Shirov Disaster at Poikovksy

Submitted by SonofPearl on Sat, 06/06/2009 at 9:38am.

After winning recently at the extremely strong M-Tel tournament in Bulgaria, Alexei Shirov (pictured) was favourite for the 10th International Poikovsky Tournament in Russia.

However, in a remarkable turn-around in form, Shirov has lost his first four games to find himself propping up the leaderboard, with any hopes of a tournament victory already long gone.

Chess can be a cruel mistress! When things start to go badly, it can be difficult to turn your fortunes around, and losses seem to breed even more painful losses.

Joint leaders on 3.5/4.0 are Vugar Gashimov and Alexander Motylev, both of whom have already beaten Shirov. There have been a few brutally short losses in the event so far, some of which are presented below for your viewing pleasure!

The full standings after 4 rounds:

Gashimov, Vugar	AZE	2730	3½
Motylev, Alexander	RUS	2677	3½
Inarkiev, Ernesto	RUS	2676	3
Naiditsch, Arkadij	GER	2700	2½
Sutovsky, Emil	ISR	2660	2
Bologan, Viktor	MDA	2690	2
Efimenko, Zahar	UKR	2682	1½
Onischuk, Alexander	USA	2684	1
Rublevsky, Sergei	RUS	2702	1
Shirov, Alexei	ESP	2745	0