Finally found the results and standings for the Trophée CCAS Cap d'Agde rapid. The final round of the group stage is in progress, so the KO stage pairings aren't settled yet. At least not in Group A, where Cheparinov needs a win to have a chance of moving on. [Bu Xiangzhi and Vachier Lagrave just won so Cheparinov is out even if he beats Kosteniuk.] Group B had four clear favorites and they've already made it in with a round to spare. The three ladies, Koneru, Hou Yifan, and Skripchenko, and young French GM Feller are out. So there's nothing to play for in the final Group A round.
Still, Karpov-Nakamura might be good even if it's just for show. Naka usually likes scalps more than rest and I don't think he's ever faced the 12th world champion. [Indeed, Nakamura went on to win, though it turned out the result did matter for Karpov. Site had the standings wrong before.] So far Nakamura lost to Radjabov, had the better of a draw with Carlsen, and beat everybody else. Carlsen and Radjabov are the others already through from Group B. Fabiano Caruana (Brooklyn!) is making some noise in Group A. He beat Bu Xiangzhi, Vachier Lagrave, and drew with Ivanchuk and Cheparinov to take first in the group. He's from New York so couldn't he just represent Little Italy instead of Italy? I'll update with the KO pairings when the group phase finishes in an hour or two.
Karpov and Hou Yifan went to a blitz playoff for the 5th spot in Group B (the standings were given incorrectly earlier) and Karpov went through 3-1. Amusing to watch it live while on Skype with Kasparov, in Milan for a business speech, who was shouting out improvements and curses as various opportunities for both sides sped by in the 3'+2" blitz match. He misses the game a little, ya think? The KO section begins tomorrow. Here are the pairings:
Carlsen-Bu Xiangzhi, Caruana-Karpov, Ivanchuk-Radjabov, Nakamura-Vachier Lagrave.
Mixed blessing of having the final-worthy Ivanchuk-Radjabov matchup in the quarterfinals but it's nice to have it at all. One of the dangers of the KO format is an early upset and a lopsided path to victory for another favorite. But the way Caruana is playing it's hard to speak of favorites at all. The PGN file was incomplete with many obviously incorrect scores at first. It's better now but some of the scores are still garbage, such as Nakamura-Radjabov.
Weird, the official site seems to be showing a blitz match between Hou Yifan and Karpov. Are the standings wrong and this is a playoff for the 4th spot in Group B? I HATE it when sites don't have the results and then the games up promptly. At least leave the most recent round up in the viewer.
Sorry, this isn't specifically directed at Mig, but I've seen several of these Caruana jokes on US sites, and they no longer make me laugh so much.
Fabiano and his family chose to move to Europe and take Italian citizenship, so we have a world class player for the first time since Serafino Dubois at least; even though he wasn't born here, why shouldn't we be proud of him, especially thinking of the returns we can hope for in terms of media publicity for chess in Italy?
Do American chess fans always write Nakamura (Osaka) or Onischuk (Sebastopol) or Kaidanov (Berdichev) or S. Polgar (Budapest) or Kamsky (wherever he was born) just like they write Caruana (Brooklyn)? At least Fabiano is genetically Italian, although in an enlightened world this should make no difference at all...
So, let's all forget about ethnicity, etc. and, if you want to, root for this great talent just because his chess is so good!
Yah, apparently they didn't update the standings right after the final round and Hou Yifan and Karpov are playing off for the 4th spot. Looks like Karpov beat her to go through. He'll face Caruana in the first KO round. Ivanchuk-Radjabov also a first-rounder!
What's wrong with jokes? Nothing derogatory implied or seen from what I can tell. I'm happy to claim him for Brooklyn!
>At least Fabiano is genetically Italian
Genetics is good to distinguish between races (caucasian, negroid, semitic, mongoloid..etc) not between nations and cultural-linguistic denominations.
Wikipedia gives "Caruana" as a name often met in Malta and South-Italy. The name is ethymologically of Persian orgin, derived from "caravan".
So Fabio may actually be genetically the middle-eastern(semitic)-type and his ancestors
may have came and settled in Italy during the Islamic invasion and conquest (jihad) of South-Italy in 870AD.
I gue
lol, Ovidiu, your genetics sound a bit 1950s American.
And by the way: You mean, 1000 years is not enough to claim "Italian"?
Sorta reminds me of Dennis Hopper's genetics lecture in True Romance.
>lol, Ovidiu..You mean, 1000 years is not enough to claim "Italian"?
you didn't get the point, "Italian" is not a race it is a nation (it is a software not hardware issue) and not all Italians are genetically caucasian (the same soft, say WinXP, can run on different types of hardware)
prugno: what now? you're being way overly sensitive.
Anyway please keep blogging on that french tournament. Nakamura, Magnus and Radjabov, in that order, are the clear favorites in my opinion.
>sorta reminds me of Dennis Hopper's genetics >lecture in True Romance.
try attending and other lectures, you will begin remember that ones too
Quarter finals:
Caruana - Karpov
Ivanchuk - Radjabov
Vachier-Lagrave - Nakamura
Bu - Carlsen
What is with the official site? Are they ignoring the results?
Where the heck are they? The internet isn't new the official site shouldn't be a scavenger hunt.
Results page (but not games) from the tournament Web site is here: http://www.capechecs.com/resultats/index.php?t=masters
Please don't ask me how to find it. It's like you can't get there from the tournament home page.
Svidler wins Russian Ch.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4984
In the late 70s, early 80s or so, there was an Italian player who made a splash on the international scene. He was either a GM or a strong IM. Daring, attacking player. I can't remember his name for the life of me, but I would recognize it if someone said it.
I remember one game he played as black, against a Vienna in which white fianchettoed. The Italian put his bishop on c5, held back from playing Nf6, and played h5-h4. When white played Nxh4, black went Rxh4, gxh4 Qxh4 and won nicely.
What is that guy's name?
The two names that come to mind (memory thumbing through old--and now sold--Informant issues) would be Tatai or Mariotti.
Hi "r",
the Italian guy you are mentioning is GM Mariotti, and the game was Hartston-Mariotti. Right, he was a daring player but never became professional. Surely he would have been even much stronger if the Italian chess federation could better take care of him. Weel, at least he made it to become GM in the 70s which was more difficult than to become GM nowadays... Cheers!
Results, standings, and even a link to the PGN (top of page) at the link at the start of the article.
Sergio Mariotti (542 games on chessbase) once played a kind of 5 pawns attack against the King's Indian. Hair-raising stuff.