Tbilisi Rd9: Tomashevsky Unstoppable

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 Nine

Ivan Sokolov today joined the commentary, here with Keti Tsatsalashvili

Andreikin, Dmitry ½-½ Radjabov, Teimour
Andreikin's set-ups with Nf3 and a quick Bg5 always avoid opening theory (at least the main lines) while keeping the game unbalanced. White quickly won a pawn on c5 which he tried to hang on to. Radjabov didn't worry about that, instead focusing on his piece placement and preventing his opponent from castling. Radjabov sacrificed a second pawn to ruin White's pawn structure - Black was taking all of White's pawns but Andreikin came just in time to bring his pieces back into the game to hold the endgame.

Andreikin sometimes deviates with unusual versions of 1.d4

Radjabov valued activity more than a pawn

Tomashevsky, Evgeny 1-0 Kasimzdhanov, Rustam
There is no doubt that in this past year/year and a half the KID (King's Indian Defence) has made a huge comeback. What was not a popular opening at all in 2013 in super-tournaments is now played much more often. The h3-variation is one of the new tabiyas, or battlegrounds, in which White is trying to prove an advantage.

Tomashevsky played an exemplary h3-KID. He slowly secured control of e4, and even though the white pawns looked weak, Black's pieces, especially the dead bishop on g7, were not strong enough to exploit that. Kasimdzhanov resigned in a position that was probably not completely lost, but did look like a nightmare.

Unstoppable: Tomashevsky is on +5 and leads by 1.5 points

Jobava, Baadur 0-1 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
Jobava played one of his unusual openings, this time a rather passive version of a 3.Bb5 Sicilian. MVL took the opportunity to chuck his pawns forward, gaining a huge amount of space in the center and on the kingside. The position always looked unpleasant for Jobava, even though he was perhaps holding. A nice sequence from MVL locked his opponent's rook on h5, where it could not come back to defend the queenside. MVL swung his rook to c8 and White's position collapsed.

A quick chat before the game

Jakovenko, Dmitry ½-½ Svidler, Peter
For the second round in a row we see a very deep Grunfeld idea as the players repeated the game Aronian-Grischuk for the first 25 moves. Svidler's 25...Nc4 was only a slight improvement as it seems both moves give Black equality. Like the game they were following, the draw became inevitable a few moves later.

Jakovenko followed Aronian's footsteps for 25 moves

Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ Dominguez, Leinier
The Spanish has an incredible wealth of interesting strategical factors. How exactly Black develops in the Closed Spanish, if he chooses the Breyer, the Chigorin or another system, changes the character of the position in a subtle but important way.

Grischuk was unable to get much from the opening as every single one of the Cuban's pieces was well placed, attacking the center and always threatening to break on d5. Grischuk hurried to prevent this by sacrificing his pair of bishops, which left him just a tad worse - his powerful knight on d5 providing some compensation. The simplification into the endgame left Black up a pawn but he had to take the d5 knight with his bishop, leaving the game in a dead drawn opposite colored bishop situation in which Dominguez's extra pawn did not count for much.

Dominguez (right) was once known for his Najdorf prowess, but lately has been playing 1. e4 e5 more often

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ Giri, Anish
Giri has been facing the 7.Qf3!? Taimanov/Paulsen very often in the last couple of months, including two games in Wijk aan Zee. Mamedyarov came up with the brutal-looking 9.Nf5, sacrificing a full piece to obtain the d5 square. Giri was well prepared, he declined the piece sacrifice temporarily with the strange looking but precise 9...f6!?. Eventually Giri had to accept the gift on f5, allowing Mamedyarov to get an initiative with his knight on d5 against Black's weak dark-squares.

Unfortunately for the Azeri all he could get out of this was a rook for a pawn, leaving him up the exchange for a pawn but in a situation where Giri had plenty of play. Mamedyarov had to force a draw before the situation got out of hand.

Mamedyarov and Giri played a fun Sicilian

Standings

Round Nine Games

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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.