CCAS Rapid 2008 Round 1 & 2
The CCAS (Caisse Centrale a'Activites Sociales du Personnel des Industries Electrique et Gaziere) Rapid takes place in the Cap d'Agde vacation centre of the Union of the Electicity and Gas workers (at the seaside Cap of the inland town Agde).
In addition to the Rapid events there are several Opens with about 700 participants in total.
Yesterday Magnus drew no 1 and consequently played 2 white games today. In round 1 he played Hou Yifan, China and in round 2 Humpy Koneru, India.
Group A had battled it out first (at 2 PM) with 4 decisive games, and two hours later B-group was introduced and got started as well. (The time control is 25min + 10s increment from move 1.)
The "theatre" in which they play is very intimate. Not because it is small, it does room several hundred spectators. Still the atmosphere is very special, the playing area is compact and with heavy spotlights and spectators circling most of the floor the players probably feel like boxers in a ring.
An obvious highlight of round 1 was Nakamura - Radjabov.
Radjabov played his usual King Indian and after a fierce fight he broke through on the kingside and won.
Magnus was quite satisfied with his game against Hou. The opening was not very ambitious but when black spent a tempo with Qe7, Magnus could play d4 and they entered a quite usual line with white a tempo up. Magnus had several defensive resources, but chose the interesting exchange sack with Bf3 after Ng3 with a pawn and lots of positional compensation for the exchange. Black was pushed back and it was hard to create counterplay. When she did try Magnus decided to go for an ending a pawn up and better pieces. When Hou lost another pawn she resigned.
In group A most of the rating favourites won round 1 with the exception of Bu who lost as black against young Caruana. In round 2 three games ended draw. Ivanchuk, Lagrave, Cheparinov and Caruana all have 1,5 points.
In round 2 in group B the rating favourites Magnus, Radjabov and Nakamura won while Karpov conceded a draw to young Hou Yifan.
Magnus did not get much from the opening. After having built up a little pressure on the kingside he played 20.Re3 having missed the response Nb3! However, Humpy defended a bit passively and Magnus could enter the rook and knight ending with a clear initiative. He won one pawn and after a lot of manouevring another one. 1-0 and Magnus share the lead with Radjabov with 2/2 in group B. An excellent start.
Tomorrow the A-group will play 3 more rounds (at 11AM, 4PM and 9PM) while the B-group plays 2 rounds at 2PM and 6 PM. On Tuesday its the other way round, and if needed tie-breaks will be played from 10:30 PM onwards Tuesday night.
Another beautiful summer day in Cap today, and it is supposed to last for another day or two :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Cap d'Agde October 26th 2008
In addition to the Rapid events there are several Opens with about 700 participants in total.
Yesterday Magnus drew no 1 and consequently played 2 white games today. In round 1 he played Hou Yifan, China and in round 2 Humpy Koneru, India.
Group A had battled it out first (at 2 PM) with 4 decisive games, and two hours later B-group was introduced and got started as well. (The time control is 25min + 10s increment from move 1.)
The "theatre" in which they play is very intimate. Not because it is small, it does room several hundred spectators. Still the atmosphere is very special, the playing area is compact and with heavy spotlights and spectators circling most of the floor the players probably feel like boxers in a ring.
An obvious highlight of round 1 was Nakamura - Radjabov.
Radjabov played his usual King Indian and after a fierce fight he broke through on the kingside and won.
Magnus was quite satisfied with his game against Hou. The opening was not very ambitious but when black spent a tempo with Qe7, Magnus could play d4 and they entered a quite usual line with white a tempo up. Magnus had several defensive resources, but chose the interesting exchange sack with Bf3 after Ng3 with a pawn and lots of positional compensation for the exchange. Black was pushed back and it was hard to create counterplay. When she did try Magnus decided to go for an ending a pawn up and better pieces. When Hou lost another pawn she resigned.
In group A most of the rating favourites won round 1 with the exception of Bu who lost as black against young Caruana. In round 2 three games ended draw. Ivanchuk, Lagrave, Cheparinov and Caruana all have 1,5 points.
In round 2 in group B the rating favourites Magnus, Radjabov and Nakamura won while Karpov conceded a draw to young Hou Yifan.
Magnus did not get much from the opening. After having built up a little pressure on the kingside he played 20.Re3 having missed the response Nb3! However, Humpy defended a bit passively and Magnus could enter the rook and knight ending with a clear initiative. He won one pawn and after a lot of manouevring another one. 1-0 and Magnus share the lead with Radjabov with 2/2 in group B. An excellent start.
Tomorrow the A-group will play 3 more rounds (at 11AM, 4PM and 9PM) while the B-group plays 2 rounds at 2PM and 6 PM. On Tuesday its the other way round, and if needed tie-breaks will be played from 10:30 PM onwards Tuesday night.
Another beautiful summer day in Cap today, and it is supposed to last for another day or two :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Cap d'Agde October 26th 2008
Comments:
Posted by: Tassilo
I'm convinced Magnus usually is a gentleman. Yesterday, luckily, he was not :)
Posted by: xtra
Magnus is good at handling women it seems.
Posted by: Sam
Congratulations on a fantastic first couple of results and good luck for the rest of the tournament!
Glad you are back blogging again Henrik. It is always an enjoyment to read!
Glad you are back blogging again Henrik. It is always an enjoyment to read!
Posted by: Tassilo
now rather funny stuff: In the game Kramnik and Anand played yesterday, they achieved exactly the same position after 22 moves like in the game Cheparinov - Carlsen one year ago .. after 21 moves.
Incredible? Have a look!
www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1480605
chessbase.com/news/2008/bonn/games/bonn10.htm
Magnus chose the seemingly better continuation Nc4 then.
Incredible? Have a look!
www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1480605
chessbase.com/news/2008/bonn/games/bonn10.htm
Magnus chose the seemingly better continuation Nc4 then.
Posted by: Rolfo
Tassilo, very interesting observation,
indeed. Btw, things go well in Cap d'Agde :)
indeed. Btw, things go well in Cap d'Agde :)
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