Palma de Mallorca Grand Prix - Round 1

Round 1: Three decisive games in the first round of the Palma de Mallorca Grand Prix.

The 2017 FIDE World Chess Grand Prix series continued with the fourth and final tournament, which is taking place in Palma de Mallorca, from 16th to 25th of November.

The tournament is being held in the Hotel Iberostar Bahia de Palma, set right on the beach. In the post-game interviews many players were satisfied with the great location of the tournament and warm weather.

The first symbolic move in the game Jakovenko-Aronian was made by Rodrigo Moscardó, General Manager of the Iberostar Spain and the Mediterranean, in the presence of Javier Ochoa, FIDE Honorary Vice President and President of the Spanish Chess Federation, players and honorary guests.

Teimour Rajabov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are the only players who take part in the last stage and keep chances to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk are leading in the Grand Prix Series but have already finished their tournaments.

In the first round Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ernesto Inarkiev and Anish Giri outplayed their opponents, while 6 other games finished in a draw. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave showed better preparation in the opening against Boris Gelfand, where the two players resumed their theoretical battle in the Accelerated Dragon from the Moscow Grand Prix, and was satisfied with his position. He could not point out where things went wrong for the Israeli player and was not sure if it was the right idea for him to enter this line at all.

Alexander Riazantsev comfortably equalized with Black pieces against Teimour Rajabov and the players agreed for a draw after 2 hours of play.

Ernesto Inarkiev played a game full of prophylactic moves against Li Chao. The Russian player was enjoying a slightly better position and was trying not let his opponent to get any activity. This strategy worked out well for him, as the Chinese player still tried to break through by playing 19...c5 but this attempt failed. According to Inarkiev, after 20.Bc5 Black has no Be5 because of 21. de Rd1 22.Rd1 Qc5 23.Rd8 Kg7 24. Qb5! After 20...f6 Black’s position was lost.



In the longest game of the day, Anish Giri won against Richard Rapport. The Dutch Grandmaster was not sure about his decision to castle long. It turned out that after unexpected 14...b5 white was in trouble. Surprisingly, a few moves after this Anish was more optimistic about his position and declined the draw offer of his opponent. Later on, Richard Rapport made few errors and went for a dubious sacrifice that was proven wrong in the game.

The local hero Francisco Vallejo Pons showed an interesting idea in the opening with 3...b5 against Ding Liren and after 8...Bd5 Black got a comfortable position. After most of the pieces were traded, the game finished in a draw.

Official website worldchess.com/gp2017

The final stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2017 opens in Palma de Mallorca

The world’s best chess players and chess establishment came together in Bellver Castle to celebrate the opening of the final leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Palma de Mallorca.

Palma de Mallorca is now looking forward to 9 days of intense chess battles, which will finally determine the two winners of the series – participants of the FIDE Candidates tournament.

The Opening Ceremony was held at the landmark hilltop Bellver Castle, former residence for the Kings of Mallorca built in the 14th century in a Gothic style. At the castle’s unique circular yard guests had a good opportunity to mingle with each other and enjoy modern Spanish guitar music.

Javier Ochoa, Honorary FIDE Vice President and President of the Spanish Chess Federation, thanked FIDE for the opportunity to host the tournament and welcomed the participants. “Spain is a country with a great Chess tradition and a thousand-year long history of playing chess,” he added.

Sebastia Nadal, President of the Winter Chess: “It is very rewarding to know that one of the best Spanish chess players of our time, Francisco Vallejo Pons, who was born and who resides here in our islands, could take part in this cycle of the World Chess.”

In the drawing of colours, the top player of the tournament Levon Aronian chose black pieces for the first round. The pairings for the first round are the following:

Dmitry Jakovenko – Levon Aronian
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Boris Gelfand
Pavel Eljanov – Hikaru Nakamura
Ding Liren – Francisco Vallejo Pons
Evgeny Tomashevsky – Peter Svidler
Anish Giri – Richard Rapport
Ernesto Inarkiev – Li Chao
Teimour Radjabov – Alexander Riazantsev
Jon Ludvig Hammer – Harikrishna Pentala

The Palma Grand Prix is supported by Official Partner EG Capital Advisors, an international asset management company, Kaspersky Lab, World Chess and FIDE Official Cybersecurity Partner, S.T. Dupont, Official Writing Instrument, and Isklar, Official Water.

First round starts tomorrow at Hotel Iberostar Bahia de Palma.

Opening Ceremony Photo Gallery

Official website worldchess.com/gp2017