Gashimov R6: Back on Track

The Vugar Gashimov Memorial, is being held in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, from the 20th to 30th of April, in memory of the great Vugar Gashimov, who passed away on the 10th of January 2014. The tournament is divided into two groups. The A Group features six players: World Champion Magnus Carlsen (2881), Fabiano Caruana (2783), Sergey Karjakin (2772), Hikaru Nakamura (2772), and the two Azeri players Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2760) and Teimour Radjabov (2713). The B group consists of ten players, the top five seeds from various countries and the bottom five are all from Azerbaijan.

Round Six

An audience waiting to see if Carlsen recovered

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 0-1 Carlsen, Magnus
The game heated up from the beginning as Mamedyarov sacrificed a pawn for central control and some typical Catalan-esque compensation. However, it doesn't seem to have been quite enough, although the engines disagree with my evaluation:

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lost both of his games against Carlsen,
he will need to recover soon to leave the last position

Back to popularity!

Daniel King shows the game Mamedyarov vs Carlsen

Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Nakamura used the Open Spanish, not the most popular guest at the top level nowadays but a variation of the Spanish that has never been refuted by any means. The typical battle of whether Black's passed pawn on d3 is weak or strong has been going on for decades without a clear solution. Caruana in this game was able to capture it, but in the process he allowed Black's pieces to become very active and his own structure was ruined, giving the American enough counter-chances to secure a draw.

Fabiano Caruana might have been surprised by the American's choice of opening

Hard to predict: Hikaru Nakamura

Radjabov, Teimour ½-½ Karjakin, Sergey
Another rare guest in 1.e4 Openings: the Italian Game. After very quick exchanges Radjabov got a miniscule advantage in the form of rook activity in the endgame. Karjakin confidently sacrificed a pawn to reach a theoretically drawn endgame, and although his stalemate trick at the end was cute it was certainly not the only way to secure the draw.

Confident in his endgame technique,
Sergey Karjakin obtained a relatively effortless draw

Teimour Radjabov's +1 score is still good for a share of first place

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Standings

Images from the official web site

Video of round six

Schedule and results

Live commentary on Playchess

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: Group A – Group B 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.