez Igarza, GM Baskaran Adhiban and GM Wei Yi. Yes, after winning the Tata Steel challengers, the 15-year-old Chinese prodigy duly continued in great form!

This his how he defeated one of his compatriots in round 4:

GM Nils Grandelius was surprisingly helpess against GM Hikaru Nakamura:

In the fifth round GM Wei Yi was finally held to a draw, by GM Renier Vazquez Igarza. Nakamura did win, and is now the sole leader.

He played a topical line in the Queen's Gambit Accepted where Black sacrifices an exchange at an early stage. It wasn't so clear from start to finish, but as soon as he found 31...Ne7! the game was basically over. 

2015 Gibraltar Masters | Round 5 Standings (Top 25)

The Gibraltar Chess Festival always includes lots of side events. One of the highlights so far was the 3rd edition of the Battle of the Sexes. On Saturday part of the restaurant area had been turned into a boxing ring, with a giant chess set in the middle.

Two teams of six played each other, alternating moves, with 10 minutes each on the clock. Whereas the women had won surprisingly with 2-1 last year, this time they couldn't repeat their success. The men won the first two games, and then the third was drawn.

But this is not about results. This is about a great and fun tradition!

Another tradition is a number of masterclasses by strong participants. Below you can watch the masterclass given by GM Veselin Topalov, which shouldn't be missed. The Bulgarian shows a nice win over Alexei Shirov from 2004, but then also answers questions on a wide range of topics. He's funny and incredibly honest.