Ivanchuk Leads in Banza

2009 has been a great year for chess tournaments. While the great "super-tournaments" have lived up to their billing, there has been no shortage of excellent second-tier tournaments, which often attract a smattering of top ten players along with other elite grandmasters.

At the moment, the big event is a tournament in Banza, Romania, a six-player double round robin with five players rated over 2700. Teimour Radjabov is the highest rated player, but the rest of the field is nearly as strong: Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov, Boris Gelfand, Gata Kamsky and top Romanian GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. Ivanchuk is currently in the lead with a score of 4.5/6.

It's also nice to see Shirov recovering from his recent bad performances; he's sporting a solid 3.5/6 score after a sixth round win over Kamsky. Gata and Nisipeanu are at the bottom of the standings, each with 1.5 points. The most recent games, complete with commentary from Grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco, are available at ChessBase. I'll have another report at the tournament's conclusion, on June 25th.