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Carlsen Beats Topalov, Leads Shamkir Chess Magnus Carlsen defeated tournament leader Veselin Topalov today, and taking the lead at the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir. Ding Liren moved to plus-one after beating a suffering David Navara. 2018-04-27 More...
Zero Tolerance from the King Round seven has given us the sole leader as Magnus Carlsen, playing the white pieces, defeated Veselin Topalov. 2018-04-27 More...
Big Little Trap The rest day saw grandmasters head for the youth center Zeka to give simuls to children. A master class for youngsters was carried out by Magnus Carlsen, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin, David Navara and Rauf Mamedov.   2018-04-25 More...
Giri, Carlsen Trying To Catch Topalov At Shamkir Chess David Navara blundered heavily today and quickly lost to Anish Giri, who joined Magnus Carlsenin second place in Shamkir. Veselin Topalov continues to lead the Gashimov Memorial after drawing with Rauf Mamedov. 2018-04-25 More...
Shamkir Chess 4-5: Topalov and Carlsen strike Veselin Topalov is the sole leader of the Gashimov Memorial on the first rest day after he brought an end to the draw curse by scoring consecutive wins over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and David Navara. He now has to look over his shoulder, though, since Magnus Carlsen is also off the mark. 2018-04-24 More...
The Champion Keeping his Word Carlsen – Wojtaszek was a decisive game indeed. The champion has delivered an exciting battle, just as he promised beforehand. Magnus got an opening edge in the 4.Qxd4 Sicilian, but refrained from a typical strike Nd5 as not seeing any clear-cut winning path over the board.   2018-04-24 More...
Carlsen Gets 1st Win In Shamkir Chess; Topalov Leads Veselin Topalov maintained his lead at the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir as he won (again from a worse position) vs David Navara. Magnus Carlsen scored his first win in round five vs Radoslaw Wojtaszek in an offbeat Sicilian. 2018-04-23 More...
At the Third Attempt The Vugar Gashimov Memorial is in full swing in the sunny Azerbaijan. A quick grandmaster draw in round four was made by Teimour Radjabov and Magnus Carlsen. 2018-04-23 More...
Shamkir Chess 2-3: Why all the draws? Magnus Carlsen played on to bare kings against David Navara and Rauf Mamedov but couldn’t stop all 15 games so far in Shamkir ending in draws, with the World Champion’s frustration shown by his failure to attend the Round 3 post-game interview. 2018-04-22 More...
No Leaders or Tailenders Round three of the Vugar Gashimov Memorial has also failed to have anyone scoring the first goal, giving us a total of 15 draws all in all.  2018-04-22 More...
Topalov Breaks Draw Spell In Shamkir The fourth round of the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan saw the first decisive game of the tournament. With his win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, it's Veselin Topalov who grabbed the lead today.  2018-04-22 More...
Shamkir Round 2: Again five draws The first round of the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir ended with five draws, and the second round also brought five draws. 2018-04-21 More...
Deficit of Ones and Zeros The round two day in Shamkir started with an educational tour. The driving force of any tournament in Shamkir is Hojjat Asadullayev, who kindly agreed to accompany Nona Gaprindashvili, the film crew of Match TV Elmira Mirzoeva and Anton Skrypnik, as well as your correspondent, to the History Ethnography Museum and Lutheran Church. 2018-04-21 More...
Shamkir: Five draws to start The Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan began with five draws. The top game between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Magnus Carlsen was rather unspectacular. 2018-04-20 More...
Maitres Warming Up for Fight As we have mentioned in our previous report, round one in Shamkir has had some favorites pitted against each other. With photo and video cameras trained on them, the first symbolic moves for Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Magnus Carlsen were made by the fifth world champion Nona Gaprindashvili and Chief Executive of the Shamkir region Alimpasha Mamedov.  2018-04-20 More...