Tashkent 03: Feisty third round

The second stage of the 2014-2015 FIDE Grand Prix is taking place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The tournament will run from October 20th to November 3rd, 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 Three

ChessBase will be bringing in GMs Simon Williams and Daniel King to provide live commentary on Playchess for all Premium subscribers. If you are not already a Premium member, you can become one here or alternately, packages such as Komodo 8 come with a 6-month Premium subscription included.

Don't Miss Danny King's commentary on the Playchess.com server tomorrow!

Daniel King also brings us the recap of Round Three:

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 1-0 Gelfand, Boris
Mamedyarov's idea in the Benoni will probably not be repeated very often. Gelfand's position was good and he had a few chances to equalize or create interesting and double-edged play. However he played unusually passive and it allowed the Azerbaijani to open the queenside favorably. Black's weak b-pawn became an issue. After an inexact move from Mamedyarov an unpleasant endgame for Gelfand was reached (Mamedyarov could have kept his extra pawn instead of going for this endgame). With precise play the position was a draw despite Mamedyarov's passed pawns, but a last minute blunder/miscalculation lost the game for Gelfand.

Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Giri, Anish
Nakamura's activity gave him the upper hand throughout the entire game, however it was never clear how to make any progress and breach Giri's defenses. The Dutch player was very patient and eventually Nakamura ran out of ideas. The resulting rook endgame was not an easy draw, but Giri comfortably held it.

Nakamura persisted and he persisted...

But Giri held on like a champ

Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ Andreikin, Dmitry
Andreikin's handling of the Berlin was very good. Caruana never had any chances to create play, and a draw was agreed in a double-rook endgame.

Caruana has yet to find the pace from his previous tournaments

Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 0-1 Jobava, Baadur
After another unusual opening Jobava had a very passive position. Kasimdzhanov tried to smash it with a pawn sacrifice, but the Georgian maneuvered his pieces in the back rank and set up solid defenses. Black little by little pushed White away and his extra pawn was starting to become significant when Kasimdzhanov decided to take it back by force. This was, however, based on a miscalculation and Jobava seized his chance. He emerged up the exchange and the game was over.

Two bad games in a row and Kasimdzhanov finds himself at the bottom of the table

Radjabov, Teimour ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
A battle of monster preparations. It is possible that Radjabov used a different engine to analyze than MVL. White obviously had an edge in the endgame, but the question is whether that edge can or cannot be used. As it transpired, it was MVL that had to correct assessment as Radjabov was unable to put Black in any sort of danger. By the way, the novelty of the game was on move 25... maybe this will be common in Radjabov's games?

Radjabov uncorking his deep preparation

but MVL was certainy unfazed

Karjakin, Sergey 1-0 Jakovenko, Dmitry
In an unusual opening Karjakin ended up playing the Black side of the Fianchetto Grunfeld... with White! His extra tempo allowed him an early breakthrough and a pleasant position. Jakovenko gave up a pawn to use his two bishops, but Karjakin consolidated slowly. It seemed as if White would have to force his way through in a rook and opposite colored bishop endgame, which would have been a long task, but Jakovenko made it easy on his opponent and the b-pawn promoted without issues.

Jakovenko couldn't defend an uncomfortable situation

Karjakin is now in the suitor pack with 2.0/3, half a point away from MVL

Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich from the official website

Standings

Round Three Games

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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.