Shamkir Final Round: Undisputed Winner

The Vugar Gashimov Memorial, is being held in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, from the 17th to the 26th of April, in memory of the great Vugar Gashimov, who passed away on the 10th of January 2014. The tournament consists of some of the strongest players in the World: reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen, former World Champions Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, as well as, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Michael Adams, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Rauf Mamedov will compete in this prominent event. 

Final Round

Play of the day

Everyone ready for the final round

Video by Vijay Kumar

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ Adams, Michael
Adams had no problems getting equality. White's advantage was reduced to nothing when the opposite colored bishops appeared on the board and neither Black's nor White's king was remotely weak.

A solid final game for both players

Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ Anand, Viswanathan
The double Fianchetto set-up in this Queen's Indian style Reti gave White very little. Due to his central pawns White's position was a little better, but it was not sufficient to put Anand in any real danger. The resulting endgame was easily held by the Indian player. Anand finishes with a great performance, a clear second place and his re-entry into the 2800 club.

Vishy Anand: 2804 in the next rating list

Carlsen, Magnus 1-0 Mamedov, Rauf
Mamedov was doing a good job of holding on to his position after his opening left him a little bit worse. White's pressure on the open b-file and the bishop against the knight gave him good chances to press, but the Azerbaijani was doing an excellent job defending. That is, until a blunder:

No questions asked: the clear winner, Magnus Carlsen, just shy of a 3000 performance

Mamedov was holding on, but he eventually cracked

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½-½ So, Wesley
So's position was a little uncomfortable from this Caro-Kann. In the endgame the passed a-pawn caused Black some serious issues, and he had to deactivate his rook to stop it. However, his bishop came into the defense in time, and after swapping off the defender of the a-pawn (the light square bishop) So hold the endgame with accurate defense.

So's spectacular start allowed him to tie for third despite not winning a game in the last five rounds

Giri, Anish ½-½ Kramnik, Vladimir
What a marathon. A game that took several time controls, in which Giri was pushing the entire game. He actually missed a win:

Did he try, oh god, did he try! But Giri missed the coup de grace.

Tomorrow we will bring you a recap of the tournament, including pictures from the closing ceremony.

Replay Final Round Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Photos taken from the official website

Final Standings

Schedule

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Commentary on Playchess

One of the major tournaments of the year, you can count on www.playchess.com to deliver quality commentary every round!

English Commentators

Daniel King	Rustam Kasimdzhanov	Simon Williams

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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.