Tbilisi Rd6: Poisoned Pawn

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 Six

Radjabov, Teimour 1-0 Grischuk, Alexander

Radjabov set up too many opening problems for a 2800, not an easy task!

Grischuk used all his time in a game that lasted less than 25 moves. Such are poisoned pawns!

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ Jakovenko, Dmitry
Jakovenko played a powerful game, quickly attacking on the kingside as Mamedyarov tried to finish his development. Mamedyarov was just in time to diffuse the attack by trading queens, but that meant that his structure was compromised and the resulting position was very unpleasant, even though White was up a pawn. Jakovenko tortured Mamedyarov, but ultimately the Azeri was able to keep the half point after suffering for a long time.

Mamedyarov finally drew a game!

Giri, Anish ½-½ Jobava, Baadur
Giri uncorked a fantastic tactic with 32.Ne4! netting him the pair of bishops and a comfortable position. He started outplaying Jobava, putting his bishops in good positions, penetrating with his rook and making Black's pawns very uncomfortable. When he was very close to cashing in for a big advantage, he lost his way, and Jobava escaped with a little bit of luck.

Giri came very close to inflicting another defeat on Jobava,
but the Georgian escapes the last place in the tournament, which now belongs to Andreikin

Dominguez, Leinier ½-½ Tomashevsky, Evgeny
White was able to prove that small advantages in the Spanish can add up. Tomashevsky took the good practical decision of sacrificing a pawn to try to hold down a 4v3 endgame. Dominguez made a clear mistake, and even though it is possible that in the long run the endgame would have finished in a draw, he didn't have the chance to at least push for the win as he basically blundered a perpetual.

Dominguez was making a push to catch up with Tomashevsky, but the Russian was too salid

Svidler, Peter 1-0 Andreikin, Dmitry
White's central control was not as important as the pair of bishops he gave up for it. Andreikin was counterattacking strongly and he had the better chances. However a clear tactical mistake allowed Svidler to get a structural advantage in the endgame, which turned into a pawn. Andreikin was unable to hold his uncomfortable position and Svidler won his first game of the tournament.

Andreikin won one GP in Tashkent, did bad in Baku and doesn't seem to be having a promising one in Tbilisi either

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½-½ Kasimdzhzanov, Rustam
The Petroff was once upon a time a solid tool to draw games with, nowadays it seems more as if the Petroff is asking to get slightly tortured and escaping with a draw. This seems to be the case today, as MVL obtained a nice advantage and was putting strong pressure on his opponent's pawns. Kasimdzhanov was able to figure out a way to beat back the pressure after MVL made some inaccuracies, and he salvaged a draw.

Kasimzdhanov is one of the few top grandmasters that still plays the Petroff regularly

Standings

Round Six Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Photos from the official website by Maria Emelianova

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.