Baku R11: Wang Yue beats Svidler to join Grischuk

First FIDE Grand Prix in Baku

The first FIDE Grand Prix tournament is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from April 20th to May 6th, 2008. There are thirteen rounds and two rest days (April 26 and May 1st). The event, organised by Global Chess, is part of a series of six tournaments to be held over two years (2008-2009). 21 top world players are selected to compete in these tournaments, with each player contracting to participate in exactly four of these tournaments. The winner of the Grand Prix series at the end of 2009 will play the winner of the World Cup held in 2009 in an eight game match to become the challenger to the World Champion in a match to be held in the third quarter of 2010.

Round eleven report

Please note that the games are being annotated in the Chess Media System by GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili, who is also a Vice President of FIDE. Instructions on how to view these files is given at the bottom of this page.

Arriving at the venue on a non-rainy day (here Vugar Gashimov)

The screening procedure with Svidler and Adams at the entrance to the hall
(absolutely no caption suggestions required here)

Cheparinov-Kamsky was a deeply theoretical Queen's Indian which led to an equal position and swapped down to a dead drawn rook ending. It was over in 32 moves. Cheparinov felt he had some advantage, but Kamsky called it "kind of a forced line."

Karjakin-Radjabov was a theoretical duel in an important line of the Sveshnikov. Karjakin played what he thought was a novelty, 21.Rad1, but later discovered that it had already been played before. The point was, though, that Radjabov didn't know the move and had to think for 45 minutes to find the inaccurate 21...a3. Karjakin was unable to capitalise on this and the game ended after 41 moves in a draw.

Navara-Gashimov was an Accelerated Dragon in the Maroczy System, and after a slow start turned one of the more exciting games of the day. In the press conference Navara showed some attractive variations which he had managed to avoid. You can watch it here:

Grischuk-Carlsen was a Slav with an interesting novelty by Magnus Carlsen (12…Nbd5). Grischuk thought he was better during the game, but afterwards he was told by Shipov (and the computer) that Black had been OK all the time. "But Black's position looked very suspicious," Grischuk thought. The game ended after 39 moves in a draw.

The Glare, as delivered by Michael Adams to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

Incidentally we are informed by numerous readers that the person enjoying the rain in yesterday's report was not in fact Michael Adams but Gene Kelly in the 1952 musical Singin' in the Rain. For those who enjoyed the video clip here's a classic parody of it by Morecambe and Wise.

Adams-Mamedyarov was a Rubinstein French that quickly turned into a dry endgame. "I played for a an advantage but then got worse at some moment," Adams said, "and then my 35.Rh5+ was of course a big blunder." It was Mamedyarov who had blundered before, with 34...f4??, a moment of mutual chess blindness. "I thought 35.Rxh4 f3 36.gxf3 gxf3 37.Rh5+ Ke4 38.Rxd5 Kxd5 was winning but after 39.Kd3 White is winning. It could have spoilt my whole tournament," Mamedyarov said.

Bacrot-Inarkiev produce the "blunder of the tournament" (Bacrot), which sadly ended the most exciting game of the round. "This is the result of the Sofia rule," Inarkiev said afterwards, "he has used all his energy and in that position he had already spent a lot of time."

The "unglücksrabe" (German: unlucky raven) Etienne Bacrot in his game against Inarkiev

Bacrot,E (2705) - Inarkiev,E (2684) [C69]
FIDE GP Baku AZE (11), 03.05.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Nxe5 Qd4 7.Nf3 Qxe4 8.d3 Qg4 9.Nc3 Be6 10.Re1 h6 11.h3 Qh5 12.Re5 g5 13.Ne2 Qg6 14.Ned4 Bd7 15.Qe2 f6 16.Ne6 Kf7

Here White missed a good opportunity, as tournament annotator Sergey Shipov and Fritz explain: 17.Nxc7! Rc8 18.Ne6 Bd6 19.Nc5 fxe5 20.Nxd7 Kg7 21.Ndxe5 Qe6 22.b3! and White keeps on attacking, having two pawns for an exchange and a great advantage in the centre (Shipov); +/– 1.11 depth 18/39 at 2,869,000 positions per second (Deep Fritz 10). But Inarkiev missed it. 17.d4 Bd6 18.Nc5 fxe5 19.Nxd7 Qf5 20.Ndxe5+ Kg7 21.Nc4 Rf8 22.Nxd6 cxd6

23.Qe7+?? 0-1. You figure out the refutation. Hint: a black knight is somehow involved. [Click to replay]

The whole tragic scene was caught by Peter Doggers in his video report given at the top of this page:

Etienne Bacrot executes the move 23.Qe7+ and both players calmly write it down

Bacrot starts to think and then suddenly realises what he has done. Wang Yue and
Peter Svidler on the adjacent table notice that something extraordinary has happened

Bacrot resigns the game, while the Chinese GM comes over to confirm his suspicion

Peter Svidler and Wang Yue cannot believe what is possible in top-level chess

Wang Yue-Svidler demonstrated that Peter Svidler, who is not fully fit, is struggling with his concentration and his ability to calculate long variations. This has cost him another game, this time agains Wang Yue. Watch the two discuss it in the press conference.

All video press conferences are available as videos on the official tournament page.
All pictures and videos by courtesy of FIDE.com.

Standings after eleven rounds

Schedule and results

Links FIDE Global Chess Grand Prix Home Page Tournament web site for Baku Grand Prix 2008 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 ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use it to read, replay and analyse the PGN games. Download free PGN reader ChessBase Light

Multimedia Commentary on Playchess

Currently FIDE and Global Chess are producing live wrap-up commentary of the games of the Grand Prix in Baku. This is done using the Chess Media System developed by ChessBase, which allows the annotator to move the pieces, draw coloured arrows or highlight squares while he or she is speaking. In Baku grandmaster (and FIDE Vice President) Zurab Azmaiparashvili is commenting on the games.

To watch the audio-video chess commentary you should log into the Playchess server. You can do this with many ChessBase products: Fritz, Shredder, Hiarcs, ChessBase 9.0, etc. If you have none of these you can download ChessBase Light using the link given above. Even if you do not have an account on Playchess you can use this program to log in as a "Guest".

On Playchess you should go into the area reserved for Audio/Video Training on Demand, where there is a special room for FIDE and the Grand Prix tournaments. Click on this to enter the room.

The FIDE Grand Prix room displays the Grand Prix web site when you enter the room.

Click on the tab "Games" on the top left to get a list of the files available for viewing.

Double-click an entry, sit back and enjoy the game commentary by GM Azmaiparashivili. There is no charge for this service – you can watch as many game commentaries as you like. There may be a small delay though, for technical reasons, before the charge is changed from two Ducats (twenty cents) per game to free.