Mind Games Day 6: Basque System starts

12/17/2013 – This unique style of chess has begun in China! The players face each other twice simultaneously, once with black and once with white. In the men's Karjakin has again taken an early lead with a devastating 5.0/6. In the women's it is the Chinese that are dominating as they hold the top three spots at the moment, with Hou Yifan and Ju Wenjun at the very top. Analysis of the basque!

 

SportAccord Mind Games will be held in Beijing, China between the 12th of December and 20th December 2012. The World Mind Games was held for the first time in 2008 and consisted of 5 disciplines: chess, bridge, draughts (checkers), go, and xiangqi (Chinese chess). SportAccord, the organizer of the Mind Games, is the umbrella organization for both Olympic and non-Olympic sports as well as for major organizers of conferences and sporting events.

Day 6: Basque Rapids - Men

After one board is finished or the position is not very interesting players tend to concentrate on the other one

Redifining "opening moves"

The basque rapids have started in China. To clarify, this means that each player plays against his opponent on two boards simultaneously, one with white and one with black.
Karjakin continues dominant in China with excellent results in all the formats. He has so far scored a superb 5.0/6 in three rounds in the Basque system, besting Leko 2-0, Aronian 1.5-0.5 and Ponomariov 1.5-0.5. This gives him a full point lead after the first day of the Basque and he will try to defend his first place position tomorrow when the chess events finish.

Dividing attention is not easy! Ivanchuk currently has 50% and holds the sixth place thanks to tiebreaks

Ponomariov and Le Quang Liem are both in striking distance from Karjakin, while fourth place is being shared by Grischuk and Aronian at 3.5/6.

Wang Yue and Kamsky ready to begin their games

Yes, they are playing against each other, even though it doesn't look like it

Rank	Name	Rtg	FED			1.Rd.			2.Rd.			3.Rd.	Pts
1	Karjakin Sergey	2787	RUS		16	1 1		4	½​ 1		2	1 ½​	5.0
2	Ponomariov Ruslan	2748	UKR		15	1 ½​		9	1 1		1	0 ½​	4.0
	Le Quang Liem	2756	VIE		7	0 1		6	½​ 1		10	½​ 1	4.0
4	Aronian Levon	2797	ARM		14	1 1		1	½​ 0		5	½​ ½​	3.5
5	Grischuk Alexander	2828	RUS		10	0 ½​		13	1 1		4	½​ ½​	3.5
6	Ivanchuk Vassily	2732	UKR		8	0 1		3	½​ 0		15	½​ 1	3.0
7	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2795	AZE		3	1 0		12	½​ ½​		8	1 0	3.0
8	Nepomniachtchi Ian	2799	RUS		6	1 0		10	½​ ½​		7	0 1	3.0
9	Kamsky Gata	2734	USA		11	½​ 1		2	0 0		14	½​ 1	3.0
10	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2758	CUB		5	1 ½​		8	½​ ½​		3	½​ 0	3.0
11	Wang Yue	2729	CHN		9	½​ 0		15	½​ 1		12	½​ ½​	3.0
12	Radjabov Teimour	2749	AZE		13	0 1		7	½​ ½​		11	½​ ½​	3.0
13	Wang Hao	2690	CHN		12	1 0		5	0 0		16	1 ½​	2.5
14	Giri Anish	2700	NED		4	0 0		16	½​ 1		9	½​ 0	2.0
15	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2761	FRA		2	0 ½​		11	½​ 0		6	½​ 0	1.5
16	Leko Peter	2738	HUN		1	0 0		14	½​ 0		13	0 ½​	1.0

Note: Rapid ratings used
Tomorrow Karjakin will start against Le Quang Liem while Aronian will play Ponomariov. However anyone that currently has 3.0/6 has real chances at making the podium wiht a good result tomorrow.

Day 6: Basque Women

Kosintseva and Zhao Xue race to start their opponent's clock. Time is of the essence!

Hou Yifan exhibited aggressive and strong chess in the day one of the Basque. She started out crushing Antoeneta Stefanova on both boards in round one.

She proceeded to also beat Kosteniuk 2-0 with a sacrificial win on the White board and a positional win with Black. She was finally halted by her compatriot Zhao Xue who took a full point from her.

Ju Wenjun started with two draws against Ushenina. Also who said flexibility wasn't important in chess?

Tied with Hou Yifan is Ju Wenjun who started slowly with two draws against Ushenina, but proceeded to beat Koneru 2-0 and finished the day with another 2-0 with against Cmilyte. In third position is yet another Chinese, Zhao Xue has 4.5/6 points after beating Sebag, Ushenina and drawing Hou Yifan.

Roller chairs are an important weapon in this type of chess

From the "foreigners" Paehtz has the best result so far, helped by her great first round against Sebag in which she won both games.

Paehtz beat Sebag in both of the boards and she has a great result so far with 4.0/6

Maybe measuring the playing field helped?

It definitely helped Ju Wenjun who is tied for first. She will play Hou Yifan first thing in the morning.

Rank	Name	Rtg	FED			1.Rd.			2.Rd.			3.Rd.	Pts
1	Hou Yifan	2579	CHN		16	1 1		9	1 1		3	0 1	5.0
2	Ju Wenjun	2552	CHN		11	½​ ½​		15	1 1		7	1 1	5.0
3	Zhao Xue	2489	CHN		12	1 ½​		11	1 1		1	1 0	4.5
4	Paehtz Elisabeth	2513	GER		14	1 1		7	0 1		5	0 1	4.0
5	Dzagnidze Nana	2575	GEO		8	1 0		10	1 ½​		4	1 0	3.5
6	Gunina Valentina	2543	RUS		9	½​ 0		8	1 ½​		13	½​ 1	3.5
7	Cmilyte Viktorija	2450	LTU		13	1 1		4	1 0		2	0 0	3.0
8	Muzychuk Anna	2566	SLO		5	0 1		6	0 ½​		9	1 0	2.5
9	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2588	RUS		6	½​ 1		1	0 0		8	0 1	2.5
10	Cramling Pia	2513	SWE		15	½​ ½​		5	0 ½​		12	1 0	2.5
11	Ushenina Anna	2478	UKR		2	½​ ½​		3	0 0		16	1 ½​	2.5
12	Kosintseva Tatiana	2503	RUS		3	0 ½​		16	½​ ½​		10	0 1	2.5
13	Lagno Kateryna	2566	UKR		7	0 0		14	½​ 1		6	½​ 0	2.0
14	Sebag Marie	2502	FRA		4	0 0		13	½​ 0		15	1 ½​	2.0
15	Koneru Humpy	2626	IND		10	½​ ½​		2	0 0		14	0 ½​	1.5
16	Stefanova Antoaneta	2582	BUL		1	0 0		12	½​ ½​		11	0 ½​	1.5

Note: Rapid ratings used

Schedule

Thursday, December 12th	14:00-19:00    Rapid Event: 1-4 rounds (men), 1-4 rounds (women)
Friday, December 13th	14:00-19:00    Rapid Event: 5-7 rounds (men), 5-7 rounds (women)
Saturday, December 14th	14:00-19:00    Blitz Event: 1-10 rounds (men), 1-10 rounds (women)
Sunday, December 15th	14:00-19:00    Blitz Event: 11-20 rounds (men), 11-20 rounds (women)
Monday, December 16th	14:00-19:00    Blitz Event: 21-30 rounds (men), 21-30 rounds (women)
Tuesday, December 17th	14:00-19:00    Basque System: 1-3 rounds (men), 1-3 rounds (women)
Wednesday, December 18th	11:00-16:00    Basque System: 4-5 rounds (men), 4-5 rounds (women) & Closing Ceremony

Source: Here