Early upsets at Gibraltar

Gashimov held to a draw at the start of the Gibraltar chess festival
Svidler, Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave, Harikrishna and Berkes win

The Gibraltar chess festival started yesterday with an exciting first round and high participation of over 180 players in the main group. Heavy weight favorites won their games, with a few exceptions. The most obvious stun of the day was of the rating favorite GM Gashimov. He was held to a draw by Gary Quillan (ENG, 2357). To make the English celebration in round 1 even bigger, IM Jovanka Houska (2392) held GM Vadim Milov to a draw with black.

Two of the other top contenders GM Svidler and GM Nakamura did not have problems at the start of the tournament. The strong Indian participants GM Harikrishna, GM Sandipan, IM Sachdev, and GM Ganguly also scored full points.

It was a double edged day for Sweden, as GM Berg won against FM Ashton, FM Nithander held GM Roiz to a draw, but GM Pia Cramling lost to FM Fruebing.

Scroll down (after the photos) to find all the results from round 1 and the pairings from round 2. The games from the Gibraltar Chess Festival can be viewed live daily on the Chessdom.com and the official site.

Top 30 round 1 results:

1 Quillan, Gary 0.0 ENG 2357 GM Gashimov, Vugar 0.0 AZE 2723 ½-½
2 GM Svidler, Peter 0.0 RUS 2723 FM Van Eijk, Sander 0.0 NED 2355 1-0
3 FM Leniart, Arkadiusz 0.0 POL 2360 GM Nakamura, Hikaru 0.0 USA 2699 0-1
4 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 0.0 FRA 2696 IM Kharous, Ernest 0.0 RUS 2400 1-0
5 FM Perez Ponsa, Federico 0.0 ARG 2390 GM Harikrishna, Pentala 0.0 IND 2673 0-1
6 GM Milov, Vadim 0.0 SUI 2669 IM Houska, Jovanka w 0.0 ENG 2392 ½-½
7 IM Welling, Gerard 0.0 NED 2371 GM Sokolov, Ivan 0.0 NED 2657 0-1
8 GM Berkes, Ferenc 0.0 HUN 2651 WGM Calzetta, Monica w 0.0 ESP 2371 1-0
9 FM Nithander, Victor 0.0 SWE 2369 GM Roiz, Michael 0.0 ISR 2647 ½-½
10 GM Beliavsky, Alexander G 0.0 SLO 2646 Carlhammar, Magnus 0.0 SWE 2351 1-0
11 IM Solomon, Kenny 0.0 RSA 2348 GM Avrukh, Boris 0.0 ISR 2645 0-1
12 GM Socko, Bartosz 0.0 POL 2631 IM Maryasin, Boris 0.0 ISR 2340 1-0
13 FM Miedema, Roi 0.0 NED 2325 GM Gurevich, Mikhail 0.0 TUR 2624 0-1
14 GM Akobian, Varuzhan 0.0 USA 2619 IM Klinova, Masha w 0.0 ISR 2328 1-0
15 FM Forsaa, Espen 0.0 NOR 2322 GM Ganguly, Surya Shekhar 0.0 IND 2614 0-1
16 GM Berg, Emanuel 0.0 SWE 2606 FM Ashton, Adam G 0.0 ENG 2321 1-0
17 FM Ripari, Marcelo i 0.0 ARG 2313 GM Kotronias, Vasilios 0.0 GRE 2603 0-1
18 GM Golod, Vitali 0.0 ISR 2575 Rasch, Holger 0.0 GER 2301 1-0
19 GM Andersson, Ulf 0.0 SWE 2571 FM Jessel, Stephen 0.0 IRL 2296 Did not play
20 GM Sandipan, Chanda 0.0 IND 2568 FM Thomassen, Joachim 0.0 NOR 2290 1-0
21 FM Armbrust, Florian 0.0 GER 2321 GM Stefanova, Antoaneta w 0.0 BUL 2557 0-1
22 GM Cramling, Pia w 0.0 SWE 2548 FM Fruebing, Stefan 0.0 GER 2307 0-1
23 Stebbings, Anthony J i 0.0 ENG 2290 GM Lopez Martinez, Josep Manu 0.0 ESP 2540 ½-½
24 GM Speelman, Jon S 0.0 ENG 2536 FM Csonka, Attila Istvan 0.0 HUN 2289 0-1
25 Bok, Benjamin 0.0 NED 2277 GM Del Rio De Angelis, Salvad 0.0 ESP 2532 ½-½
26 IM Hammer, Jon Ludvig 0.0 NOR 2532 FM Sanchez, Louis 0.0 FRA 2263 1-0
27 Malmdin, Nils-Ake 0.0 SWE 2256 IM Gordon, Stephen J 0.0 ENG 2524 0-1
28 GM Pavlovic, Milos 0.0 SRB 2520 IM Peredy, Ferenc 0.0 HUN 2252 1-0
29 FM White, Michael J R 0.0 ENG 2251 GM Dzagnidze, Nana w 0.0 GEO 2518 0-1
30 IM Papp, Gabor 0.0 HUN 2517 Chapman, Terry P D 0.0 ENG 2251 1-0