Shamkir R1: Sweating Blood

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. 

Round One

Daniel King shows the highlights of round 1

Kramnik, Vladimir 1-0 Adams, Michael
Kramnik repeated a line that he used last year in the Candidates against Anand. He was unsuccessful, but maybe he had a new idea. Aronian also used it to beat Nakamura in their rapid match last year. Adams was the first one to deviate with 13...Qc6, though the typical ideas of the position remained: Black had a very weak c4 pawn that he cannot really hold on to, but he receives an initiative as compensation. This cost Kramnik his extra pawn, but he was able to obtain a slight advantage thanks to his bishop over a knight.

Adams seemed to be doing a good job of holding on, but things went awry when on move 23 he attacked White's queen with the wrong rook. The beautiful riposte 24.Rfd1! gave White an advantage whith Kramnik increased move by move, until reaching a winning double rook endgame.

Kramnik won in the typical style that made him World Champion: with patience and precision

So, Wesley 1-0 Giri, Anish
Complete annihilation:

A very clean round one victory for the American, who comes
from his "worst tournament ever", in his own words

Mamedov, Rauf ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
Maroczy style structures with few pieces on the board rarely tend to be dangerous for black. In this game Mamedov held a slight edge through-out, but it never seems as if the Frenchman was in any real danger.

No real problems for Vachier-Lagrave today

Azerbaijani Champion Rauf Mamedov

Anand, Viswanathan ½-½ Carlsen, Magnus
Normally in the Marshall Gambit of the Spanish Opening black obtains a serious initiative for his missing pawn. This time, however, it seemed that all he obtained where chances to hold on and suffer in a long endgame. Carlsen set up a fortress looking position which Anand kept trying to breach. It seemed as if the World Champion would have a very tough time holding on to his position, but Anand was unable to find a way to break through.

Anand-Carlsen is always a highly anticipated match

It is unclear if Anand was really winning at any point, but the resilience of Carlsen paid off when on move 47 Anand made a mistake, allowing Carlsen to regain his pawn and draw the game. Perhaps the Norwegian would have drawn anyway without this mistake, but it would have been much harder.

Carlsen had to suffer today for many moves, but it could have been worse

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
What a game! Mamedyarov's handling of the Grunfeld was unorthodox, to put it mildly, and its probably that with proper play Caruana would have equalized. However he underestimated the expansion on the queenside and the resulting majority and bind provided by the pawns on c5 and b4.

It's not often that a 2800 player gives up a bishop when he doesn't absolutely have to

In a very bold practical choice Caruana decided to sacrifice his bishop for two pawns, hoping to draw the resulting endgame. It does seem that his play was sound, as a quick look through some variations reveals no way for Mamedyarov to have made progress. The Azerbaijani eliminated all of Caruana's pawns, but at the cost of all his own pawns, and Caruana comfortably held the R+B vs. R endgame.

Replay Round One Games

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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.