2016 Shamkir Rd2: From lukewarm to scalding
5/27/2016 – There was nothing tepid about the second round with three decisive games and hard battles. The first to win, and the cleanest, was Indian Harikrishna who beat Mamedyarov. Eljanov and Caruana had a balanced battle, but Fabi pressed until Pavel blundered and lost. Karjakin blundered his queen to Giri, and in spite of heroic efforts, lost. All wins annotated!
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Third Shamkir Tournament in memory of Vugar Gashimov
The Vugar Gashimov Memorial, is being held in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, from the May 26 to June 4, 2016, in memory of the great Vugar Gashimov, who passed away on the 10th of January 2014. The tournament features ten world-class players: Fabiano Caruana (2795), Anish Giri (2790), Sergey Karjakin (2779), Pavel Eljanov (2750), Pentala Harikrishna (2763), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2750), Teimour Radjabov (2726), Eltaj Safarli (2664), Hou Yifan (2663) and Rauf Mamedov (2650). The time control is 120/40 moves + 60/20 moves + 15 minutes + 30 seconds/move at 61st move.
All games start at 3 p.m. local time = 1 p.m. in Europe (CEST), one hour earlier in Britain, and 2 p.m. in Moscow. You can find the starting time at your location here. Today's pairings:
| Round 2 – May 27, 2016 | ||
| Anish Giri |
1 - 0
|
Sergey Karjakin |
| Pentala Harikrishna |
1 - 0
|
Shak Mamedyarov |
| Pavel Eljanov |
0 - 1
|
Fabiano Caruana |
| Hou Yifan |
½-½
|
Eltaj Safarli |
| Rauf Mamedov |
½-½
|
Teimour Radjabov |
Round Two
What an exciting round! Three decisive results came in just as the first round was full of draws. One of the top games of the tournament, Giri vs. Karjakin, looked like it was going to be just a boring draw, but even in such positions one must be very careful.
No one suffers the games of Anish like Sopiko. GM Erwin l'Ami keeps her company here.
Giri, Anish 1-0 Karjakin, Sergey
Lesson of the game: never let your guard down
That, ladies and gentleman, is a win
Harikrishna, Pentala 1-0 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
Harikrishna made it look easy to defeat Mamedyarov! Perhaps exploiting some of his opponent's weaknesses, perhaps also a combination with the fact that Mamedyarov's opening choice was rather questionable, it all seemed to go extremely smoothly for the Indian player today. With this result he is one point behind Vishy Anand for the top Indian player.
Making it look easy! Pentala is up to 2769!
[Event "Vugar Gashimov Mem 2016"]
[Site "Shamkir AZE"]
[Date "2016.05.27"]
[Round "2.5"]
[White "Harikrishna, Pentala"]
[Black "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B07"]
[WhiteElo "2763"]
[BlackElo "2748"]
[Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"]
[PlyCount "65"]
[EventDate "2016.05.26"]
1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 a6 5. a4 Bg7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Qd2 Nbd7 8. h3
e5 9. dxe5 dxe5 10. Bc4 b6 11. O-O Bb7 12. Rfd1 Qe7 13. Nd5 Nxd5 14. Bxd5 Bxd5
15. Qxd5 Nf6 16. Qc4 Rfe8 17. c3 a5 18. Rd3 {White's slightly better for many
reasons. His pieces are slightly more active, his queen on c4 is controlling
the entire board, c7 feels unpleasant. Black has a grueling defensive and
passive task ahead of him, not something Mamedyarov is known for.} Qe6 $2 {
Counterplay is not always the solution} 19. Qxc7 Nxe4 20. Rad1 {Black's pieces
are really suffering, b6 is very weak and the rooks are penetrating down the
d-file.} Bf6 21. Nd2 $1 {Nice move, eliminating one of the few black active
pieces.} Nxd2 22. R1xd2 e4 23. Rd6 Be5 24. Rxe6 Bxc7 25. Rc6 Rec8 26. Kf1 {
Always careful - Black was threatening Bh2+.} Bd8 27. Rcd6 Rab8 28. Rd7 $1 Bf6
29. Bf4 Ra8 30. Rb7 Rc6 31. Rdd7 {Black simply can't hold his position
together anymore.} Rd8 (31... Rf8 32. Bc7 {drops the b6 pawn and is completely
hopeless.}) 32. Rxd8+ Bxd8 33. Rb8 {White wins a piece and the game.} 1-0
Eljanov, Pavel 0-1 Caruana, Fabiano
Caruana's Nd7 choice was unusual but perfectly playable. Even though the computers claim that most of the game was about equal, it all seemed very unpleasant to me from a human perspective. White was always defending and had to be in constant fear of his king getting mated. Eventually, Eljanov cracked and Caruana took advantage of it.
Pavel was Fabi's first victim this tournament
[Event "Vugar Gashimov Mem 2016"]
[Site "Shamkir AZE"]
[Date "2016.05.27"]
[Round "2.3"]
[White "Eljanov, Pavel"]
[Black "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D91"]
[WhiteElo "2765"]
[BlackElo "2804"]
[Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"]
[PlyCount "90"]
[EventDate "2016.05.26"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bg5 Ne4 6. Bf4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 c5 8. e3
O-O 9. Be2 dxc4 10. Bxc4 Nd7 11. O-O Nb6 12. Bb3 c4 13. Bc2 Nd5 14. Qd2 Nxf4
15. exf4 Be6 16. a4 Bd5 17. Ne5 e6 18. Rfb1 Rb8 19. Qe3 a6 20. a5 b5 21. axb6
Rxb6 22. g3 Rxb1+ 23. Rxb1 Bxe5 24. Qxe5 Qa8 25. h4 Bh1 26. Kf1 h5 27. Ke1 a5
28. Ra1 Qg2 29. Rxa5 Qg1+ 30. Ke2 Bg2 {Black has just sacrificed a pawn and is
now clearly putting pressure on the weak king on e2. However, there is nothing
clear just yet. White has to be very careful to hang on, but he has his own
resources.} 31. Qe3 {Defending the f2 pawn is natural, but now was the time to
calculate.} (31. Bxg6 $1 fxg6 (31... Qf1+ 32. Kd2 Qxf2+ 33. Kc1 {surprisingly
doesn't change anything. Black still should take on g6 (at the very least Bh7+
with a perpetual is a threat) and it is still a draw.}) 32. Qxe6+ Kh8 33. Qe5+
{leads to a perpetual.}) 31... Rb8 32. Ra2 Bh3 33. Kd2 Bf5 $1 {There is an old
maxim that in heavy piece endgames the only thing that matters is king safety,
and White isn't feeling particularly comfy.} 34. Qe1 Qg2 35. Bxf5 exf5 36. Kc2
$2 {White blunders in time pressure, but Caruana misses the winning idea.} Qb7
(36... Qf3 $1 {threatening Qd3+} 37. Qe3 Qh1 $19) 37. Kd2 Qg2 38. Kc1 (38. Rc2
$1 {tries to hold on.}) 38... Qf3 {Now this is also strong} 39. Rc2 Ra8 40. Qe2
Qh1+ {With time control reached it is now obvious that White is defenseless.}
41. Kd2 Ra1 42. Qe8+ Kg7 43. Qe5+ Kh7 44. Qe2 Rb1 $1 {nice Zugzwang.} 45. f3
Rg1 0-1
Hou Yifan ½-½ Eltaj, Safarli
A pretty crazy game, specially in the movements of White's rook. This French came was quite interesting and worth looking at, unfortunately at some point Yifan felt that her pawn structure was too weak and was forced into trading off into a drawn endgame. Perhaps Eltaj should have prevented the queen trade somehow and tried to exploit the structural advantage.
The game between these players was actually rather interesting. I refreshingly sharp French!
Mamedov, Rauf ½-½ Radjabov, Teimour
The Azerbaijani vs. Azerbaijani games are usually not the most interesting ones of the tournament, and this was no exception.
Rauf and Teimour barely showed up today
Round Two Games
Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games
Standings
Schedule and results
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Live commentary on Playchess
| Date | Round | English | German |
| 27.5.2016 | Round 2 | Simon Williams | Klaus Bischoff |
| 28.5.2016 | Round 3 | Daniel King | Klaus Bischoff |
| 29.5.2016 | Round 4 | Daniel King | Klaus Bischoff |
| 30.5.2016 | Round 5 | Yasser Seirawan | Klaus Bischoff |
| 01.6.2016 | Round 6 | Daniel King | Klaus Bischoff |
| 02.6.2016 | Round 7 | Simon Williams | Klaus Bischoff |
| 03.6.2016 | Round 8 | Yasser Seirawan | Klaus Bischoff |
| 04.6.2016 | Round 9 | Daniel King | Klaus Bischoff |
LinksThe 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. |
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