The first two quarter-finals were rather one-sided. The first Hammer-Nakamura game was fairly balanced when the Norwegian blundered losing the exchange. In the second game with Black he never obtained any winning chances at all.
Quarter Finals:
Jon Ludvig Hammer | 2633 | NOR | 0-1 | Hikaru Nakamura | 2733 | USA | Sicilian b3 | Bad blunder from Hammer in the rook and knight pseudo-endgame |
Hikaru Nakamura | 2733 | USA | 1-0 | Jon Ludvig Hammer | 2633 | NOR | Spanish Delayed Exchange | Hammer was forced to take risks to try and win and Nakamura refuted Hammer's activity with a strong exchange sacrifice |
In the first game Bu outplayed Pelletier from a fairly level position with the Chinese player winning a smooth positional game.
Pelletier then needed to win with Black but, despite the Swiss-player's best efforts to destablize events, Bu kept control and was able to organize a perpetual check.
Yannick Pelletier | 2592 | SUI | 0-1 | Xiangzhi Bu | 2695 | CHN | Catalan | White ran out of things to do and Bu broke through on the queenside. |
Xiangzhi Bu | 2695 | CHN | 0.5-0.5 | Yannick Pelletier | 2592 | SUI | English/Hedgehog | Pelletier tried (with ...f5 and ...b5) to mix things but White was never rattled by this show of force. |
A selection of videos from Cap d'Agde:
Here are the preliminary round tables:
Rank | Name | Country | Rating | Points |
1 | Hikaru Nakamura | USA | 2733 | 6.5 |
2 | Bu Xiangzhi | CHN | 2695 | 5.5 |
3 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | VIE | 2633 | 4 |
4 | Judit Polgar | HUN | 2682 | 3.5 |
5 | Romain Edouard | FRA | 2636 | 3 |
6= | Anatoly Karpov | RUS | 2619 | 2.5 |
6= | Nadezhda Kosintseva | RUS | 2565 | 2.5 |
8 | Sophie Milliet | FRA | 2388 | 0.5 |
Pool B:
Rank | Name | Country | Rating | Points |
1= | Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR | 2754 | 5.5 |
1= | Le Quang Liem | VIE | 2694 | 5.5 |
3= | Jon Ludvig Hammer | NOR | 2633 | 4 |
3= | Yannick Pelletier | SUI | 2592 | 4 |
5= | Tigran Gharamian | FRA | 2658 | 3 |
5= | Kateryna Lahno | UKR | 2539 | 3 |
7 | Zhu Chen | QAT | 2480 | 2 |
8 | Tatiana Kosintseva | RUS | 2573 | 1 |
Live games can be watched everyday from 14.30 local time Live Games
The English-language commentators being Glenn Flear (that is, yours truly!) and Javier Moreno.
Moscow 16.30am
Paris, Madrid 14.30am
London 13.30
New York 08.30am
Los Angeles 05.30am
For more information go to the Official site