The United States Chess Federation - Americans in Gibraltar: Kamsky and Lenderman Lead the Way

Americans in Gibraltar: Kamsky and Lenderman Lead the Way

February 4, 2010

The American squad scored prominently at the 8th Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar. GM Gata Kamsky and Alex Lenderman both scored 7.5/10 to become part of a nine-way tie for first. Both Americans missed out on the four-way first place playoff on tiebreaks (tournament performance rating). Gata Kamsky was the only player in the nine-way tie who had six blacks and four whites. The playoff was won by Michael Adams of England, over Jan Gustafsson of Germany, Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain and Chanda Sandipan of India. Browse the final standings here (ordered by performance rating and not accounting for the first place playoff).

GM-elect Alex Lenderman (Pretty soon we're going to have to call him "super GM-elect") had a pretty finish over GM Daniel Fridman, the husband of US Women's Champion Anna Zatonskih.

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Photo courtesy Monroi.com

Kamsky won his final round against GM Falko Bindrich. Two rounds before, he defeated former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova, also with the black pieces.

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Andrei Zaremba, Irina Krush, Joanna Houska and Drasko Boskovic
Photo courtesy Monroi.com

IM +two GM norms Drasko Boskovic tried very hard to crack into the winners' circle with 7.5, but was held to a draw in the final round by GM Humpy Koneru.

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After a round eight win over compatriot GM Vinay Bhat, IM Irina Krush had six points going into the final round and was in the running for the top woman prize, but she lost her final round game to GM Istratescu.

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Photo courtesy Monroi.com

Vinay finished the tournament strong, with a win over IM Tania Sachdev of India and a final score of 6.5.

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Photo courtesy Monroi.com

Women's World Champion and US resident GM Alexandra Kosteniuk also scored 6.5/10. Read more about her final impressions of Gibraltar on chessblog.com.

Photo courtesy Monroi.com

US Women's Champion Anna Zatonskih scored 5.5 out of 10.

Photo courtesy Monroi.com

IM Sam Shankland had 6.5 out of 10 (corrected score). Read more about his impressions of Gibraltar, "Planet of the Apes" on his own blog.

Photo courtesy Monroi.com

FM Andrei Zaremba, pictured above, finished with 6 out of 10. IM Justin Sarkar scored 6.5/10. FM Sunil Weeramantry, officially playing for Sri Lanka, scored 5/10.

For much more on Gibraltar, check out the official website, monroi for games, Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog , and Sam Shankland's blog.