Isle Of Man International (Fide Grand Swiss)

[Mick Norris]

Vidit, Caruana, Esipenko and Deac on 6/8

9 players on 5.5

Vitiugov one of 8 on 5

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Horrible collapse from Etienne Bacrot to lose that drawn position against Caruana!

[LawrenceCooper]

44 112 IM Royal, Shreyas 2407 3½ 3½ GM Murzin, Volodar 2633 69

Pairings are out and it looks like Shreyas needs a draw for his second GM norm.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

44 112 IM Royal, Shreyas 2407 3½ 3½ GM Murzin, Volodar 2633 69

Pairings are out and it looks like Shreyas needs a draw for his second GM norm.

It looks like IM Ramazan Zhalmakhanov (as mentioned earlier) has effectively achieved a GM norm (even if he loses in round 9). I wonder if IM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux needs only a draw for a GM norm in round 9? (Rodrigue-Lemieux beat Ivanchuk in a previous round - Ivanchuk, sadly, has only drawn and lost games so far.)

All three of these IMs will have faced a field of 9 GMs.

How common is it for GM norms to be achieved against all-GM fields?

I don't suppose there are definitive statistics on that, but I am guessing it is not that common.

[Mick Norris]

round 9 pairings

Caruana v Deac
Vidit v Espienko

Niemann v Vitiugov

Standings are the tiebreak criteria shown the ones being used here?

Women round 9 pairings and Standings

Candidates qualifying position

[IM Jack Rudd]

Your norm calculations are the same as mine, Chris. The other round 9 norm chance is that I think Li Wu needs a draw for an IM norm.

Haven't yet looked at norm possibilities in the women's event, but there probably are some.

[Mick Norris]

Vaishali, Rameshbabu is playing her 4th GM and has a performance rating of 2645

There are 9 other IMs in the top 15 places in the standings, so some of those may have a chance

Of the WGMs, Kamalidenova, Meruert must have a good chance of an IM norm, although she plays Kosteniuk today

[Graham Borrowdale]

Interesting tournament, with everything still to play for.
One thing which strikes me as slightly strange, from a sporting point of view, is that a player who has already qualified for the candidates can have a big influence on who gets the places from this event. That might be by agreeing a quick draw in the last round with a friend or compatriot, or defeating a major rival. I can’t think of another sport where this could happen.

[NickFaulks]

I can’t think of another sport where this could happen.

Just one example is the current cricket World Cup. South Africa, already through to the semifinals in their last group game, might lose to Afghanistan, thereby letting them through instead of Australia or NZ.

[ThomasEvans]

It looks like IM Ramazan Zhalmakhanov (as mentioned earlier) has effectively achieved a GM norm (even if he loses in round 9).

He's actually achieved a 10 game norm already - if he loses today and then tomorrow (even against the lowest seed) he still gets at least a 2623 TPR.

Vaishali, Rameshbabu is playing her 4th GM and has a performance rating of 2645

There are 9 other IMs in the top 15 places in the standings, so some of those may have a chance

Of the WGMs, Kamalidenova, Meruert must have a good chance of an IM norm, although she plays Kosteniuk today

From Rd.9, I make them as follows:

Vaishali needs a draw for a GM norm
Garifullina, Milliet, Munguntuul need to win for a GM norm
Tsolakidou needs 2/2 playing a 2320 tomorrow for a GM norm
Kamalidenova needs a draw to get an IM norm
Wagner can't get an IM norm today, she needs at least 2.5/3 in the last 3 rounds and a favourable draw to get to an IM norm (unless she plays Goryachkina tomorrow in which case 2/2 is enough)
Beydullayeva can't get an IM norm today, 2/2 playing a 2291+ tomorrow will do it, as will 2.5/3 with a 2352.5 average opponent in the last 2 rounds
Terbe needs a win for a WGM norm

[Ian Thompson]

I can’t think of another sport where this could happen.

Just one example is the current cricket World Cup. South Africa, already through to the semifinals in their last group game, might lose to Afghanistan, thereby letting them through instead of Australia or NZ.

That's a completely different situation. South Africa didn't have a place in the semi-finals before the event began. Caruana did have a Candidates place before the FIDE Grand Swiss began.

South Africa's situation is nothing unusual. There must be lots of occasions where a team/player does well enough to win/qualify for something with games still to play so the result of the last games doesn't matter to them, but does matter to their opponents, who haven't done so well.

[Nick Burrows]

Murzin's 18th & 19th moves

[LawrenceCooper]

Murzin's 18th & 19th moves

Such a shame after a good opening and promising middle game position for Shreyas. The Bh6/Nf6 tactics seemed to come out of nowhere albeit with hindsight it was Rh4 and then Rh2 which made them possible.

[ThomasEvans]

Murzin's 18th & 19th moves

Such a shame after a good opening and promising middle game position for Shreyas. The Bh6/Nf6 tactics seemed to come out of nowhere albeit with hindsight it was Rh4 which made them possible.

He should get another shot at the norm tomorrow; provided he plays a 2528+ (which is all but 6 of the other players) he will need to win.

[LawrenceCooper]

Murzin's 18th & 19th moves

Such a shame after a good opening and promising middle game position for Shreyas. The Bh6/Nf6 tactics seemed to come out of nowhere albeit with hindsight it was Rh4 which made them possible.

He should get another shot at the norm tomorrow; provided he plays a 2528+ (which is all but 6 of the other players) he will need to win.

Next up: GM Mareco, Sandro 2606 3½ 3½ IM Royal, Shreyas 2407