Carlsen Scores 8.5/9 in Caxias do Sul Rapid Swiss
Magnus Carlsen also won the 9-round Swiss that was part of the “Festa da Uva” chess festival in Caxias do Sul, Brazil. The world champion scored 8.5 points in the rapid tournament, which was held on Saturday and Sunday - he dropped half a point against Gilberto Milos.
An open Swiss was the final event for Carlsen at the “Festa da Uva” chess festival in Caxias do Sul, Brazil. And he did what he was expected to do: also win this one! Interestingly, with 8.5/9 he actually scored a performance rating below his own rating: 2799. The main reason was the very low rating of his early opponents: Ruy Jose Furst Goncalves (1693) and Christian Avgoustopoulos (2080).
In round 5 local grandmaster Felipe de Cresce El Debs played a good game and was close to a draw:
It was 6-time Brazilian Champion Gilberto Milos who did manage to draw with the world champ, making the home crowd proud. In a Jänisch/Schliemann Ruy Lopez all the pieces went off the board quickly:
Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian played solidly and defended well, but in the end he couldn't save himself:
Neuris Delgado Ramirez tried it with a piece sacrifice, and he managed to make the game exciting as Carlsen's king seemed a bit in danger - at least there was the possibility of a nasty trick. However, the Norwegian seemed to have everything under control:
The tournament saw a final show-down between the top seeds who had travelled to Brazil together: Carlsen and Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark. The latter was one of six players with 7 points, so a draw was not enough for Carlsen, who had 7.5 points. The game reached the infamous f+h rook endgame which was a draw from the start. With little time on the clock both players couldn't find the best moves (which is easy to say when you're assisted by the tablebase), but in the end Carlsen won.
“Festa da Uva” 2014 | Open | Final standings (Top 30)
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | |
| 1 | 1 | GM | CARLSEN Magnus | NOR | 2881 | 8,5 | 43 | 46 | 57,5 | 0 | 4 |
| 2 | 11 | GM | MEKHITARIAN Krikor Sevag | BRA | 2562 | 8 | 42 | 46 | 59 | 0 | 4 |
| 3 | 9 | GM | MILOS Gilberto | BRA | 2583 | 8 | 41,5 | 44,5 | 57,5 | 0 | 4 |
| 4 | 7 | GM | DELGADO RAMIREZ Neuris | PAR | 2586 | 7,5 | 41 | 43,5 | 57 | 0 | 4 |
| 5 | 5 | GM | SHANKLAND Samuel L. | USA | 2611 | 7,5 | 39,5 | 43 | 55,5 | 0 | 5 |
| 6 | 25 | IM | VAN RIEMSDIJK Herman C. | BRA | 2349 | 7,5 | 38,5 | 42 | 53 | 0 | 4 |
| 7 | 27 | IM | DELLA MORTE German | ARG | 2348 | 7,5 | 36 | 40,5 | 52 | 0 | 4 |
| 8 | 15 | GM | CUBAS Jose Fernando | PAR | 2460 | 7 | 39,5 | 43,5 | 55,5 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 | 13 | GM | PEREZ PONSA Federico | ARG | 2521 | 7 | 39,5 | 41,5 | 52,5 | 0 | 4 |
| 10 | 2 | GM | NIELSEN Peter Heine | DEN | 2653 | 7 | 39 | 46 | 58 | 0 | 5 |
| 11 | 4 | GM | LEITÃO Rafael | BRA | 2645 | 7 | 39 | 45 | 57,5 | 0 | 5 |
| 12 | 17 | GM | RODRIGUEZ VILA Andrés | URU | 2437 | 7 | 38,5 | 43,5 | 54,5 | 0 | 4 |
| 13 | 3 | GM | TIVIAKOV Sergei | NED | 2651 | 7 | 38 | 44 | 54 | 0 | 4 |
| 14 | 22 | IM | VALDÉS ESCOBAR Álvaro | CHI | 2378 | 7 | 38 | 41,5 | 53,5 | 0 | 5 |
| 15 | 18 | IM | DIAZ HOLLEMAERT Nahuel | ARG | 2436 | 7 | 38 | 41 | 52,5 | 0 | 5 |
| 16 | 21 | IM | STAMENKOVIC Dragan | SRB | 2404 | 7 | 38 | 40,5 | 51,5 | 0 | 4 |
| 17 | 20 | IM | PICHOT Alan | ARG | 2414 | 7 | 36,5 | 41 | 52,5 | 0 | 5 |
| 18 | 34 | FM | MATSUURA Frederico | BRA | 2280 | 7 | 36 | 41,5 | 53 | 0 | 4 |
| 19 | 12 | GM | FLORES Diego | ARG | 2557 | 7 | 36 | 39,5 | 51 | 0 | 5 |
| 20 | 32 | FM | PEREIRA Frederico Gazel Cohen | BRA | 2303 | 7 | 35,5 | 42,5 | 54 | 0 | 4 |
| 21 | 8 | GM | MARECO Sandro | ARG | 2585 | 7 | 35 | 38,5 | 49,5 | 0 | 5 |
| 22 | 23 | IM | LUJAN Carolina | ARG | 2375 | 7 | 34,5 | 42 | 53 | 0 | 4 |
| 23 | 24 | IM | DISCONZI DA SILVA Rodrigo | BRA | 2364 | 7 | 34,5 | 37,5 | 48 | 0 | 5 |
| 24 | 82 | BORGES Guilherme Deola | BRA | 2119 | 7 | 33 | 38,5 | 49,5 | 0 | 4 | |
| 25 | 10 | GM | FELGAER Ruben | ARG | 2563 | 6,5 | 38,5 | 44,5 | 55,5 | 0 | 5 |
| 26 | 19 | IM | MOLINA Roberto Junio Brito | BRA | 2424 | 6,5 | 37,5 | 42 | 52,5 | 0 | 4 |
| 27 | 14 | GM | EL DEBS Felipe De Cresce | BRA | 2511 | 6,5 | 37 | 43,5 | 55,5 | 0 | 5 |
| 28 | 16 | GM | MATSUURA Everaldo | BRA | 2459 | 6,5 | 36,5 | 40,5 | 50,5 | 0 | 4 |
| 29 | 33 | FM | ABDALLA Luiz Guilherme Aurell | BRA | 2289 | 6,5 | 36 | 41 | 53 | 0 | 4 |
| 30 | 39 | FM | DELGADO Lidio Dias | BRA | 2262 | 6,5 | 35,5 | 39,5 | 50,5 | 0 | 4 |
Full final standings here. Games thanks to TWIC.
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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