The Chess.com Isle of Man International Chess tournament has ended with a tie between current American champ Fabiano Caruana and Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine with 7.5 points each.
In an exciting final day, Eljanov faced Wesley So, and Caruana faced England’s best player, Michael Adams. Eljanov was well prepared and drew easily, while Caruana had a struggle with Adams and succeeded only when Adams blundered in time pressure. With Eljanov’s better tie-break, he was declared the tournament winner, though he and Caruana split evenly the first- and second-place prizes for about $11,000 each. So (6.5 pts.) ended up in a four-way tie for fourth through sixth ($5,577.46 each), and Hikaru Nakamura (6 pts.) finished in a massive 12-player tie for eighth through tenth ($580.96 each).
The much scaled down 3rd Millionaire Open just concluded in Atlantic City. It had a much lower entry fee (about $550 on average) than last year’s $2,000, but also a smaller prize pool just $300,000. Its move from Las Vegas to the East Coast was made with the hope of increasing attendance, but attendance declined further to just 400. This year’s winner was the 22-year-old Polish Grandmaster Dariusz Swiercz who beat English Grandmaster Gawain Jones on Millionaire Monday, winning $30,000, while Jones got $15,000.
The Tal Memorial ended with Ian Nepomniachtchi holding onto his lead, winning by a half point over Anish Giri. It’s clearly his best tournament to date. Sadly, on the other end of the crosstable we find former world champion contender Boris Gelfand in last place with just 2 points.
Coming events:Waltham Aronian G/25 d5 QUAD (dual), Oct. 21, Waltham CC, www.WalthamChessClub.org/Schedule.html; Harry Lyman Memorial, Oct. 22, Boylston CC, www.BoylstonChess.org;
Recent results: 9-11 Memorial, SE Mass Chess Club, 1st: Ed Chisam, 4.5-.5, 2nd-3rd: Don Tirrell, Joe Kelly, 3.5-1.5; Boylston National Chess Day: Open, 1st: Brandon Wu: 3.5-.5; U1800: 1st: Srikanth Rapaka, 3.5-.5
Answer to today’s problem: 1…Qc6! does the trick. As either 2.Qxc6 or 2.Rxc6 loses to 2…Rd1+ and any other move by White loses to 2…Qxf6.
Chris Chase can be reached at BostonGlobeChessNotes@gmail.com.
