Monday
Jan052015
Ongoing: Hastings
Monday, January 5, 2015 at 11:55PM
The annual Hastings tournament is a classic event, going back into the 19th century. While there are stronger opens nowadays, the mention Hastings will always quicken the pulse of historically aware chess players due to the famous 1895 edition of the tournament.
The current tournament is 7 rounds in, and the leader is Chinese grandmaster Zhao Jun who raced out with six straight wins before giving up a draw in round 7. Six players are a point behind, and two rounds remain.
tagged Hastings
Reader Comments (3)
I saw a joke on twitter that since he's playing Feir in round 8, Zhao Jun has nothing to fear but Feir himself...
It’s Fier, Alexandr - Zhao drew easily as black with him in round 9 to finish on 8/9, Fier on 7/9.
Oh and famous English exploits at Hastings, as Leonard Barden pointed out:
"In 1934-35 Sir George Thomas, who had been the global No1 at badminton, beat the world champions José Capablanca and Mikhail Botvinnik in successive rounds and in 1953-54 the Bletchley Park codebreaker Hugh Alexander won a 120-move queen ending against David Bronstein which made Fleet Street's front pages."
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jan/03/hastings-masters-english-proving-ground