Good start for Ponomariov and Mamedyarov

The Essent Tournament has fully started now. The crown group saw its first round today and it was a good one both the audience and for Ponomariov and Mamedyarov. The former FIDE world champion scored an easy win against the current world juniors champion Andriasian while Da Shakh won against Dutch GM Loek van Wely. Werle and Simutowe are leading the open group.



Schedule crown group:

Round 2, Monday October 15, 14.00 hours Van Wely, Loek - Ponomariov, Ruslan Mamedyarov, Shakhryar - Andriasian, Zaven

Round 3, Tuesday October 16, 14.00 hours Ponomariov, Ruslan - Mamedyarov, Shakhryar Andriasian, Zaven - Van Wely, Loek

Wednesday October 17, No play

Round 4, Thursday October 18, 14.00 hours Van Wely, Loek - Mamedyarov, Shakhryar Andriasian, Zaven - Ponomariov, Ruslan

Round 5, Friday October 19, 14.00 hours Mamedyarov, Shakhryar - Ponomariov, Ruslan Van Wely, Loek - Andriasian, Zaven

Round 6, Saturday October 20, 12.00 hours Andriasian, Zaven - Mamedyarov, Shakhryar Ponomariov, Ruslan - Van Wely, Loek

In the open tournament already three rounds have been played. The tournament started with quite a lot of upsets in the first round: GM Hillarp Persson (2567) lost to Stefan Kuipers (2283) (see game below), GM Jan Smeets escaped with a draw against Bonno Pel (2280), Robin van Kampen drew against GM Reinderman (2510) and Bert van der Leest did the same against GM Vlastimil Hort (2483). After three rounds only two players are still on a perfect percent score: GM Jan Werle and the GM-to-be Amon Simutowe from Zambia.

The current top 20:

[TABLE=21]

Full standings here.

Three games made quite an impression on me. Besides Kuipers' victory over Hillarp Persson with Black there's Nijboer's crushing first-round win against Schuurman and GM Winants' technique from round 2.



Zaven Andriasian

Shakhriyar Mamdedyarov

Ruslan Ponomariov

Loek van Wely

Photos courtesy of the official website.