Gelfand and Caruana share first in Baku

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 Eleven

The final round did not see that much excitement, but there were a few games that are worthy of attention.

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ Kasimdzhanov, Rustam
Definitely a cool game to see. Kasimdzhanov followed in Edouard's footsteps and sacrificed an early exchange in a weird variation of the Queen's Gambit Accepted. Mamedyarov did not know what to do and his position worsened gradually. Kasimdzhanov had a chance for an absolute brilliancy, but to be fair it is beyond most top grandmaster's grasps to see the computer recommendation. Missing this chance, he simplified the game to a simple draw. Definitely an opening success, white players are going to have to be sharper against this variation if he wants an advantage.

Kasimdzhanov and Karjakin sharing a joke before the final round

Mamedyarov carried a -1 score throughout the tournament and finished there

Radjabov, Teimour ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Following an old (old!? it was 2001!) game between Nikolic and Polgar the players reached a known King's Indian Fianchetto variation structure that is difficult to say really benefits White very much. Nakamura equalized comfortably and brought home a nice half point without too many troubles.

Radjabov's 50% in home court was not a bad result

Nakamura was part of the big tie for third with 6.0/11

Svidler, Peter ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
Svidler sacrificed a pawn for some initiative in a sharp Najdorf, but Gelfand showed excellent understanding of the position. By counter-sacrificing the pawn and forcing a queen trade his problems were basically solved, and an inaccurate move by Svidler made sure that White was not playing for a win. Gelfand keeps showing great preparation in both of his pet Sicilians, the Najdorf and the Sveshnikov.

A good last round draw allows Gelfand to tie for first in the tournament

Andreikin, Dmitry ½-½ Karjakin, Sergey
Karjakin's understanding of the hedgehog structures might be the best in the chess world. He had no problems defending his position against Andreikin's attempts to create any danger and simplifications kept making his task easier and easier. A draw was all either side could hope for once they entered the endgame.

Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ Tomashevsky, Evgeny
Caruana tried to go into a quick anti-Marshall variation of the Spanish, but Tomashevsky keeps proving that all of these anti-Marshalls are his home field. He never had any real problems in the position and he knew exactly how to neutralize any attempt at an attack by Caruana.

Solid Tomashevsky finished with a good +1 score
(ten draws and a win against Andreikin) and a tie for third

Grischuk, Alexander 1-0 Dominguez, Leinier
A lovely attacking game. Despite the early trade of queens it was clear that Black's king was in serious danger. The structure was too dangerous for the black monarch and a swift doubling of rooks on the h-file proved deadly to it. Despite Grischuk missing mate (!) he was still sufficiently ahead in the position to force resignation.

A disastrous event for Dominguez, who will need to recover for the future GP events

Tomorrow we will be bringing you a full report on the closing ceremony, what this tournament means to the World Championship qualification cycle, and an updated on the new top 10 of the World in the live rating list, a list that was influenced heavily by this event and the Millionaire Chess tournament in Las Vegas!

Round Eleven Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

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.