Beijing 01: Three Black Victories

The fifth stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Series is taking place between the 3rd and 17th of July 2013 on the premises of the Chinese Chess Association in Beijing. The time controls are 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move 61 onwards. The games start at 3 p.m. local time, except the last round. The Grand Prix Series consists of six tournaments to be held over two years (2012-2013). 18 top players participate in four of these six tournaments. The winner and second placed player overall of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament to be held in March 2014.

The fans agreed today was an exciting round. At least most of them.

Giri, Anish - Karjakin, Sergey 0-1
Giri sacrificed a pawn early in this strange Berlin game, and although he had some compensation it never really seemed like Karjakin was in serious trouble. The Dutch player became overambitious with the move 24.f4?! after which Karjakin simply kept taking material. White's series of checks and Black's exposed king was insufficient compensation for what was now two pawns. Karjakin traded pieces methodically and took the full point.

Anish threw pawns and death glares Karjakin's way, but the latter was unfazed.

Ivanchuk, Vassily - Wang Hao ½-½
Ivanchuk seemed surprised at Wang Hao's Tarrasch set-up and his reply was far from the most challenging. After some simple moves Wang Hao achieved complete equality and the game ended in a relatively quick draw.

The media jumped on Wang Hao as soon as he was finished.

Leko, Peter - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½
This exciting game saw many pretty tactics, some missed opportunities and a hard fought draw. Through some clever tricks Leko obtained two pieces for a rook, a nice advantage that was however offset by Mamedyarov's activity and passed pawns. With some precise play Leko could have neutralized this, but he allowed Black's position to consistently improve until they reached an endgame in which the rook was no worse than the two minor pieces. Black didn't have true winning chances either and the game boiled down to a draw.

Morozevich, Alexander - Wang Yue ½-½
Morozevich obtained a commanding position from a completely off-beat Sicilian, but he spoiled his chances by allowing Black to exchange his powerful d6 knight in a position that was not d6 (which would have opened a powerful battery on the a1-g7 diagonal). After that the position was equal and the opposite colored bishops gave the players great chances for drawing.

China's number two had a tough time out of the opening, but regained composure and secured a draw with black.

Kamsky, Gata - Grischuk, Alexander 0-1
In another bizarre Sicilian Kamsky was forced to sacrifice a pawn very early on but obtained fantastic initiative. The players both got into severe time trouble and the game's quality at the end left much to be desired, as the many complications could not be calculated when both sides were playing on increment. Unfortunately for the American he let his flag fall and that sealed the deal.

Grandmaster Alexander Ipatov from Turkey, an adventurer in his own right, sent us annotations to what he considers the critical game of the round. He himself played over eight hours of chess today as he had a double round in the Turkish League. You can follow his blog at http://blog.alexipatov.com/.

A classy Kamsky before the start of a bizarre game.

Gelfand, Boris - Topalov, Veselin 0-1
A very complex Gruenfeld gave both sides incredible tactical opportunities. Gelfand became too focused on preserving his passed d6 pawn and lost track that Black also had his own passed pawn which could become quite powerful. After pushing White's bishop around for many moves, Black was able to round up the White passer while preserving his own, which guaranteed victory.

Topalov seems pleased with his assistant's choice.

Information and pictures by FIDE press chief WGM Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule and pairings

The games start at 9:00h European time, 11:00h Moscow, 3 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be 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.