A game from group B

After six rounds young Ian Nepomniachtchi is still the proud leader of Group C. After his victory against Edwin van Haastert yesterday, he has totalled his score to 5,5. A fabulous performance which gives him a gap of 1,5 points. I am curious who is going to stop this train from Russia. In group B the differences are so much smaller where every round starts with a new leader.

After his defeat against GM Viorel Bologan in the fifth round, Jan Smeets has recovered himself and is in a shared second place, only half point behind leader Pavel Eljanov from the Ukraine. Two years ago at Corus this same Smeets played an exciting game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (current ELO 2754) in an aggressive variation of the Caro-Kann, which he won. Yesterday Chessvibes editor Erwin l'Ami had the same position on the board against the number one seeded, Dmitry Jakovenko. Probably no coincedence since Jan and Erwin are sparring partners, but did the Russian know that?



>> open in a new window "^Reports^^^1169359129^1314786230^jerrel "Chess Trivia of 21 January"^"On 21 January Artashes Minasian (1967), Neil McDonald (1967) and Ilya Smirin (1968) were born.

>> earlier trivia