Ray Robson is in clear lead again after 7 rounds. In round 6, Ray defeated super IM Ben Finegold. He now has 5.5 points in 7 games. He already played 3 GMs and I think he also met the requirement of foreign players. It is all about the performance now.
He is facing IM Shankland in round 8 with the White pieces. If Ray succeeds in getting his 2nd GM norm in this event, he and Ben Finegold will both have the chance to earn their final GM norm at the SPICE Cup at Texas Tech University in less than a month.
Here are the top board results in round 7:
IM Shankland – GM Kacheishvili: 1/2 – 1/2
IM Robson – IM Finegold: 1 – 0
IM Mulyar – GM Amanov: 1 – 0
GM Izoria – Molner: 1/2 – 1/2
Thaler – GM Mitkov: 0 – 1
IM Ippolito – FM Kleiman: 1 – 0
IM Sarkar – FM Felecan: 0 – 1
IM Arnold – FM Betaneli: 1 – 0
IM Vigorito – IM Young: 1 – 0
Official website: http://nachess.org/
Are the games shown live?
My game with Ray was quite amazing, although, it did not end very nicely for me.
Robson-Finegold
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Bc5 5. Nxe5 Nxe4 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qh5+ g6
8. Qd5+ Kg7 9. Bxc6 Re8 10. Qxe4 Rxe4 11. Bxe4 d5 12. Bf3 g5 13. Nc3 c6 14. d3
Bf5 15. Bd2 Qf6 16. Rae1 Rf8 17. Kh1 h5 18. Bd1 h4 19. h3 Qg6 20. Be3 Bd6 21.
Bxa7 Qf6 22. Be3 Kh7 23. Bd2 Rg8 24. f3 Bb8 25. Be3 Qd6 26. Bg1 Qb4 27. Ne2 Re8
28. b3 Qd2 29. Bd4 Be5 30. Bf2 Bg6 31. Kg1 d4 32. f4 Bf6 33. fxg5 Qxg5 34. Nxd4
Rg8 35. Bg4 Qc5 36. Nf3 Qxc2 37. Bxh4 Bc3 38. Rc1 Qb2 39. Bg5 Bxd3 40. Rf2 Bd4
41. Nxd4 Qxd4 42. Bf6 Qe3 43. Rd1 Be4 44. Rd7+ Kg6 45. Bd4 Qg3 46. Re7 Bd5 47.
Rf6+ 1-0
Looks like Ray has pretty much secured his GM norm by beating Shankland, as long as his 9th round opponent is rated at least in the mid 2300’s.
Robson-Shankland
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.O-O-O Bd7 9.f4 Qc7 10.Be2 Be7 11.Kb1 Nxd4 12.Qxd4 Bc6 13.e5 dxe5 14.fxe5 Nd5 15.Ne4 Bxg5 16.Nxg5 O-O-O 17.Rhf1 Rhf8 18.Ne4 Nc3+ 19.Qxc3 Rxd1+ 20.Bxd1 Bxe4 21.Qb4 1-0
Wow. What a meltdown by Shankland… a whole piece on move 21????