Naiditsch wins Montreal International
On Monday, August 24th Arkadij Naiditsch decided to drive from Dortmund to Amsterdam and back, to visit the NH Chess Tournament for a day. Only three days later he played his first round in Montreal, Canada and yesterday he won the strong, 12-player round-robin with 7.5/11.
The 10th Montreal International took place August 27th - September 7th in Montreal, Canada. This year it was a 12-player round-robin with Etienne Bacrot (FRA, 2721), Alexander Onischuk (USA, 2699), Arkady Naiditsch (2697), Alexander Moiseenko (UKR, 2682), Sergei Tiviakov (NED, 2674), Yuri Shulman (USA, 2648), Varuzhan Akobian (USA, 2626), Anton Kovalyov (ARG, 2572), Mark Bluvshtein (CAN, 2558), Sebastien Maze (FRA, 2546), Thomas Roussel-Roozmon (CAN, 2487) and Vinay Bhat (USA, 2473).
Our first report was about the first four rounds, after which GMs Etienne Bacrot, Arkadij Naiditsch and Anton Kovalyov were sharing the lead with 3/4. Three rounds later Bacrot and Naiditsch were topping the standings with 5/7, a point ahead of Bluvshtein, Mazé and Kovalyov.
It was clear that fight for first place would be fought out between the two grandmasters, also taking into account that Onischuk and Tiviakov didn't seem to be in top shape. Naiditsch and Bacrot were sharing the lead until the last round, but yesterday Naiditsch defeated Bhat in the only decisive game of the round, to take clear first - Bacrot drew with Kovalyov and had to be satisfied with clear second.
Ironically, in the 6th round the tournament winner lost against Akobian in what was easily the shortest, decisive game of the tournament. With Black, Naiditsch played the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit in Lasker style but this didn't really work out well, as you can see in the selection of games below. French GM Sebastien Mazé did well with a 2685 performance; Canadian IM Roossel-Roozmon however didn't come close to a GM norm, for which he needed 5.5 points.
Selection of games rounds 4-11
Game viewer by ChessTempo
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Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.
Comments
jonnytuffubckets
2 years 5 months ago
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sick blunder by roussel-roozmon vs. tiviakov
Ianis
2 years 5 months ago
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Congratulations to Naiditsch for his deserved victory and very good play , he won 5 times which is an excellent performance .
I admit i was following my compatriot Bacrot who lost the 1st place in the last round , but although he didn't lose , he didn't manage to win more than 3 times , he makes too many draws , he should have taken more risks IMO .
Good performance of Mazé also , i didn't expect him to finish 3rd , cause i thought the likes of Tiviakov , Onischuk or Moiseenko would finish higher than him
Thomas
2 years 5 months ago
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@Ianis: As you are French you may know more about Mazé: Would you consider him a rising star, so we may see similar results from him in the future (if he gets comparable invitations)? Or would you rather consider his tournament a unique exceptional performance?
As I am (originally) German, but arguably (if that's possible) also from an unbiased point of view, I am pleased with Naiditsch's result - he roughly regained the rating points lost in Dortmund (his current official rating as of September 1st is 2685) and should be very close to 2700 again.
Ianis
2 years 5 months ago
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Hello Thomas ;)
Indeed , Naiditsch is a 2700 type of player IMO , i thought that he was underrated , he seems in good form lately , it's just that like Bacrot , they have problems to deliver "when it matters" against the other guys of the 2700 club , they both lack a little something
To be honest , i don't know much of the career of GM Mazé , i know he's about 25-26 and watched a couple of games of him , during the last Olympiad and in the French champ , but not enough to have a serious opinion on him ,.
I like his opening repertoire though , quite daring (sicilian , taimanov , modern benoni ) , he probably has the potential to become around 2600+ one day if he works hard , but i think younger guys like Vachier-Lagrave or Romain Edouard have better prospects .
About the performance of Mazé , i think it was quite unexpected for him to perform so well against this field , IMO if we re-stage the tournament 10 times , i'm pretty sure Naiditsch and Bacrot would finish in the top 3 more often than not , but not sure Mazé would be able to reproduce this result consistently , just speculation of mine though :)
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