Khanty Rd8: More mistakes!

by Alejandro Ramirez
5/22/2015 – Big mistakes today changed the standings significantly. Caruana lost to Jakovenko: the Italian player was pushing for a significant amount of time and then out of nowhere he blundered heavily! Jakovenko took advantage of his chances and won. Grischuk beat Karjakin in a very complex game marked by a last-minute Karjakin blunder. Finally Nakamura's game was unpredictable!
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The fourth and final stage of the 2014-2015 Grand Prix Series. This tournament is specially important as it will determine the winner and runner up of this year, both of which will automatically qualify for the 2015 Candidates Tournament - the winner of that will challenge Magnus Carlsen to the World Championship Match! The tournament is taking place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Ugra, Russia from May 13 to May 27.

Round Eight

Round 08 – May 22 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
1-0
 Svidler, Peter 2734
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
½-½
 Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
½-½
 Giri, Anish 2776
Jobava, Baadur 2699
0-1
 Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
1-0
 Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
0-1
 Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738

Daniel King shows the highlights of round 8

Gelfand, Boris 1-0 Svidler, Peter
Gelfand's preparation gave him a nice edge in the Russian variation of the Grunfeld. His pair of bishop advantage coupled with the passed a-pawn was annoying to deal with and finally helped Gelfand to win.

Svidler's Grunfeld was in serious danger today

Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½ Dominguez, Leinier
Tomashevsky won two pawns in the opening, but Dominguez had typical Grunfeld counterplay. The Russian player decided to sacrifice a pawn to ease the pressure, giving the unusual material balance of a minor piece and two pawns against a rook. Dominguez thought he was worse and sacrificed the exchange back for a pawn, hoping to draw the opposite colored bishop endgame - which he was lucky enough to do.

Evgeny Tomashevsky missed a number of good chances

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½-½ Giri, Anish
MVL at least didn't lose again, but he never managed to put Giri in any real problems. The Dutch player sacrificed a pawn that he was very clearly going to get back at some point.

MVL dropped down to place 29 in the World

Jobava, Baadur  0-1 Nakamura, Hikaru
A hard game to understand. Nakamura was better the whole game and at some point he was even up three pawns. However he botched it up and Jobava had good chances to hold. He inexplicably, however, went for a completely lost rook and pawn endgame that Nakamura finally managed to convert.

And push he did, Jobava made it easy by eliminating one of the g-pawns and transposing into a lost endgame

Nakamura was winning, then not, then Jobava blundered

Grischuk, Alexander 1-0 Karjakin, Sergey

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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5 9.Be2 Bb7 10.e5 This line is rather rare nowadays. It was somewhat popular in 2009-2013 but h4 remains the main line. Nd5 11.0-0 Nxc3 11...Nd7 was Morozevich-Caruana from 2013, whih was won by Black. 12.bxc3 c5 13.a4 a6 14.Qb1 White will recover his pawn on the queenside, so Black initiates operations on the kingside to undermine White's center. A whole board approach! g4 15.Nh4 cxd4 16.axb5 d3 17.Bxg4 A very strange position. White has many pluses: better development, safer king. However Black's passed pawn on d3 cannot be underestimated. It won't queen soon, but it heavily restricts White's pieces. a5 18.Bf3 Bxf3 19.Nxf3 Qd5 20.Ra4 Attacking the base of a pawn chain is as old of a chess concept as it gets. Nd7 21.Qa2 Black doesn't want to give up his c4 pawn, but maybe he should have. Nb6 21...Qxb5 22.Rb1 Qd5 23.Nd2 Be7 24.Qxc4 and even though White's position looks a little more pleasant, Black should have enough to keep equal chances. 22.Rxa5 Rxa5 23.Qxa5 Bc5 Black's the own down the pawn now, but with compensation. 24.Qa2! Bringing the queen back into the game is excellent. 0-0 25.Qd2 Kh7 26.Re1 Be7 27.Bf4 Rg8 Black creates his own threats against the White king. 28.Kh1 Bf8 29.Be3! Nd7 30.Bd4 Qxb5 Black recovered his pawn but White has managed to bring his bishop to a far more active square. The powerful passed pawn is compensated by the weakness of the Black king. 31.Qf4 Bg7? This move is simply bad. The f7 pawn could be sacrificed but not like this. 31...Qd5 32.Qxf7+ Rg7 33.Qf4 Bc5 with still complicated play. 32.Qxf7 Qd5 33.Nd2?! The knight transfers at an inopportune moment. Rf8 34.Qe7 Rf5?! 34...Nb8! Was the surprising and powerful move here. The point is that Nc6 and Nxd4 is a very real and hard to stop threat. 35.Re3 Rg5 36.Rg3 Nxe5 36...Rxg3 37.hxg3 Nb8! was still the way to go. 37.Rxg5 hxg5 38.Nxc4!? A brave decision in deep time trouble. Grischuk calculated this very well. Kg6 39.Qe8+ Nf7?? 39...Kh6 40.Ne3 d2! 41.h3! Qb3 42.Kh2 d1Q 43.Nxd1 Qxd1 44.Qxe6+ is probably a draw. 40.Qg8! Black is completely pinned down and cannot defend properly against Qxg7! 40.Qg8 e5 41.Nxe5+ and no piece can take the e5 pawn. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Grischuk,A2780Karjakin,S27531–02015D43KM FIDE GP 20158

One of many Russian duels

Caruana, Fabiano 0-1 Jakovenko, Dmitry
Caruana was pressing, had the better position throughout the game, and then disaster struck:

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35.Qxc3 Qd5 Still a complicated position. White is up a pawn but Black has all the activity. Chances should be around equal. 36.Qb3? A big blunder! 36.a3= 36...c4! Excellent. 37.Qc3 37.dxc4 Qa5! And now White cannot defend the rook on e1 and the knight on e4 at the same time. 37.Qxc4 Qxc4 38.dxc4 Rxe4-+ 37...cxd3 White is simply lost. He cannot deal with all of the incoming threats. 38.f3 Bxe4 39.fxe4 Rxe4 40.Rexe4 Rxe4 41.Rf2 Re3 42.Kh2 Qe4 This swiftly finishes off the game. 43.Qc8+ Kh7 44.Rf4 44.Qf5+ Qxf5 45.Rxf5 Re2+ 46.Kh3 Rxb2 is simply resignable. 44...Re2+ 45.Kh3 Qg2+ 46.Kg4 h5+ 47.Kxh5 Qxg3 White is getting mated while Black isn't. 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Caruana,F2803Jakovenko,D27380–12015C65KM FIDE GP 20158

He is human! Caruana with a big blunder.

Standings

Round Eight Games

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Photos from the official website by Kirill Merkurev

Schedule

Round 01 – May 14 2015, 15:00h
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
½-½
 Gelfand, Boris 2744
Jobava, Baadur 2699
0-1
 Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
½-½
 Svidler, Peter 2734
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
½-½
 Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
1-0
 Giri, Anish 2776
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
½-½
 Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Round 02 – May 15 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
½-½
 Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Giri, Anish 2776
½-½
 Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
1-0
 Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
Svidler, Peter 2734
½-½
 Caruana, Fabiano 2803
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
½-½
 Grischuk, Alexander 2780
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
½-½
 Jobava, Baadur 2699
Round 03 – May 16 2015, 15:00h
Jobava, Baadur 2699
½-½
 Gelfand, Boris 2744
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
½-½
 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
1-0
 Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
0-1
 Svidler, Peter 2734
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
½-½
 Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
½-½
 Giri, Anish 2776
Round 04 – May 17 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
½-½
 Giri, Anish 2776
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
½-½
 Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Svidler, Peter 2734
½-½
 Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
½-½
 Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
0-1
 Caruana, Fabiano 2803
Jobava, Baadur 2699
½-½
 Grischuk, Alexander 2780
Round 05 – May 19 2015, 15:00h
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
½-½
 Gelfand, Boris 2744
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
½-½
 Jobava, Baadur 2699
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
1-0
 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
1-0
 Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
½-½
 Svidler, Peter 2734
Giri, Anish 2776
½-½
 Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Round 06 – May 20 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
½-½
 Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Svidler, Peter 2734
1-0
 Giri, Anish 2776
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
½-½
 Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
0-1
 Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Jobava, Baadur 2699
½-½
 Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
0-1
 Caruana, Fabiano 2803
Round 07 – May 21 2015, 15:00h
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
½-½
 Gelfand, Boris 2744
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
½-½
 Grischuk, Alexander 2780
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
½-½
 Jobava, Baadur 2699
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
1-0
 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
Giri, Anish 2776
1-0
 Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
1-0
 Svidler, Peter 2734
Round 08 – May 22 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
1-0
 Svidler, Peter 2734
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
½-½
 Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
½-½
 Giri, Anish 2776
Jobava, Baadur 2699
0-1
 Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
1-0
 Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
0-1
 Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
Round 09 – May 24 2015, 15:00h
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738   Gelfand, Boris 2744
Karjakin, Sergey 2753   Caruana, Fabiano 2803
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799   Grischuk, Alexander 2780
Giri, Anish 2776   Jobava, Baadur 2699
Dominguez, Leinier 2734   Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
Svidler, Peter 2734   Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Round 10 – May 25 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744   Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754   Svidler, Peter 2734
Jobava, Baadur 2699   Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Grischuk, Alexander 2780   Giri, Anish 2776
Caruana, Fabiano 2803   Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738   Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Round 11 – May 26 2015, 15:00h
Karjakin, Sergey 2753   Gelfand, Boris 2744
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799   Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
Giri, Anish 2776   Caruana, Fabiano 2803
Dominguez, Leinier 2734   Grischuk, Alexander 2780
Svidler, Peter 2734   Jobava, Baadur 2699
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749   Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754

Links

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.
Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

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