Baku 04: Fabi unstoppable

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 Four

Kasimdzhanov, Rustam ½-½ Svidler, Peter
Kasimdzhanov obtained an extra pawn almost out of the opening, but unfortunately for him the opposite colored bishops gave Svidler good chances to hold. White was unable to find any plan to put pressure on his opponent, and with simplifications the draw became more and more obvious.

Svidler's opening was not exactly a success, but it wasn't easy to exploit the extra pawn

Andreikin, Dmitry ½-½ Radjabov, Teimour
A transposition from the King's Indian Defense into a Maroczy left White with a minimal edge, but he never had anything special. Radjabov's position was solid and despite some structural weaknesses he was able to hang on without too many issues.

Caruana, Fabiano 1-0 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
Caruana for some time followed the game in which he beat Mamedyarov in Shamkir earlier this year, but he came with a different plan with 11.c5. Mamedyarov's position was already suffering a few moves afterwards, in in the face of a bad position he decided to sacrifice material. Caruana collected his extra pieces, cooly defended his king and came out with an extra rook and bishop, forcing his opponent to resign.

This is Mamedyarov's second loss to Caruana in this line this year

Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Grischuk was soundly outplayed by his American opponent in this King's Indian. However he somehow managed to build something akin to a fortress and without any real plan to make progress Black accepted a draw.

Nakamura showed again he is one of, if not the best, King's Indian player in the World

Grischuk's suffering bishop on h2 held the fortress together somehow

Dominguez, Leinier ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
White's brave decision to castle long in the Sveshnikov netted him a pawn, but with a king on c1 it was impossible to exploit. Gelfand had a minor chance to create more problems than he did in the game, but a draw seemed to be a fair result.

0-0-0!? Dominguez showed no fear

Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½ Karjakin, Svidler
It is hard to say what either player was aiming for. After many simplifications the game ended in peace a little after move 30.

Tomashevsky isn't putting any pressure with White

Round Four 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.