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 playRound 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, LoekIn 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 WelyPhotos courtesy of the official website.