FIDE Grand Prix 2014-2015

[Mick Norris]

Round 7 (May 21, 2015)
Dominguez Perez, Leinier - Svidler, Peter 1-0 38 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Caruana, Fabiano - Gelfand, Boris ½-½ 30 E60 King's Indian without Nc3
Karjakin, Sergey - Jobava, Baadur ½-½ 32 C10 French Rubinstein
Nakamura, Hikaru - Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 1-0 27 A45 Trompowsky
Giri, Anish - Tomashevsky, Evgeny 1-0 58 C88 Ruy Lopez Closed
Jakovenko, Dmitry - Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ 21 D78 Gruenfeld 3.g3

[Mick Norris]

Round 8 on 2015/05/22
SNO. NAME RTG RES. NAME RTG SNO.
12 GM Gelfand Boris 2744 – GM Svidler Peter 2734 10
11 GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2749 – GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2734 9
1 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2754 – GM Giri Anish 2776 8
2 GM Jobava Baadur 2699 – GM Nakamura Hikaru 2799 7
3 GM Grischuk Alexander 2780 – GM Karjakin Sergey 2753 6
4 GM Caruana Fabiano 2803 – GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2738 5

[Roger de Coverly]

Entirely baffling game from Jobava again Not the normal way to ditch an exchange in a French defense!

For those who haven't seen it, he contrived to persuade White to half open the h file with a far from obvious idea. He then played R h8-h5, followed by taking the typical French outpost pawn on e5, thereby being an exchange down without any pawns as compensation. The engine at the chessbomb site never thought he was worse by any more than three-quarters of a pawn.

I wonder sometimes whether beginners whose first thought before you tell them not to is to develop their rooks by P-R4 and R-R3 don't have a point, given that the rooks are the most difficult pieces to activate in conventional play.

[Chris Rice]

Karjakin, Sergey (RUS) - Jobava, Baadur (GEO)

½-½
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. e5 Nge7 5. Nf3 Bd7 6. Ne2 Nf5 7. Ng3 Nh4 8. c3 g6 9. Bf4 f6 10. Nxh4 fxe5 11. Nxg6 hxg6 12. dxe5 Qh4 13. Ne2 O-O-O 14. Qd2 Rh5 15. Ng3 Rxe5+ 16. Bxe5 Nxe5 17. Qe3 Nc6 18. Bb5 Bh6 19. Qe2 e5 20. Rd1 a6 21. Bxa6 Ne7 22. Bb5 c6 23. Qxe5 Bf4 24. Rd4 Bxe5 25. Rxh4 cxb5 26. O-O Kc7 27. Re1 Kd6 28. Rh7 Nc6 29. Rd1 Ke6 30. Re1 Kd6 31. Rd1 Ke6 32. Re1 ½-½

[Mick Norris]

After Round 7

RANK SNO. NAME RTG FED PTS SB
1 4 GM Caruana Fabiano 2803 ITA 5 14,50
2 9 GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2734 CUB 4½ 17,50
3 6 GM Karjakin Sergey 2753 RUS 4½ 13,25
4 10 GM Svidler Peter 2734 RUS 4 14,75
5 7 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2799 USA 4 12,50
6 12 GM Gelfand Boris 2744 ISR 3½ 12,00
7 5 GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2738 RUS 3½ 8,75
8 8 GM Giri Anish 2776 NED 3 10,75
9 2 GM Jobava Baadur 2699 GEO 3 10,50
10 3 GM Grischuk Alexander 2780 RUS 3 9,00
11 11 GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2749 RUS 2½ 8,25
12 1 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2754 FRA 1½ 4,75

[Mick Norris]

Caruana now almost certain to finish in the top 2 in the GP and get a Candidates spot, which is very welcome as he clearly needs to get a chance to qualify for a World Championship match

Close race between Nakamura, Karjakin and Tomashevsky for the second spot - if Nakamura makes it, then Grischuk has a chance to get a spot by average rating

[Tim Harding]

Caruana now almost certain to finish in the top 2 in the GP and get a Candidates spot, which is very welcome as he clearly needs to get a chance to qualify for a World Championship match

Close race between Nakamura, Karjakin and Tomashevsky for the second spot - if Nakamura makes it, then Grischuk has a chance to get a spot by average rating

Jakovenko crushing Caruana today, blowing the standings wide open... At least MVL ended his losing streak with a draw.
Nakamura has a winning ending and Tomashevsky also has winning chances.
Karjakin blundered at move 39 against Grischuk.

LATER: Engines claim Nakamura may have blown it with ...h4. Jakovenko has now won.

[LawrenceCooper]

Jakovenko crushing Caruana today

Caruana blundered on move 36 when a pawn up, presumably missing 37 dxc4 Qa5 hitting e1 whilst e4 remains en prise. Although the assessment was 0.43 before the blunder I suspect a draw was the most likely result.

[Tim Harding]

Nakamura was lucky that despite his slip he came down to R+P v R with the white king cut off. He played the tablebase phase perfectly and has now won. Meanwhile Svidler seems to have messed up and may lose, while Tomashevky seems to be winning against Dominguez.
That would make the leading scores:
Caruana and Nakamura 5
Dominguez, Gelfand, Karjakin, Jakovenko 4.5

Rest day tomorrow.

[Barry Sandercock]

Stockfish says Tomashevky is winning, but it looks like a draw to me.

[Tim Harding]

Stockfish says Tomashevky is winning, but it looks like a draw to me.

It was a draw, yes, the engines not understanding this while Tomashevky had 2 pawns more.

As the commentators discussed, White could have tried for e4-e5 but it doesn't work if Black meets e4 by ...e5 when after fxe5 White has three blockaded and split pawns.

Instead Tomashevsky made Dominguez find some "only" moves near the end with 3 pawns versus bishop, which he did confidently.

Fortunately for Dominguez he had plenty of time throughout. Draw agreed at 101...Bxg7 but it wasn't actually played on the board, with both Chessdom and Chess24 showing Ke5 which would lose.

[Tim Harding]

So Dominguez drew on Friday after all, and therefore is in a share of the lead going into the final three rounds.

Today:
Jakovenko-Gelfand, Najdorf Sicilian 6 h3
Karjakin-Caruana, English
Nakamura-Grischuk, Gruenfeld Exchange
Giri-Jobava, French 3 Nc3 Nc6 again!
Dominguez-MVL, Najdforf 6 f3 e5
Svidler-Tomashevsky, Spanish 8 a4 Bb7 anti-marshall

Scores:
5/8 Nakamura, Caruana, Dominguez
4.5 Karjakin, Gelfand,Jakovenko
4 Grischuk, Svidler
3.5 Giri
3 Tomashevsky, Jobava
2 MVL

And in the cricket, Bell is out in the first over of the day,,,

[Jonathan Bryant]

Jobava proving today that those rubbish-looking lines in the French really are rubbish.

[Mike Truran]

Unbelievable save by Gelfand!

[Tim Harding]

Amazing swindle by Gelfand today. In an apparently hopeless position he pulled off a stalemate/perpetual trick and remains unbeaten.

[Event "FIDE Grand Prix - Khanty-Mansiysk"] [Site "chess24.com"] [Date "2015.05.24"] [Round "9.1"] [White "Jakovenko, Dmitry"] [Black "Gelfand, Boris"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [WhiteElo "2738"] [BlackElo "2744"] [PlyCount "105"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. h3 e5 7. Nde2 h5 8. g3 b5 9. Nd5 Nbd7 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Nec3 Rc8 12. Bg2 Be7 13. Nxe7 Qxe7 14. O-O Qe6 15. Re1 b4 16. Nd5 Bxd5 17. exd5 Qf5 18. Bd2 Rxc2 19. Rc1 Rxc1 20. Qxc1 Nc5 21. Bxb4 Nd3 22. Qc6+ Qd7 23. Qa8+ Qd8 24. Qc6+ Nd7 25. Re4 f5 26. Rc4 e4 27. Qxa6 Nxb4 28. Qxd6 Nd3 29. Qe6+ Kf8 30. Qxf5+ Kg8 31. Qe6+ Kf8 32. Qd6+ Kg8 33. Qe6+ Kf8 34. Qxe4 N3e5 35. Qf5+ Kg8 36. d6 Rh6 37. Re4 h4 38. Rxh4 Rxh4 39. gxh4 Qxh4 40. Bd5+ Kh8 41. Kh1 Qh6 42. f4 g6 43. Qe6 Qf8 44. Bb3 g5 45. f5 Nd3 46. Qxd7 Qa8+ 47. Kg1 Nf4 48. Kf2 g4 $1 49. hxg4 $2 Qg2+ 50. Ke3 Nd5+ 51. Kd4 Qf2+ 52. Kxd5 Qd4+ 53. Kxd4 1/2-1/2

Also a strange incident in Caruana's game, maybe it will be explained later at the press conference.


[Event "FIDE Grand Prix"] [Site "Khanty Mansiysk"] [Date "2015.05.24"] [Round "9"] [White "Karjakin"] [Black "Caruana"] [Result "*"] [ECO "D41"] [PlyCount "121"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] [SourceDate "2015.05.24"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. g3 d5 5. d4 e6 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Bg2 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Nxc3 9. bxc3 Nxd4 10. Qxd4 Qxd4 11. cxd4 Bd6 12. O-O Rb8 13. e4 b6 14. Bb2 Bb7 15. Rac1 f6 16. Rfd1 Ke7 17. f4 Rhc8 18. e5 fxe5 19. fxe5 Bb4 20. Rxc8 Bxc8 21. Be4 g6 22. Rc1 Kd8 23. Kf2 Bb7 24. Kf3 Bd5 25. Bxd5 exd5 26. Ke3 Rc8 27. a4 Rxc1 28. Bxc1 Kd7 29. Bd2 Be7 30. Kd3 h5 31. a5 $2 (31. h3 {idea g4 to create fortress, whereas a5 assists Black said commentators.}) 31... bxa5 32. Bxa5 g5 33. h3 g4 34. hxg4 hxg4 35. Ke3 Bg5+ 36. Kd3 Kc6 37. Bd2 Be7 38. Ke3 Bg5+ 39. Kd3 Be7 40. Ke3 Bf8 41. Ba5 Bh6+ 42. Kd3 Kd7 43. Bd2 Bf8 44. Ke3 Ke6 45. Ba5 Kf5 46. Kd3 Be7 47. Ke3 Bg5+ 48. Kd3 Ke6 {Here Karjakin apparently claimed a draw by threefold repetition after his announced next move} 49. Bd2 {and the result was shown online. Caruana protested the arbiter's decision and eventually the game continued} Bd8 50. Ke3 Kf5 51. Bb4 $2 (51. Kd3 {said Stockfish online}) 51... a5 52. Ba3 a4 $17 53. Bb4 Bg5+ 54. Kd3 Bc1 55. Bd2 Ba3 56. Kc3 Be7 57. Bh6 a3 58. Kb3 Bb4 59. Bf4 Ke6 (59... Be1 60. Kxa3 Bf2 { doesn't work?}) (59... a2 60. Kxa2 Bc3 61. e6 Kxe6 62. Be5) 60. Bc1 {with only a few seconds left} Be1 61. Be3 *

Caruana may win; at least the commentators think so.