Baku 07: He is human!

by Alejandro Ramirez
10/10/2014 – Despite what his recent success seems to indicate, Fabiano Caruana is capable of losing a game! He had a particularly bad day and his executioner was Dmitry Andreikin. His technique was not immaculate, but by the 40th move he had netted a pawn and converted it confidently. Gelfand drew and catches the Italian, while Karjakin beat Nakamura thanks to the American's dubious opening.

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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 Seven

Round 07 – October 09 2014, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2748
½-½
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706
Nakamura, Hikaru 2764
0-1
Karjakin, Sergey 2767
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701
Radjabov, Teimour 2726
½-½
Dominguez, Leinier 2751
Svidler, Peter 2732
½-½
Grischuk, Alexander 2797
Andreikin, Dmitry 2722
1-0
Caruana, Fabiano 2844

Gelfand, Boris ½-½ Kasimdzhanov, Rustam
Gelfand always had an edge in this game, and that led to a dangerous rook endgame for Kasimdzhanov. It is possible that Gelfand was winning with the shot 51.f6+!, but Karsten Müller will have to give the final say on this one!

Karlovich, Kasimdzhanov and Gelfand in the post-mortem

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ Tomashevsky, Evgeny
White's opening experiment left him with a good position. Black didn't have too much compensation for the pair of bishops. At a certain point White transformed his advantage into a strong phalanx of pawns in the center, but they were quickly targeted by Black's pieces. Tomashevsky's activity was enough and Mamedyarov decided to allow a repetition.

Andreikin, Dmitry 1-0 Caruana, Fabiano
This game was very far from perfect. Caruana's reign of terror comes to an end in a series of mistakes. The Italian player worded it best: "More or less all my moves were bad from the first to the last one. So that's what went wrong. I made so many mistakes and missed so many things. I think I had a decent position after the opening and I just slowly ruined it."

Andreikin obtained a pawn and converted it without problems in a long endgame, though he was definitely not better out of the opening in a Scandinavian.

One loss was enough to bring Caruana back to even on rating from this tournament

Andreikin does not have a good tournament but everyone is very dangerous at this level, you just never know when they will leap at an opportunity.

Nakamura, Hikaru 0-1 Karjakin, Sergey
Nakamura's opening experiment was a spectacular failure. With White his position was hard to play after move five, and after 12 moves he was already fighting to keep material equality. Karjakin eventually won a pawn and simplified into a double rook endgame that was incredibly unpleasant for White. The Russian's technique was good and it was sufficient for the full point.

Radjabov, Teimour ½-½ Dominguez, Leinier
A very strange game. It seemed as if at any moment one of the players would launch an all-in attack, but somehow for many moves the attacks were stalled as they decided to improve their position more and more. Eventually White's passed d-pawn cost Black material, so he decided to give a relatively spectacular perpetual to finish the game.

Neither player risked everything for their attack

Svidler, Peter ½-½ Grischuk, Alexander
This very short game seemed pretty exciting. Black's structural advantage was compensated by the pair of bishops and some initiative. Svidler sacrificed to expose Black's king and the game ended in a perpetual as there was no more.

Grischuk is tied for last, not a position he finds himself commonly

Photos by Maria Emelianova

Round Seven Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Standings

Schedule

Round 01 – October 02 2014, 15:00h
Dominguez, Leinier 2751
½-½
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701
½-½
Grischuk, Alexander 2797
Karjakin, Sergey 2767
0-1
Caruana, Fabiano 2844
Gelfand, Boris 2748
1-0
Andreikin, Dmitry 2722
Nakamura, Hikaru 2764
½-½
Svidler, Peter 2732
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764
½-½
Radjabov, Teimour 2726
Round 02 – October 03 2014, 15:00h
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706
½-½
Radjabov, Teimour 2726
Svidler, Peter 2732
1-0
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764
Andreikin, Dmitry 2722
0-1
Nakamura, Hikaru 2764
Caruana, Fabiano 2844
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2748
Grischuk, Alexander 2797
½-½
Karjakin, Sergey 2767
Dominguez, Leinier 2751
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701
Round 03 – October 04 2014, 15:00h
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701
½-½
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706
Karjakin, Sergey 2767
1-0
Dominguez, Leinier 2751
Gelfand, Boris 2748
1-0
Grischuk, Alexander 2797
Nakamura, Hikaru 2764
½-½
Caruana, Fabiano 2844
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764
½-½
Andreikin, Dmitry 2722
Radjabov, Teimour 2726
½-½
Svidler, Peter 2732
Round 04 – October 05 2014, 15:00h
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706
½-½
Svidler, Peter 2732
Andreikin, Dmitry 2722
½-½
Radjabov, Teimour 2726
Caruana, Fabiano 2844
1-0
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764
Grischuk, Alexander 2797
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2764
Dominguez, Leinier 2751
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2748
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701
½-½
Karjakin, Sergey 2767
Round 05 – October 07 2014, 15:00h
Karjakin, Sergey 2767
½-½
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706
Gelfand, Boris 2748
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701
Nakamura, Hikaru 2764
½-½
Dominguez, Leinier 2751
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764
½-½
Grischuk, Alexander 2797
Radjabov, Teimour 2726
½-½
Caruana, Fabiano 2844
Svidler, Peter 2732
½-½
Andreikin, Dmitry 2722
Round 06 – October 08 2014, 15:00h
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706
1-0
Andreikin, Dmitry 2722
Caruana, Fabiano 2844
1-0
Svidler, Peter 2732
Grischuk, Alexander 2797
0-1
Radjabov, Teimour 2726
Dominguez, Leinier 2751
½-½
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2764
Karjakin, Sergey 2767
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2748
Round 07 – October 09 2014, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2748
½-½
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706
Nakamura, Hikaru 2764
0-1
Karjakin, Sergey 2767
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701
Radjabov, Teimour 2726
½-½
Dominguez, Leinier 2751
Svidler, Peter 2732
½-½
Grischuk, Alexander 2797
Andreikin, Dmitry 2722
1-0
Caruana, Fabiano 2844
Round 08 – October 10 2014, 15:00h
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706   Caruana, Fabiano 2844
Grischuk, Alexander 2797   Andreikin, Dmitry 2722
Dominguez, Leinier 2751   Svidler, Peter 2732
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701   Radjabov, Teimour 2726
Karjakin, Sergey 2767   Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764
Gelfand, Boris 2748   Nakamura, Hikaru 2764
Round 09 – October 12 2014, 15:00h
Nakamura, Hikaru 2764   Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764   Gelfand, Boris 2748
Radjabov, Teimour 2726   Karjakin, Sergey 2767
Svidler, Peter 2732   Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701
Andreikin, Dmitry 2722   Dominguez, Leinier 2751
Caruana, Fabiano 2844   Grischuk, Alexander 2797
Round 10 – October 13 2014, 15:00h
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706   Grischuk, Alexander 2797
Dominguez, Leinier 2751   Caruana, Fabiano 2844
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701   Andreikin, Dmitry 2722
Karjakin, Sergey 2767   Svidler, Peter 2732
Gelfand, Boris 2748   Radjabov, Teimour 2726
Nakamura, Hikaru 2764   Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764
Round 11 – October 14 2014, 13:00h
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2764   Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2706
Radjabov, Teimour 2726   Nakamura, Hikaru 2764
Svidler, Peter 2732   Gelfand, Boris 2748
Andreikin, Dmitry 2722   Karjakin, Sergey 2767
Caruana, Fabiano 2844   Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2701
Grischuk, Alexander 2797   Dominguez, Leinier 2751

Links

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.

Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

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