Tbilisi Rd2: Kasimdzhanov only winner

The third stage of the 2014-2015 FIDE Grand Prix is taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia. The tournament will run from February 14th to February 28, 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 Two

The tournament was unable to continue with the momentum from yesterday's four decisive games; many players had a chance to win, or at least create clear threats against their opponents, but these chances were missed.

Radjabov, Teimour ½-½ Jobava, Baadur
The locked nature of the position never promised much of an advantage for White, and Black was simply trying not to get smothered. A sequence that was flashier than it was useful simplified a bunch of pieces and lead the game into a drawn endgame.

Jobava defended a slightly uncomfortable position for some time

Jakovenko, Dmitry ½-½ Tomashevsky, Evgeny
Somehow Tomashevsky keeps using the Stone Wall without getting into problems. He solidly equalized, and was probably even very, very slightly better against Jakovenko. A repetition of moves was agreed to in an equal and locked situation.

Well, I guess another Stone Wall it is!

Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ Andreikin, Dmitry
One of the many chances that could have been more dangerous for the holders of the black pieces. Grischuk obtained an extra pawn thanks to a blunder from Andreikin and the pressure from White's rooks; but he was unable to create even half-decent winning chances since the rook endgame he chose to go into was easily drawn.

Andreikin was a little lucky not to be Grischuk's second victim in a row

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 0-1 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam
Kasimdzhanov bounced back from his loss yesterday with a flashy win:

Mamedyarov was dragged back down to 50%: one win, one loss

Giri, Anish ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
Definitely one of the games were White had some better alternatives than what was chosen, though this was certainly a very complicated position:

A complicated struggle could be expected from these two

Dominguez, Leinier ½-½ Svidler, Peter
A very strange game. Dominguez obtained a nearly decisive advantage in the opening by winning an exchange. Even though Svidler had a pawn for it, it was clear that it was not sufficient. Dominguez nurtured his material advantage into an endgame (with queens) that should have been winning, but he misplayed it badly, exchanged queens at the worst possible moment and allowed the Russian to wiggle out with a draw.

Svidler was down the exchange for most of the game, but he survived

Standings

Round Two Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Photos from the official website by Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be 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.