Thessaloniki R06: Kamsky, Caruana join Dominguez

From May 22 to June 03, 2013, the fourth stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2012-2013 is taking place in Thessaloniki, Greece. Twelve players are competing in a round robin tournament with time controls of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes and an increment of 30 seconds per move for each player. The Grand Prix Series consists of six tournaments to be held over two years, with 18 top players, each participating in four of the six tournaments. The winner and second placed player overall of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament to be held in March 2014.

Round six report

Ponomariov, Ruslan - Ivanchuk, Vassily 1-0
Ivanchuk completely collapsed in this game. The French variation he chose was interesting, as it locked up the queenside and allowed him to begin pushing on that side of the board. However it didn't give him any protection for his king and he was instantly lost after the move 17...0-0-0? after which Ponomariov made a couple of obvious moves and took the full point.

Ponomariov on this game: "This game had nothing to do with chess. It's pure psychology. As a team partner, I want Vassily to recover as soon as possible."

Caruana, Fabiano - Bacrot, Etienne 1-0
Caruana put early pressure on his opponent in this aggressive Scotch game. His bishops were definitely worth more than a couple of sacrificed pawns that he recuperated later in any case, and with interest, as he simplified into an endgame up one pawn. The resulting position was simply hopeless for Bacrot and Caruana's technique was spot-on.

Caruana quietly picks up his +2 in the tournament, joining Kamsky and Dominguez at the top.

Topalov, Veselin - Kasimdzhanov, Rustam ½-½
White's opening didn't yield anything, and his overzealous push 22.f4?! allowed Kasimdzhanov to sacrifice a piece for three pawns. After getting an exchange on top of that and simplifying, he found himself in an endgame where he had a rook and two pawns against two minor pieces. The accurate 36...h6! would have landed Topalov in serious trouble. Luckily for him Kasimdzhanov didn't find it and had to be satisfied with a draw.

Grischuk, Alexander - Morozevich, Alexander ½-½
Grischuk had an annoying advantage throughout a large portion of the game as he had the better end of a middle game with opposite colored bishops. In these cases the side with the initiative and safer king holds the advantage, and that's precisely what Grischuk had. He missed his chance on move 31 as he could have sacrificed a pawn to give his bishop more scope, creating dangerous threats against Morozevich's king. After this opportunity was gone it is unclear if he could do much with his edge.

Kamsky has missed a couple of opportunities in this tournament to increase his score,
but this time he finishes his opponent off elegantly.

Kamsky, Gata - Svidler, Peter 1-0
Kamsky played basically only using his first three ranks for the majority of the game, slowly enticing Svidler to gain space but weaken his position. When everything was ready Kamsky struck with the powerful moves 26.Nd5! and 27.Qd1! Black had to find very precise replies to prevent an immediate lose, but even then White's advantage was indisputable. A really nice game by Kamsky who joins the leaders.

Nakamura played a questionable opening and then defended almost perfectly.

Dominguez Perez, Leinier - Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½
Nakamura's strange handling of the opening landed him in a basically lost position by move 20. Dominguez played it somewhat too carefully and allowed Nakamura to position his pieces in such a way that a win would require precise technique. In the endgame, a pawn race ensued in which both players queened. Nakamura was still down a pawn, so he was on the defensive side. A mistake with 58...b5? was unpunished as 60.h5 was not correct. After that Nakamura displayed an amazing understanding of the queen vs. queen and pawn endgame and played every precise move to draw the game.

Replay all games of the round

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

All pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule and results

The games start at 14:00h Eastern European Summer time, 15:00h Moscow, 7 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.

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.