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Jobava Wins Bronstein Memorial on Tiebreak

Jobava Wins Bronstein Memorial on Tiebreak

PeterDoggers
| 5 | Chess Event Coverage

Drawing his last two games, Baadur Jobava managed to maintain his lead and eventually won the Bronstein Memorial on tiebreak, ahead of Ukrainian grandmasters Sergey Fedorchuk and Mikhailo Oleksienko. The last round was played on Bronstein's 90th birthday. 

Photo courtesy of the Russian Chess Federation

With a half-point lead going into the penultimate round, Baadur Jobava faced the strong and solid Dutch grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov. For the fans this wasn't much of a game, but for the tournament leader Tiviakov's early draw offer must have been a relief. An easy draw as Black at this stage of the tournament is usually quite welcome! Many tournament organizers these days avoid such games, however, by having a no-draw rule before move 30, or even move 40.


This meant that Jobava and Tiviakov could enjoy their day and watch how their colleagues would fare. As it turned out, the Georgian grandmaster would keep his half-point lead because boards 2, 3 and 4 were also drawn. In two of those the material imbalance BN vs R was seen.


Sergey Fedorchuk joined the group with six points. His opponent Boris Grachev avoided a move repetition on move 28 but was subsequently outplayed. Black's knight turned out to be stronger than White's bishop in the endgame.


In the last round Jobava again drew his game very quickly. 


Two players caught Jobava in first place, both from Ukraine: Sergey Fedorchuk and Mikhailo Oleksienko. Fedorchuk prevented Daniil Dubov from taking one of his first big prizes in what was an excellent game for White against the Classical Sicilian. A model Richter-Rauzer.

Oleksienko beat Tiviakov in one of his pet lines, the Accelarated Dragon. Black's setup with ...Qb8 and ...Rfc8 was interesting and the pawn break 22...b5 was a positional success for Black. However, 26...d5 looks wrong (26...Rc3) and from that point White took the initiative and won material.


Let's finish the report with one more game that showed that even 2600 players sometimes don't know the latest theory and get busted in the opening:

The Bronstein Memorial takes place 11-19 February in Minsk, Belarus. It is held on the occasion of Bronstein's 90th birthday this week: the great Soviet grandmaster was born on 19 February 1924 in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine. He passed away on 5 December 2006 in Minsk, where the tournament was held. On the Chesspro website an articly by Vladimir Barsky on Bronstein has appeared.

Bronstein Memorial 2014 | Final Standings (Top 40)

Rk. SNo Title Name FED RtgI Pts. TB1
1 1 GM Jobava Baadur GEO 2706 7 2578
2 15 GM Fedorchuk Sergey A UKR 2641 7 2504
3 19 GM Oleksienko Mikhailo UKR 2630 7 2492
4 5 GM Zhigalko Sergei BLR 2661 6,5 2574
5 7 GM Shimanov Aleksandr RUS 2658 6,5 2560
6 11 GM Safarli Eltaj AZE 2649 6,5 2546
7 3 GM Sargissian Gabriel ARM 2671 6,5 2540
8 10 GM Khairullin Ildar RUS 2651 6,5 2487
9 37 GM Jumabayev Rinat KAZ 2564 6,5 2436
10 16 GM Tiviakov Sergei NED 2639 6 2580
11 24 GM Dubov Daniil RUS 2614 6 2576
12 2 GM Akopian Vladimir ARM 2682 6 2556
13 6 GM Mamedov Rauf AZE 2659 6 2544
14 14 GM Kovalenko Igor LAT 2642 6 2519
15 4 GM Grachev Boris RUS 2669 6 2516
16 25 GM Khalifman Alexander RUS 2611 6 2513
17 12 GM Smirin Ilia ISR 2644 6 2506
18 13 GM Kuzubov Yuriy UKR 2643 6 2504
19 30 GM Fier Alexandr BRA 2587 6 2458
20 54 IM Chigaev Maksim RUS 2510 6 2447
21 31 GM Grigoryan Karen H ARM 2584 6 2435
22 101 Sarana Alexey RUS 2295 5,5 2561
23 61 FM Aghasaryan Robert ARM 2467 5,5 2529
24 42 GM Malakhatko Vadim BEL 2539 5,5 2519
25 8 GM Popov Ivan RUS 2653 5,5 2518
26 43 GM Lintchevski Daniil RUS 2537 5,5 2515
27 45 GM Rasulov Vugar AZE 2534 5,5 2498
28 84 FM Vorontsov Pavlo UKR 2390 5,5 2497
29 40 GM Savchenko Boris RUS 2556 5,5 2492
30 27 GM Zhigalko Andrey BLR 2607 5,5 2473
31 22 GM Zherebukh Yaroslav UKR 2623 5,5 2472
32 26 GM Ponkratov Pavel RUS 2611 5,5 2472
33 48 GM Kveinys Aloyzas LTU 2526 5,5 2446
34 18 GM Korneev Oleg ESP 2631 5,5 2436
35 44 GM Gabuzyan Hovhannes ARM 2534 5,5 2424
36 51 GM Abasov Nijat AZE 2517 5,5 2412
37 20 GM Tregubov Pavel V RUS 2629 5,5 2412
38 38 IM Mozharov Mikhail RUS 2564 5,5 2394
39 52 IM Hovhanisian Mher ARM 2516 5 2587
40 72 IM Zenzera Alexey RUS 2419 5 2580

(Full standings here.)

PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

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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