2018 Calgary International: GOTW

John Upper's picture
Submitted by John Upper on Sun, 08/19/2018 - 23:55

The 11th Calgary International Chess Classic was held August 14-19, 2018 at the Calgary Chess Club.

The International was a 9-round, 26 (?) player swiss [looks like 24 players with 2 floaters to avoid forced byes], with 3 FMs, no IMs, but 5 GMs: Victor Mikhalevski (ISR), Melikset Khachiyan (USA), Aman Hambleton (CAN), GM Steven Zierk (USA), and Enrico Sevillano (USA).

Prize Winners

GMs Victor Mikhalevski (ISR) and Steven Zierk (USA) tied for 1st with 7.5/9. Both drew with each other, and with GM Khachiyan (who was clear 3rd with 6.5/9), and both defeated GM Aman Hambleton (4th, with 6/9).

Rafael Arruebarrena was top U2400 with 5.5/9, which included draws with GMs Khachiyan and Hambleton.

Ian Zhou was top U2000 with 5/9. He defeated GM Enrico Sevillano in round 6, and had very good chances in his final round game vs Mikhalevski (see game in the player below).

Also notable was the result of 9-year old Anand Chandra, who finished =10th despite losing his last-round game to GM Aman Hambleton. FM Olivier Kenta Chiku-Ratte scored 5/5 against his non-GM opponents, but was 0/4 against the four GMs he did play.

LINKS

homepage
http://www.calgary-international.com/

photos

See the Alberta Chess Association facebook page 

and the Calgary Chess Club facebook page

 

Our Canadian Game of the Week is the last round board 1 game at the 2018 Calgary International between tournament leader GM Victor Mikhalevski (ISR, 2560) and Ian Zhao (CAN, 1981). The diagrams above are from this game, and both are Black to play.

 Going into the final round of the 2018 Calgary International, GM Victor Mikhalevski had the lead with 7/8, a 1/2 point ahead of GM Steven Zierk (USA). They had drawn each other, and both had already played their nearest high-rated competitors, and so both werepaired down: 

  • Zierk got FM Chiku-Ratte, rated 180 lower -- a big gap at the over 2300 level, but no slam dunk. 
  • Mikhalevski however must have thought he'd won the lottery: White, against the untitled Ian Zhao, who he out-rated by 579 points. 

Slam dunk... or "be careful what you wish for"?

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 Round:  Result:

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