SportAccord Mind Games: Day 1 of Basque

Blitz gold medalist Sergey Karjakin of Russia is sole leader after the first day of Basque system chess event. Basque system is an interesting idea, opponents are playing on two boards simultaneously, one with white pieces and one with black. It makes the matches really exciting. One of the most important parts is the time management.

In women's section Hou Yifan, the 19 years old Womens World Champion, and 2013 World Mindgames gold medalist in blitz, got of to an excellent start by beating former World Champion Antonetta Stefanova of Bulgaria by 2-0.

Full report is available at the official website

---

Blitz Results

Sergey Karjakin from Russia won the blitz tournament with 19.5 out of 30 games.

Hou Yifan from China is the winner in women's section.

Full report is at the official website

---

Day 2 of Blitz

Day 2 of the womens blitz event, saw the reigning World Champion, Hou Yifan break away from the field of competitors.

Day 2 of the mens blitz tournament, was a very dramatic day, where the lead constantly kept changing.

Full report of the day is available at the official website

---

Day 1 of Blitz

Valentina Gunina from Russia and Levon Aronian from Armenia are leading the Blitz tournament after Day 1.

Cross-tables Men
Cross-tables Women

Official website

---

Rapid Results

Wang Yue and Valentina Gunina became the winners of the rapid tournament SportAccord Mind Games in Beijing.

Rapid results - WOMEN

Rapid results - MEN

---

SportAccord Mind Games started today in Beijing, China.

Day 1 of Rapid

At the end of day 1 of the rapid chess competitions, we have two clear leaders in the Men and Women events.

In men section, Peter Leko from Hungary has got 3.5 out of 4 by winning Vachier-Lagrave from France, Le Quang Liem from Vitnam and Sergey Karjakin from Russia in round 4. This game is quite decisive for today's final standing, after making few blunders in the middle game Karjakin was defending very well, but after almost 100 moves he eventually had to resign. Thanks to wins in first three rounds Karjakin is now on the second place.

With 100% score we find GM Valentina Gunina (current Women World Blitz Champion) from Russia who has managed to dispose of two former World Champions, Alexandra Kosteniuk also from Russia and Antoaneta Stefanova from Bulgaria. The latter is also the current Women World Rapid Champion. The field is tremendously strong and tomorrow we will see a power house match between the current Women World Champion and prodigy Hou Yifan.

Results after Round 4 MEN

Results after Round 4 WOMEN

---

Schedule

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

Players

	MEN							WOMEN
	Karjakin, Sergey	RUS						Koneru, Humpy	IND
	Grischuk, Alexander	RUS						Hou, Yifan	CHN
	Aronian, Levon	ARM						Muzychuk, Anna	SLO
	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	AZE						Dzagnidze, Nana	GEO
	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	CUB						Lagno, Kateryna	UKR
	Ponomariov, Ruslan	UKR						Kosteniuk, Alexandra	RUS
	Radjabov, Teimour	AZE						Gunina, Valentina	RUS
	Le, Quang Liem	VIE						Stefanova, Antoaneta	BUL
	Wang, Hao	CHN						Ju, Wenjun	CHN
	Wang, Yue	CHN						Sebag, Marie	FRA
	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	RUS						Zhao, Xue	CHN
	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	FRA						Kosintseva, Tatiana	RUS
	Kamsky, Gata	USA						Cramling, Pia	SWE
	Leko, Peter	HUN						Ushenina, Anna	UKR
	Ivanchuk, Vassily	UKR						Paehtz, Elisabeth	GER
	Giri, Anish	NED						Cmilyte, Viktorija	LTU