Shamkir Rd9: Mamedyarov beats Caruana in playoff

Third Shamkir Tournament in memory of Vugar Gashimov

The Vugar Gashimov Memorial, is being held in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, from the May 26 to June 4, 2016, in memory of the great Vugar Gashimov, who passed away on the 10th of January 2014. The tournament features ten world-class players: Fabiano Caruana (2795), Anish Giri (2790), Sergey Karjakin (2779), Pavel Eljanov (2750), Pentala Harikrishna (2763), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2750), Teimour Radjabov (2726), Eltaj Safarli (2664), Hou Yifan (2663) and Rauf Mamedov (2650). The time control is 120/40 moves + 60/20 moves + 15 minutes + 30 seconds/move at the 61st move.

All games start at 3 p.m. local time = 1 p.m. in Europe (CEST), one hour earlier in Britain, and 2 p.m. in Moscow. You can find the starting time at your location here. Today's pairings:

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Final round

The stage, the players, the spectacle

What a finale for what turned out to be a very unpredictable tournament. After five rounds, the outcome of the Gashimov Memorial seemed all but certain with a re-invigorated Fabiano Caruana on 4.5/5 and seemingly poised to run away with it much as he had the Sinquefield Cup in2014. The only possible rival was Anish Giri, chasing hard with 4.0/5, and shedding himself of the draw master title he had acquired in the Candidates earlier this year.

Fabiano Caruana seemed poised to run away with the event after the first half

Only Anish Giri seemed to have a chance to challenge him

The rest of the field seemed to be struggling, with Hou Yifan going through a very rough event, while Karjakin was at plus one, and the local players all seemed to be not only scoring 50% with each other, but against the rest as well. The top-rated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was at 50% himself, with a win and a loss.

It just wasn't her tournament as nothing seemed to click for Hou Yifan

Then it all turned around in the most incredible way. Mamedyarov broke the Azeri peace treaty and went for his compatriot’s throat in a wild game, defeating Safarli, while Caruana acceded to a draw in a dead won position with Giri. While some argued the difficulty in finding the win, the fact is that playing on presented no risk as it was the Dutch player’s king in the wide open, not his. No one could have foreseen it, but this turned out to be as pivotal as the last two rounds.

In round eight, Mamedyarov showed Fabiano’s luck had run out, inflicting his first and only defeat, and leaving himself with genuine chances for a playoff… if he managed to defeat Anish Giri in the last round. Evading the well-trodden paths of theory, the Azeri outplayed Anish reaching an endgame with a clear extra pawn on the c-file.

Mamedyarov's only chance was to beat the ultra solid Giri. If Giri had held, he would have
made it to the playoff against Caruana.

It wasn't for lack of support with GM Erwin L'Ami as his second and his wife Sopiko Giri there

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - Anish Giri

A magnificent result that ensured a chance at the title in a playoff, but his was not the only success story of the players from Azerbaijan. As if the spirit of Vugar were present and smiling upon them, Eltaj Safarli and Rauf Mamedov also scored their first victories of the event, meaning three Azeri wins in the last round.

Vugar Gashimov was no doubt smiling upon his friends and compatriots this round

It should be noted that Safarli’s came after a dramatic turnaround in his game against Harikrishna. The Indian had completely outplayed his opponent, but at a serious cost on his clock. He had a massive position, with a rook roaming the seventh at will, and all he needed to do was trade off the other pieces. Somehow he suffered a few moments of blindness and in a handful of moves was dead lost. This tale of chess myopia was symptomatic of the great Indian player's tournament, and in spite of never giving up, will power alone was not enough to overcome the self-inflicted handicaps.

Whether fatigue or something else, Harikrishna (left) will be examining what went wrong

Pentala Harikrishna - Eltaj Safarli

A fantastic final sprint with three wins including two over the event's top-rated players

The press room in full hustle and bustle

Replay games of round nine (with times per move)

Final standings

Note: in case of a tie for first place, the winner of the tournament will be decided by a playoff. First a mini-match
of two games at 10 minutes plus 3 seconds, then, if necessary, a second mini-match of two games of 5 minutes
and 3 seconds, and finally, if still drawn, an Armageddon game in which white has 5 minutes and black has 6.

The Playoff

No one could have foreseen it, but it all came down to this playoff

Tied for first, both Fabiano Caruana and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov faced each other in a Playoff shortly after the end of Mamedyarov's game against Giri. In the first mini-match of games at 10 minutes plus 3 seconds, Fabiano Caruana achieved a decisive advantage in both games, but each time failed to deliver the killing blow and the Azeri managed to escape. With two draws and a score of 1-1, the momentum had to seem to swing to Mamedyarov's side, if only for psycholgical reasons: escaping 'certain defeat' twice in a row had to be a confidence booster, feeling the opponent is just not firing all cylinders at this point. Furthermore, Caruana is not known to be the best blitz player (his FIDE Blitz rating is not a fluke), an area where Shakh might now feel he had the edge.

It was a thrilling finale that had everyone glued to their screens

Mamedyarov seemed to have a bulletproof guardian angel as he escaped two near losses

Whatever the truth of it, Mamedyarov won the first game in a very tense battle that had everyone on the edge of their seats. Vishy Anand, watching online, was no less riveted and commented about their great fighting spirit, "We are not worthy!". Game two saw Caruana in a must win situation with black, but being blitz, anything goes. After reaching a clear advantage in a rook and opposite-colored bishop ending, it was the opinion of grandmaster pundits that Fabiano was going to win it and level the score, but everything went south for the American and after a wild scramble he was suddenly worse with no chance of winning whatsoever, and the players shook hands.

An ebullient Shakhriyar Mamedyarov comes down to applause and congratulations

Playoff games (with times per move)

Schedule and results

Live commentary on Playchess

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN (courtesy TWIC) All Playoff 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.