The PokerStars Isle of Man International Chess Tournament 2014 kicked off at the Villa Marina on Douglas’ seafront yesterday. 73 players from 17 countries are participating in the Masters section and they will be joined by roughly 40 more when the Major and Minor tournaments start tomorrow.
This tournament marks the return of a top-level international tournament to the Isle of Man after a long gap and what a return it is! Out of the 73 participants, 56(!) are title holders, while the top 8 seeds are all members of the world’s top 100. It is also great to have a number of very strong women players, headed by GM Harika Dronavalli (2528) from India.
The top seed of the tournament is none other than Michael Adams (2758), the UK’s top grandmaster and world number 12. Second and third seeds are the Frenchmen Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2757) and Laurent Fressinet (2713). It is interesting to note that it is the first visit to the Isle of Man for all three of them and it will be exciting to follow their chess debut on the island!
Besides Mickey Adams, the tournament also sees the participation of 5 other members of England’s top 10: Gawain Jones, Nigel Short, Mark Hebden and of course David Howell and Jonathan Hawkins, the current British Champions!
(Picture taken from the official website of the British Chess Championships)
Last but not least, as this tournament is sponsored by PokerStars, it should be noted that two of the tournament’s participants hold the highest PokerStars rank of Supernova Elite, namely GM Radoslaw Jedynak and IM Simon Ansell.
But back to the actual chess. After the ceremonial first move on Adams’ board was made by Eddie Teare, the Isle of Man Government Treasury Minister, the clocks were all started at 1.30pm and round 1 was under way in the Promenade Suite of the Villa Marina.
Although there were no easy games for the top seeded players as they were facing strong IMs right from the start, there were very few surprises on the top boards, with the notable exception of Simon Ansell holding Laurent Fressinet to a draw with the black pieces! Simon was in fact the only player from the top 16 boards (which are broadcasted live on the internet) to get half a point at all.
A game that is definitely worth playing through is Afek-Marin from board 12, which ended with a beautiful tactical shot after starting off rather quietly. You can find all the games here: http://www.iominternationalchess.com/pgn.html
Today’s second round promises to be thrilling as we already have the first GM clashes on the top boards. Adams and Sargissian will be facing Israel’s upcoming players Raznikov and Popilski (both born in 1993), while on board 2 Vachier-Lagrave is paired against experienced American GM Tarjan.
Make sure you don’t miss any of the action and tune in for the live games starting at 1.30pm here: http://www.iominternationalchess.com/live-games.html
Fiona Steil-Antoni (Press Officer)
