Baku 06: Caruana 2851 live!

The first stage of the 2014-2015 FIDE Grand Prix is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan. The tournament will run from October 1st to October 15, 2014. Some of the strongest players in the world will compete in a Round Robin event. The winner and runner-up of the Grand Prix series will earn their spot at the 2016 Candidate's Tournament.

Round Six

Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 1-0 Andreikin, Dmitry
Andreikin's opening left him in an already nearly-lost position. His counterplay on the kingside was not close to giving him compensation. Kasimdzhanov brought back his pieces to defend and then the game was basically ever.

Andreikin has had a rough event, and his attempt to
spice up the game with a Philidor backfired badly.

Caruana, Fabiano 1-0 Svidler, Peter
A very complicated Grunfeld! The position was very tense from the get-go as Caruana quickly launched a kingside attack. A misplay by Svidler allowed the Italian player to mount an initiative and control his opponent's pieces, but he was too eager and his pawn push to e5 allowed a counter-sacrifice that gave Black good compensation.

Svidler's trusty Grunfeld led to a complicated situation. Both sides had their chances,
but it was Svidler that made the final mistake.

In time trouble and in a complex position Svidler made a mistake and Caruana punished him severely, securing his extra piece and beating back the initiative.

Fabi is now 12 points from Carlsen

Although it is 'only' the Live Rating, the number 2851 carries a bit of magic to it in the chess world, thanks to the towering record rating Garry Kasparov had established for so many years. This also marks the first time the top two players open up a gap of 50 Elo or more over the rest of the field since Kasparov and Karpov, which they last did in January 1995. However, before talk of records enters the discussion, it must be noted the two Ks once opened up a gap of 100 Elo over no.3 and beyond in January 1989, when the world number three was Nigel Short at 2650, then came Anatoly Karpov with 2750, followed by Garry Kasparov at 2775.

Grischuk, Alexander 0-1 Radjabov, Teimour
Grischuk made some strange strategical decisions, but the true mistake came with his weakening of e3. Radjabov's precise moves created more and more pressure on this pawn that simply could not be defended. After the trade of queens White's position could not be held together anymore. Radjabov cleaned up the pawns and Grischuk had to resign.

Radjabov has a great book called "How to transform a Grunfeld into
a Dutch Stonewall". His game today is to illustrate it in practice.

Dominguez, Leinier ½-½ Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
Dominguez' experiment in the Spanish did not leave him with any good results. Black had a more than acceptable position and fine counterplay. Both sides had alternatives to make the position more interesting. After some trades the position reached a drawn rook endgame, but before that Dominguez probably had some chances had he decided not to trade queens.

Dominguez miscalculated a couple of times, but always had viable alternatives

Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Another successful implementation of the Lasker Defense. Nakamura's quick c5 foiled any attempts from White to bind him on the queenside. The resulting endgame was maybe a tiny bit better for White, but the American player held without any difficulties.

Karjakin, Sergey ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
Karjakin banked on surprising Gelfand in the opening with a very unusual early f4 in the Najdorf. However the Israeli was very well prepared and his own novelty simply neutralized White's play. Black might even have been better at some point, but Gelfand was satisfied with splitting the point.

Karjakin played for the surprise...

...but it's hard to surprise Gelfand!

Round Six Games

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Standings

Schedule

Links Official tournament site All Games in PGN The games are being 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.