Srefidensi Chess Celebration

3rd Srefidensi Chess Celebration 2015 – round 4

In round 4 we saw five decisive games on the first six boards and we now have two tournament leaders: IM Jose Rafael Gascon and GM Sipke Ernst. The young man from Venezuela keeps impressing with confident and strong play. Judging from his games he must have been working hard on his chess lately and this is clearly starting to pay off. In Gascon-Pecorelli Black didn't seem to be aware of the stem game Vallejo Pons-Kramnik, Linares 2004 and quickly got into trouble. The star move was the positional pawn sacrifice 15.e5! after which Gascon went on to produce another model game.

3rd Srefidensi Chess Celebration 2015 – round 3

The third round was played on Saturday evening and was a most exciting one. All three games on the top boards were eventually drawn, so nobody is on 100% anymore, but what a great fights. On the first board Dutch GM Sipke Ernst just couldn't help himself and gambitted a pawn with Black as early as move 7 against Cuban IM Humberto Pecorelli Garcia. Things quickly got out of control, and while White was objectively on top for most of the game, the game was always very complicated. Even in the final position White still has good chances in the knight ending, but Pecorelli must have been very tired as well after such a long tense game and offered a draw.

3rd Srefidensi Chess Celebration 2015 – round 2

The second round had the twelve winners of the first round all paired against eachother. Since we now have six live boards, all action at the top boards could be followed nicely. Clearly the game of the round was the one on the first board. Young IM Jose Rafael Gascon Del Nogal from Venezuela played a very inspired attacking game to take down the number one rated player of the tournament, Gergely-Andras-Gyula Szabo. The key move of the game was 20.g4, which gives White nice attacking chances on the kingside. In fact, Black may have to look for an improvement earlier on.

3rd Srefidensi Chess Celebration 2015 – round 1

The Srefidensi Chess Celebration is still a young tradition, but steadily growing. This year the master group consists of 26 players, so 13 games per round. In the first round the top half was paired against the bottom half. Eleven results were according to Elo expectation. The two exceptions were 16-year-old Trinidad talent Joshua Johnson drawing IM Ariel Marichal Gonzalez and Sherman Maduro from Curacao beating Warren Elliott from Jamaica.