Baku 10: Caruana and Gelfand retake lead

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 Ten

With half the players tied for ‘first’ going into the final rounds, and two more just a half-point behind, the tournament had effectively become a two-round event. For Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand this was an especially hard pill to swallow as they have been on and off at the forefront since the beginning, but then lightning struck in round nine, and they both lost, effectively allowing all their rivals to catch up.

The start of a tense round

After reaching a historical pinnacle of 2851 on the live ratings, Caruana is actually losing a few points after the two losses. Still, his status is undeniable and he has been the hottest player of the last couple of months. This is probably why the Cuban Dominguez Leinier chose to play an offbeat line in the English to sidestep any super preparation.

After leading for much of the tournament and suffering a setback in round nine, Fabiano Caruana
struck back, and struck back hard

Boris Gelfand also had a comfortable and quick game as his opponent Teimour Radjabov failed to solve his development issues and found himself down material after nineteen moves.

Gelfand was also not to be denied as he rejoined Caruana in the lead

With these wins, the two former leaders were once more in the front of the pack and will be the only ones with 6.0/10 in the last round.

Two more players left their boards victoriously,  Alexander Grischuk, who inflicted a second straight loss on the likable Rusam Kasimdzhanov, and Evgeny Tomashevsky who beat Dmitri Andreikin.

Grischuk (right) beat Kasimdzhanov for an important victory

Caruana and Dominguez wait their turn for the press conference

In the final round, Caruana and Gelfand will both be the favorites, though since the Italian will play White against the tournament’s lowest rated player, he must be given the edge. Gelfand will face Svidler with black.

Round Ten Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Standings

Schedule

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.