Gibraltar 2019: The 2700s Remain Undefeated Through Round 4
Through four rounds of the 2019 Tradewise Gibraltar Masters, the 14 participating 2700s have made it through 55 games without a defeat. (Rauf Mamedov had a bye in round 1.) This does not mean that they are all 4-0, of course; in fact, only one of them - David Navara - is 4-0, and he is in fact the only player with a perfect score in the whole tournament. This is surprising for a tournament with 250 players, but that's the way it is.
Here are the leading pairings for round 5 of this 10-round tournament:
- Navara (4) - So (3.5)
- Grandelius (3.5) - Naiditsch (3.5)
- Jumabayev (3.5) - Artemiev (3.5)
- Adams (3.5) - Papp (3.5)
- Khademalsharieh (3.5) - Adhiban (3.5)
- Vitiugov (3) - Harsha (3.5)
Romain Edouard also has 3.5 points, but is taking a bye. In addition to Vitiugov another 41 players have 3 points, including Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian, Yu, Nakamura, Le Quang Liem, and Ivanchuk, to name just the 2700s. It's a strong, deep tournament, and it's likely that there are more riches to be found here than in Wijk, if one has the patience to look for them.