Zug GP R11: Topalov wins game, set and event

From April 14 to April 30, 2013, the third stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2012-2013 is taking place in Zug, Switzerland. Twelve players are competing in a round robin tournament with time controls of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes and an increment of 30 seconds per move for each player. The Grand Prix Series consists of six tournaments to be held over two years, with 18 top players, each participating in four of the six tournaments. The winner and second placed player overall of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament to be held in March 2014.

Round eleven report (final)

In the 11th round Veselin Topalov needed a draw to secure his sole victory in the tournament. At the same time Sergey Karjakin showed the will to fight, and the former FIDE world champion took up the challenge. Veselin showed a fantastic performance and increased his Live Elo to 2793.

Topalov-Karjakin 1-0
Sergey Karjakin (above) chose a Benoni structure with Black and it became obvious that both players would fight till the end. “It was a brave decision of Sergey to play for win today, despite his result yesterday,” said Veselin Topalov during the press conference. The Russian player got a comfortable position with black but went for dubious plan with Qh8. Later on Karjakin decided to sacrifice a pawn but didn’t play accurately and failed to get enough counterplay. It was hard to defend the position under time pressure, and after the first time control Black’s position was already lost.

Leko-Kasimdzhanov ½-½
Once again Peter Leko (above right) got a very pleasant position out of the opening, but his opponent Rustam Kasimdzhanov tried to keep the balance and was defending very well. At one point the former FIDE world champion started to play quicker than his opponent and managed to get a time advantage. The knight sacrifice of Rustam proved to be good enough for a draw.

Nakamura-Caruana ½-½
Hikaru Nakamura had white pieces against Fabiano Caruana and was the only one who could try to catch the leader Veselin Topalov. The American player didn’t get much in the Exchange Variation of the Slav Defense, but tried to keep the pressure. It was hard to break Fabiano Caruana’s defense, and the last game in the tournament finished in a draw.

The games Radjabov-Mamedyarov (above) and Ponomariov-Morozevich were finished relatively quickly in draws. Hikaru Nakamura finished on the sole second place. Ruslan Ponomariov and Fabiano Caruana shared the third place.

Final standings (after eleven rounds)

Statistics: Of the total 66 games played at the Grand Prix in Zug: 15 were won by White (=22.7%) 7 were won by Black (= 10.6%) 44 games were drawn (=66.7%) The largest number of decisive games were played by Morozevich and Kamsky – six games each, three wins and three losses. The smallest number was by Giri and Leko – one loss apiece, ten draws. The shortest draw was Giri- Radjabov (R3, 19 moves), the longest Karjakin-Nakamura (R1, 107 moves).

Topalov receiving the €25,000 prize from the sponsor (right: FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov)

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Information and pictures by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich and GM Robert Fontaine

Schedule and pairings

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.