Baku R9: Grischuk wins, leads alone in Baku

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 nine 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.

Radjabov-Kamsky was a Kan Variation of the Sicilian in which the American GM was hanging on until a blunder that came as an unexpected gift for his Azeri opponent.

Radjabov,T (2751) - Kamsky,G (2726) [B41]
FIDE GP Baku AZE (9), 30.04.2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.a3 b6 8.Be3 Bb7 9.f3 d6 10.Rc1 Nbd7 11.Be2 Be7 12.0-0 0-0 13.b4 Rac8 14.Nb3 Qb8 15.Kh1 Rfe8 16.Na4 Bd8 17.Bg1 h5 18.Bf2 Bc7 19.Nd4 Ne5 20.c5 dxc5 21.bxc5 b5 22.c6 Nxc6 23.Nxc6 Bxc6 24.Rxc6 bxa4 25.Bg1 Be5 26.Qxa4 Rxc6 27.Qxc6 Rc8 28.Qxa6 Rc2 29.Bd3 Rd2 30.Rc1

B2 or not b2, that, as the Bard said, is the question. 30...Qb2? Wrong – 30...Qb3 was required to hold a draw. 31.Qc8+ Kh7 32.Rc2. With the black queen on b3 this would not be possible because of ...RxBc3. 32...Rxc2 33.Qxc2 Qxa3 34.f4 Bxf4 35.e5+ g6 36.exf6 and White has a piece for a pawn. 36...Qd6 37.Qc5 Qxc5 38.Bxc5 Be5 39.Be7 h4 40.Bc4 g5 41.Bxe6 Kg6 42.Bc8 Bxf6 43.Bxf6 Kxf6 44.g4 hxg3 1-0. [Click to replay]

Cheparinov-Gashimov was the first game to finish, after two and a half hours and 30 moves, which included a "stupid threefold repetition" (Cheparinov).

The two great rivals of early 21st Century chess (Serge is 9½ months older)

Carlsen-Karjakin was a Sicilian Dragon played out to bare kings. The final thirty moves were played quickly, with the players obviously anxious to reach the draw (and the rest day) as soon as possible. The exhausted Karjakin, who had suffered for five hours yesterday, explained: "Before the round I was in a fighting mood, but behind the board I couldn't calculate one single variation, so I decided to exchange everything and go for a draw."

Navara-Mamedyarov was a lucky win for the Azeri Grandmaster. The way he sat down for the press conference, without a smile and looking down, showed compassion for his opponent.

Local chess warlord: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, top Azerbaijan grandmaster

Navara,D (2672) - Mamedyarov,S (2752) [B46]
FIDE GP Baku AZE (9), 30.04.2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 d5 8.0-0 Nf6 9.Re1 Be7 10.e5 Nd7 11.Na4 Qc7 12.Bf4 g5 13.Bg3 h5 14.h3 c5 15.c4 d4 16.b3 Bb7 17.Nb2 0-0-0 18.Be4 Rdg8 19.Nd3 Rg7 20.a3 Rhg8 21.Bxb7+ Qxb7 22.f3 g4 23.hxg4 hxg4 24.f4 Rh7 25.Nf2 Rgh8 26.Rb1 a5 27.Qxg4 Kc7 28.f5 Qa8 29.Ne4 Rg8 30.Qf3 Bh4 31.fxe6 fxe6 32.Bxh4 Rxh4 33.Nd2 Qd8 34.b4 Rf8 35.Qg3 Rg8 36.Qf3 Rhg4 37.Re2 Rg3

White has enjoyed an advantage during much of the middle game, and now is under pressure by Black's counterplay. 38.Qf4 is appropriate in the diagram position, but certainly not 38.Qh5?? d3 (or simply 38...Rh8 trapping the queen) 39.Ne4 dxe2 40.Nxg3 Rxg3 41.Qxe2 Qg5 0-1. [Click to replay]

Grischuk-Inarkiev saw Black playing a very imaginative King's Indian, about which he said "I was trying to complicate the game and then decided not to spend too much time, but this meant I wasn't thinking deeply enough and made some dubious moves." Alexander Grischuk outplayed his opponent in the endgame. We once again remind you that Ernesto Inarkiev has the lowest drawing average in this event: just two undecided games in a total of nine so far.

The win-or-lose man in this tournament, Ernesto Inarkiev, lost today

Adams-Svidler started with an interesting new idea by Black in the Sicilian Najdorf.

We receive few captions for the above picture that were not rude. The two submissions we liked best were: "You touched your rook, you have to move it!" – "But the rook has no legal moves." – "That's your problem, Mick, not mine." (by Mohammed Abu Ra'ad of Doha, Qatar), and "It's a local aftershave I got in the department store in Baku. You think it is too strong, Peter?" (modification of a number of submissions we chose not to reproduce – we call this editorial cleansing).

Adams,Mi (2729) - Svidler,P (2746) [B92]
FIDE GP Baku AZE (9), 30.04.2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.0-0 0-0 9.Be3 Be6 10.Qd2 Nbd7 11.a4 Qc7 12.Rfd1 Rac8 13.a5 Rfe8 14.h3 h6 15.Qe1

15...Qb8N. "I was quite happy with this move," Svidler said, "as the rooks belong on the c-file. In this position White has two plans with his b3 knight: either to c1 followed by Nd3 or Na2-b4-d6, or to f1 followed by Ne3 or Ng3." However: 16.Bf3 Rc4. "This was wrong. I thought it would win a tempo for me in the first plan, but instead I lost a tempo in the second plan! Then I was just one tempo short in every line." Adams went on to win the game with surprising ease. 17.Nd2 Rc6 18.Nf1 Rec8 19.Bd2 b6 20.Ne3 bxa5 21.Ncd5 Bxd5 22.exd5 Rc5 23.Bxa5 e4 24.Be2 Qxb2 25.Bxa6 Rb8 26.c3 Rxa5 27.Rxa5 Qb6 28.Rda1 Nc5 29.Bf1 Qd8 30.Rb5 Rc8 31.Ra7 Nfd7 32.Nf5 Bf8 33.Qe3 Qf6 34.Ng3 Qe5 35.Nxe4 Nxe4 36.Rxd7 Rxc3 37.Qe2 Qd4 38.Rd8 Rc1 39.Kh2 1-0. [Click to replay]

Bacrot-Wang Yue was a tough battle that was drawn late in the evening after 72 moves.

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

Standings after nine 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.