- Vachier-Lagrave wins World Blitz Prelim

World Blitz Chess Championship Preliminaries
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave takes clear first place, five other also qualify
Report by Chessdom

The 2010 World Blitz Championship Preliminaries were held on 18th February 2010 in Moscow, Russia. The qualifier was part of the Aeroflot Open 2010 and it took place in the same venue – complex “Izmailovo”.

System of play was Swiss with 9 double rounds (players alternating colours). Rate of play was G-3’+2”. The final standing order of players is determined by the number of points scored. Should two or more players tie for a qualifying place, the tie is resolved by Median Buchholtz score (i.e. Buchholz score without the best and the worst results). Top six players qualify for the World Blitz Chess Championship.

World Junior Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France won six matches, drew three, and took the clear first place with 13.5 individual points. The key win was 2-0 against Dmitry Jakovenko in the final round.

Seven players shared the 2nd place, with 13 points each, but only five qualified for the final event. By the additional criteria, these players are: Bu Xiangzhi (China), Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan), and Russians Boris Grachev, Boris Savchenko and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

The participants of Aeroflot open tournaments A1 and A2 were admitted without the entry fee. Other interested players had to be rated above 2400 FIDE, pay 300 EUR entry fee and spend two nights at the official hotel.

The total prize fund was 40,000 EUR, with 10,000 EUR reserved for the winner.

The 2010 World Blitz Chess Championship – final tournament – will be held during the Tal Memorial, on November 2010, in Moscow. The final will consist of 20 players: 10 participants of Mikhail Tal Memorial, 6 winners of the Qualification Tournament of Feb.18, 2010 and 4 wild cards named by the Organizers.

The 2009 champion was Magnus Carlsen.

Final standings (Full standings here):

Place	SNo.	Title	Name	Fed.	FIDE	Total	MBch.	Bch.
1	5	GM	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	FRA	2730	13.5	71.50	92.00
2	16	GM	Bu, Xiangzhi	CHN	2673	13.0	79.00	100.00
3	23	GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	RUS	2658	13.0	74.50	96.50
4	38	GM	Mamedov, Rauf	AZE	2640	13.0	72.00	91.00
5	40	GM	Savchenko, Boris	RUS	2638	13.0	71.50	90.50
6	26	GM	Grachev, Boris	RUS	2653	13.0	70.00	90.00
7	29	GM	Dreev, Alexey	RUS	2650	13.0	66.00	84.50
8	37	GM	Van Wely, Loek	NED	2641	13.0	64.50	81.50
9	3	GM	Eljanov, Pavel	UKR	2736	12.5	66.50	85.00
10	41	GM	Kobalia, Mikhail	RUS	2637	12.0	71.00	90.50
10	48	GM	Rodshtein, Maxim	ISR	2622	12.0	71.00	90.50
12	35	GM	Bareev, Evgeny	RUS	2643	12.0	70.00	92.00
13	24	GM	Efimenko, Zahar	UKR	2657	12.0	63.50	81.00
14	39	GM	Tkachiev, Vladislav	FRA	2639	12.0	60.50	78.00
15	4	GM	Jakovenko, Dmitry	RUS	2730	11.5	79.50	101.00
16	6	GM	Karjakin, Sergey	RUS	2720	11.5	74.50	95.50
17	42	GM	Andreikin, Dmitry	RUS	2635	11.5	73.00	93.50
18	15	GM	Moiseenko, Alexander	UKR	2677	11.5	72.00	90.50
19	2	GM	Ponomariov, Ruslan	UKR	2737	11.5	71.00	92.50
20	57	GM	Romanov, Evgeny	RUS	2599	11.5	69.00	88.00
21	53	GM	Potkin, Vladimir	RUS	2611	11.5	67.00	83.00
22	36	GM	Predojevic, Borki	BIH	2642	11.5	66.00	84.50
23	11	GM	Bologan, Viktor	MDA	2692	11.5	63.50	82.50
24	49	GM	Iturrizaga, Eduardo	VEN	2616	11.5	63.00	82.00
25	60	GM	Bocharov, Dmitry	RUS	2594	11.5	57.00	70.00
26	7	GM	Bacrot, Etienne	FRA	2713	11.0	76.50	98.00
27	32	GM	Le, Quang Liem	VIE	2647	11.0	73.50	93.50
28	82	IM	Pridorozhni, Aleksei	RUS	2548	11.0	71.50	90.50
29	31	GM	Korobov, Anton	UKR	2648	11.0	70.50	90.00
30	27	GM	Sasikiran, Krishnan	IND	2653	11.0	69.00	88.00
31	10	GM	Kamsky, Gata	USA	2693	11.0	67.50	87.00
32	20	GM	Riazantsev, Alexander	RUS	2661	11.0	62.50	79.50
33	9	GM	Motylev, Alexander	RUS	2697	11.0	62.00	81.00
34	43	GM	Amonatov, Farrukh	TJK	2634	11.0	59.50	74.50
35	112	GM	Salem, A.R. Saleh	UAE	2484	10.5	68.50	86.00
36	1	GM	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	AZE	2741	10.5	67.50	87.00
37	63	GM	Rakhmanov, Aleksandr	RUS	2591	10.5	66.50	83.00
38	8	GM	Tomashevsky, Evgeny	RUS	2705	10.5	63.50	81.50
39	46	GM	Volkov, Sergey	RUS	2623	10.5	63.00	81.50
40	51	GM	Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son	VIE	2616	10.0	74.00	95.00
41	55	GM	Ehlvest, Jaan	USA	2600	10.0	74.00	93.50
42	28	GM	Timofeev, Artyom	RUS	2652	10.0	72.00	92.50
43	34	GM	Milov, Vadim	SUI	2644	10.0	69.00	90.00
44	90	GM	Shimanov, Aleksandr	RUS	2535	10.0	69.00	87.50
45	50	GM	McShane, Luke J	ENG	2616	10.0	68.50	88.50
46	101	GM	Wen, Yang	CHN	2513	10.0	67.50	86.50
47	18	GM	Zhigalko, Sergei	BLR	2668	10.0	67.50	84.50
48	72	GM	Maslak, Konstantin	RUS	2571	10.0	66.50	83.50
49	58	GM	Belov, Vladimir	RUS	2595	10.0	63.50	82.50
50	59	GM	Lenic, Luka	SLO	2595	10.0	63.50	80.50
51	44	GM	Zhou, Jianchao	CHN	2632	10.0	62.50	83.50
52	136		Lou, Yiping	CHN	2416	10.0	62.00	78.50
53	70	GM	Yudin, Sergei	RUS	2573	10.0	61.00	76.50
54	21	GM	Cheparinov, Ivan	BUL	2660	10.0	60.50	76.50
55	64	GM	Hou, Yifan	CHN	2590	10.0	59.50	76.50
56	61	GM	Safarli, Eltaj	AZE	2594	10.0	59.00	76.00
57	30	GM	Inarkiev, Ernesto	RUS	2649	10.0	57.50	73.00
58	67	GM	Melkumyan, Hrant	ARM	2583	9.5	75.00	95.50
59	81	IM	Papin, Vasily	RUS	2548	9.5	73.00	93.00
60	65	GM	Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan	IRI	2589	9.5	72.50	90.50
61	13	GM	Naiditsch, Arkadij	GER	2687	9.5	72.00	91.00
62	25	GM	So, Wesley	PHI	2656	9.5	70.50	91.00
63	14	GM	Sargissian, Gabriel	ARM	2680	9.5	66.50	84.00
64	17	GM	Smirin, Ilia	ISR	2668	9.5	63.50	81.00
65	22	GM	Vescovi, Giovanni	BRA	2660	9.5	60.50	79.00
66	120	IM	Durarbeyli, Vasif	AZE	2453	9.5	60.50	78.50

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar

3 Comments

Lionel Davis Reply

February 20, 2010 at 2:55 pm

Thanks for the update Susan but i think Lagrave plays the Negro Chess.
Anonymous Reply

February 21, 2010 at 1:41 am

No Naka. Why?
Anonymous Reply

February 21, 2010 at 9:47 am

“No Naka. Why?”

Because he knows he wouldn’t have qualified. Le Quang Liem (ICC blitz rating 3600) finished 27th, Gabriel Sargissian (ICC blitz rating 3450) finished 63rd.

How do you think Nakamura (ICC blitz rating 3500) would do, huh?

There is a very good reason why Nakamura refuses to participate, year after year.

Vachier-Lagrave wins World Blitz Prelim

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