Khanty Rd9: Clearer and Clearer

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 Nine

Jakovenko, Dmitry ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
A wild game. Gelfand very mistakenly avoided a repetition early in the game, landing in a completely hopeless position. Jakovenko had his choices on how to continue, and settled for getting four pawns for a piece and a crushing attack. The final part of the game, however, was handled poorly:

Gelfand was in the same situation as Jakovenko...

They needed to win to keep some realistic chances of making the Candidates. Now it looks very difficult.

Karjakin, Sergey ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
One of those variations in which White wants to torture Black forever with a minimal edge. And yet, the contrary happened. Somehow Karjakin misplayed the position and reached a dead drawn endgame... until he put his bishop on b4, allowed Caruana to push his a-pawn with tempo and suddenly things were not so easy.

Karjakin and Caruana played for many, many hours

At the end Karjakin salvaged the game, but it was after many hours of being ground down, and he was very close to losing if he didn't find the exact moves in the late bishop endgame.

Getting ready for a long day at the office

Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Grischuk, Alexander
The Grunfeld rears its ugly head yet again, this time with another side variation: the 7.Qa4+ line. Nakamura obtained very little from the opening, Grischuk played a solid game and after many trades all over the board the game was agreed drawn.

There is no reason for Nakamura to risk much in the next two games

Giri, Anish 1-0 Jobava, Baadur
Not the hardest game for Giri:

A much needed easy win for Giri

Dominguez, Leinier ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
A heavily theoretical Najdorf in which Dominguez was the first to deviate from previously played games. The computers claim that he has a very small advantage in the final position, which finished with a three-fold repetition, but that seems difficult to believe, not to mention it is a very complicated variation. The Cuban went for the safe route and forced the draw.

A solid draw in a sharp variation

Svidler, Peter 0-1 Tomashevsky, Evgeny
A hard game to understand. Svidler's actions on the kingside never amounted to anything, and Tomashevsky precisely countered the attack while maintaining pressure of his own on the queenside. Black was able to win a pawn, which he cashed in for a strong attack on the queenside and pressure on the second rank. After some mistakes in time pressure Svidler's position was decimated, and he resigned in a hopeless endgame of queen and three pawns vs. two rooks and pawn.

If Tomashevsky finishes strong with his next two games and Nakamura doesn't, he might still qualify!

Standings

Current Grand Prix Standings:

Caruana - 370

Nakamura - 347

Tomashevsky - 287

Gelfand - 250

Jakovenko - 250

Round Nine Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Photos from the official website by Kirill Merkurev

Schedule

Links Official tournament site Download 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.