Baku 02: Missed Chances

The first stage of the 2014-2015 FIDE Grand Prix is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan. The tournament will run from October 1st to October 15, 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 Two

Kasimdzhanov, Rustam ½-½ Radjabov, Teimur
Radjabov came up with an improvement in the recent Caruana-Negi game from the Olympiad. Even though the Berlin Endgame seemed unpleasant for him at a certain point, he was never in any real danger. The game was eventually drawn in a rook endgame.

Kasimdzhanov had an edge, but it never amounted to more than that

Svidler, Peter 1-0 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
Svidler put some pressure on Mamedyarov from the start, to which the Azeri responded aggressively by weakening his queenside to gain space. The isolated queen's pawn position was double-edged, but Mamedyarov's decision to exchange pieces was strange. His faux activity led to his rook being trapped on b2 and it was game over.

After squandering his white pieces yesterday,
Mamedyarov was punished with black today

Andreikin, Dmitry 0-1 Nakamura, Hikaru
Andreikin came up with an unusual idea against the Dutch by placing his pawn on c3 rather than on c4. He might have obtained a small edge, but Black wasn't without resources. The Russian lost the thread of the game while Nakamura made his position stronger move by move. Eventually Black's activity, with a huge bishop on e4 and powerful pressure down the g-file, proved to be too much and White's position simply fell apart.

Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
Gelfand's exchange sacrifice brought him plenty of activity. It allowed him in an interesting game to get back a pawn and he had a good position. However, he blundered near the end of the game. Caruana saw the winning idea, but not the winning execution! He misplayed the move-order and allowed Gelfand a miraculous perpetual drawing idea.

Caruana missed a good chance to go 2.0/2 in today's game against Gelfand

Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ Karjakin, Sergey
A game of missed opportunities. Karjakin was better at some point with a strong passed pawn on e4 and no danger on the kingside, but he underestimated Grischuk's chances and White's breakthrough on f5 was very powerful. Karjakin took this pawn and too many lines were opened against his king.

Karjakin escaped by the skin of his teeth

Grischuk's initiative was decisive, but he kept missing killing blow after killing blow... until eventually Karjakin wiggled out to a pawn down endgame that he held without problems.

Grischuk cannot be happy for letting his opponent go!

Dominguez, Leinier ½-½ Tomashevsky, Evgeny
An extremely long game. Tomashevsky equalized out of the opening but he left himself, unnecessarily, with some structural weaknesses and a bad king in a major piece endgame. He was still fine, however, but he had to suffer a long time to achieve his draw.

Tomashevsky's suffering finally granted him a draw... on move 100...

Round Two Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Standings

Photos by Maria Emelianova

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.