Yury Shulman Wins in Montreal
By Jennifer Shahade   
September 3, 2008
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GM Yury Shulman in Montreal

U.S. Champion GM Yury Shulman took clear first in the 9th Montreal International Chess Tournament Empresa (August 24-September 2) with 6.5/9. GM Hikaru Nakamura finished a point behind in a four-way tie for second which included fellow Olympic teamate GM Varuzhan Akobian. Meanwhile GM Pascal Charbonneau, who had an electrifying start had a difficult second half to finish 7-9 with 3.5.

Shulman told CLO that "Montreal is a wonderful city" and that he was very impressed by the local volunteers and organization.

Shulman's favorite games from the event were two King's Indian battles against GMs Charbonneau and Igor Nataf. Shulman called them both intense and interesting but said that one player resigned too early, and one too late. Can you guess which was which?

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Charbonneau's explanation for resigning (not an excuse, he points out) was:
"I lost two games in a row, had a dead lost position about four moves before the end, where I could resign with a clear conscience, and Yury made a few very inaccurate moves (his own admission) like Kh1? which kind of made things complicated for him. Things are still very good for White when I resigned, but to be honest, I was not even looking at the position. The fact is that after Qf7 he has to be very accurate to win. The win is there, Rxd5, cxd5, Nd6, but it took us maybe 15 minutes to find it while analyzing, and we were both under 10 minutes on the clock so."

Charbonneau gracefully remarked that this all could be a good lesson for CLO readers!


Montreal International Chess Tournament

Final Standings after Round 9

1.  GM Yuri Shulman 2623 (USA)- 6.5
2-4 GM Hikaru Nakamura 2697 (USA), GM Mark Bluvshtein 2548 (Canada) and GM Varuzhan Akobian 2610 (USA)- 5.5
5-6- GM Sebastien Maze 2553 (France) and GM Igor Nataf 2534 (France) 4.5 
7-9-GM Anton Kovalyov 2548 (Canada), GM Pascal Charbonneau 2499 (Canada) and IM Igor Zugic 2457 (Canada)-3.5
10- IM Thomas Roussel-Roozmon 2486 (Canada)-2.5

Photo Gallery from Montreal

Photos courtesy of Hikaru Nakamura and Irina Krush

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GMs Yury Shulman and Pascal Charbonneau

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GM Hikaru Nakamura


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IM Irina Krush with some important reading material , the September Chess Life Magazine

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GM Varuzhan Akobian

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Montreal sky

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Friends off the board

 
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Locked in combat on the board