FIDE Grand Prix in Elista 2008
The Third FIDE Grand Prix tournament is taking place in Elista from December
13 to 29, 2008. Despite the recent withdrawals (Carlsen, Adams) and the absence
of players like Anand, Kramnik and Topalov the tournament is very strong (category 19). The venue, originally to be Doha, is now "City Chess"
in Elista, Kalmykia.
Results
Round 4: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
0-1 |
Evgeny Alekseev |
Wang Yue |
1-0 |
Pavel Eljanov |
Vladimir Akopian |
½-½ |
Vugar Gashimov |
Alexander Grischuk |
½-½ |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
Ivan Cheparinov |
½-½ |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
Etienne Bacrot |
1-0 |
Peter Leko |
Teimour Radjabov |
½-½ |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
|
The game of the day was Etienne Bacrot vs Peter Leko. The Hungarian tried a
classical Caro-Kann against the top French grandmaster, and was looking quite
good around move 20. But the position was a tactical minefield with hideous
complications looming at every move.
Bacrot,E (2705) - Leko,P (2747) [B19]
FIDE Grand Prix Elista RUS (4), 17.12.2008
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5
Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bf4 Qa5+ 12.Bd2 Bb4 13.c3 Be7 14.c4 Qc7 15.0-0-0
Ngf6 16.Ne4 0-0 17.g4 Nxg4 18.Qe2 f5 19.Rdg1 Rae8 20.Ne1 e5 21.Ng3 exd4
Black certainly stands better (he is two pawns up), and White is forced to take
drastic steps: 22.Nxf5 Rxf5 23.Qxg4 Rf7. 23...Rg5 24.Bxg5 Bxg5+
25.Kb1 Ne5 26.Qf5 Nxc4 was an alternative to consider. 24.Bxh6 Bf6 25.Bd2
Ne5 26.Qe2 d3 27.Qe4 Qb6 28.b3 Qc5 29.h6 Qa3+ 30.Kd1. The tides have
turned and White's position is now better. Black's next move is a blunder: 30...Qxa2??
We leave it to you to find the move Bacrot played to force Leko's immediate
resignation. You can find the solution elsewhere in this report.

A beautiful and tactically very exciting game between the top French GM Etienne
Bacrot...

... and the former World Championship challenger Peter Leko of Hungary

Evgeny Alekseev won an interesting game with black against Rustam Kasimdzhanov...

... and Wang Yue demonstrated how to win a light-piece endgame (knight +
four pawns
vs bishop and three) against Pavel Eljanov. The marathon game lasted 75 moves.
Standings after four rounds

Andrey Zontakh: "I believe Sanan will be a World Champion"
Yesterday we mentioned Sanan Sjugirov, a 15-year-old player from Elista, who
has just received his GM title. His coach, GM Andrey Zontakh, 38, is from Ukraine and was interviewed on the FIDE Grand Prix web site. Here are some excerpts:
Question: Andrey Rudolfovich, for how long have you
been working as a coach?
Zontakh: For ten years already. Because of this, I very seldom
play in tournaments.

15-year-old chess prodigy Sanan with his trainer GM Andrey Zontakh
In your opinion, when will Sanan Syugirov start to play in strong tournaments?
It is difficult to say, he is only 15. Rarely can one succeed to become a GM
at this age. Sanan has a talent and I have no doubt that he will keep doing
well. Now every year is very important for him. It depends on his willingness
to work hard and other factors. I believe that Sanan can manage to break into
the elite world of chess and get the highest title.
In what way are you training him?

Sanan playing an informal game against Boris Spassky
Between Sanan's tournaments we have meetings of 10-12 days or two weeks. During
this time I come to his place every day and we spend plenty of time analyzing
opening theory, the games we have played, some concrete or typical positions.
While preparing for the next tournaments we are training with a computer and
learning chess literature. Sometimes Sanan goes to Samara or Tolyati where the
famous coach and GM, Yury Yakovich’s games are taking place.
During recent years the Ukrainian town – Kramatorsk – gave
to the world a lot of talented chess players, for example, Sergey Karjakin,
Katerina Lahno, Yuri Kuzubov etc. Is the chess school still functioning there?

Soon this lad will be playing in the highest classes of chess
No, unfortunately, it doesn’t work any more. Of the grandmasters mentioned,
I know that Karjakin lives in Simferopol, Crimea; Lahno moved to Chelyabinsk,
Russia. In Ukraine the chess cities are Foros and Odessa, where every year the
traditional international tournaments are taking place with participation of
the leading world grandmasters. The capital of the country Kiev, unfortunately,
could not boast of such chess traditions, although, men and women teams of Ukraine
show good result at the Olympiads. The women’s team even won the gold
in Turin, 2006. Our country , as is known, gave many brilliant chess players
to the world – Vasily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomaryev, Sergey Karjakin and
etc.
As they say, may be one of the tournaments of the FIDE Grand Prix series
will be in Kiev…
It would be wonderful if such a tournament will be in the capital of Ukraine.
Did you find the beautiful move in the Bacrot-Leko game?
Here White played the spectacular queen sacrifice 31.Qh7+!!
Leko resigned, as this is mate in four: 31...Kxh7 32.hxg7+ Bh4 33.Rxh4+ Kg8
34.Rh8 mate; or 31...Kf8 32.Bb4+ c5 33.Bxc5+ Rfe7 34.hxg7+ Kf7 35.g8Q mate.
FIDE Grand Prix Elista 2008 – Schedule and results
Round 1: Sunday December 14, 2008 |
Etienne Bacrot |
½-½ |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Teimour Radjabov |
½-½ |
Ivan Cheparinov |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
½-½ |
Alexander Grischuk |
Peter Leko |
½-½ |
Vladimir Akopian |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
1-0 |
Wang Yue |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
½-½ |
Evgeny Alekseev |
Vugar Gashimov |
1-0 |
Pavel Eljanov |
|
|
Round 2: Monday, December 15, 2008 |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
½-½ |
Pavel Eljanov |
Evgeny Alekseev |
½-½ |
Vugar Gashimov |
Wang Yue |
½-½ |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
Vladimir Akopian |
½-½ |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
Alexander Grischuk |
1-0 |
Peter Leko |
Ivan Cheparinov |
½-½ |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
Etienne Bacrot |
0-1 |
Teimour Radjabov |
|
|
Round 3: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 |
Teimour Radjabov |
1-0 |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
½-½ |
Etienne Bacrot |
Peter Leko |
1-0 |
Ivan Cheparinov |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
½-½ |
Alexander Grischuk |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
½-½ |
Vladimir Akopian |
Vugar Gashimov |
½-½ |
Wang Yue |
Pavel Eljanov |
1-0 |
Evgeny Alekseev |
|
|
Round 4: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
0-1 |
Evgeny Alekseev |
Wang Yue |
1-0 |
Pavel Eljanov |
Vladimir Akopian |
½-½ |
Vugar Gashimov |
Alexander Grischuk |
½-½ |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
Ivan Cheparinov |
½-½ |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
Etienne Bacrot |
1-0 |
Peter Leko |
Teimour Radjabov |
½-½ |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
|
|
Round 5: Thursday, December 18, 2008 |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
- |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Peter Leko |
- |
Teimour Radjabov |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
- |
Etienne Bacrot |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
- |
Ivan Cheparinov |
Vugar Gashimov |
- |
Alexander Grischuk |
Pavel Eljanov |
- |
Vladimir Akopian |
Evgeny Alekseev |
- |
Wang Yue |
Games – Report |
|
Round 6: Saturday, December 20, 2008 |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
- |
Wang Yue |
Vladimir Akopian |
- |
Evgeny Alekseev |
Alexander Grischuk |
- |
Pavel Eljanov |
Ivan Cheparinov |
- |
Vugar Gashimov |
Etienne Bacrot |
- |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
Teimour Radjabov |
- |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
- |
Peter Leko |
Games – Report |
|
Round 7: Sunday, December 21, 2008 |
Peter Leko |
- |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
- |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
- |
Teimour Radjabov |
Vugar Gashimov |
- |
Etienne Bacrot |
Pavel Eljanov |
- |
Ivan Cheparinov |
Evgeny Alekseev |
- |
Alexander Grischuk |
Wang Yue |
- |
Vladimir Akopian |
Games – Report |
|
Round 8: Monday, December 22, 2008 |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
- |
Vladimir Akopian |
Alexander Grischuk |
- |
Wang Yue |
Ivan Cheparinov |
- |
Evgeny Alekseev |
Etienne Bacrot |
- |
Pavel Eljanov |
Teimour Radjabov |
- |
Vugar Gashimov |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
- |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
Peter Leko |
- |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
Games – Report |
|
Round 9: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
- |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
- |
Peter Leko |
Vugar Gashimov |
- |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
Pavel Eljanov |
- |
Teimour Radjabov |
Evgeny Alekseev |
- |
Etienne Bacrot |
Wang Yue |
- |
Ivan Cheparinov |
Vladimir Akopian |
- |
Alexander Grischuk |
Games – Report |
|
Round 10: Thursday, December 25, 2008 |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
- |
Alexander Grischuk |
Ivan Cheparinov |
- |
Vladimir Akopian |
Etienne Bacrot |
- |
Wang Yue |
Teimour Radjabov |
- |
Evgeny Alekseev |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
- |
Pavel Eljanov |
Peter Leko |
- |
Vugar Gashimov |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
- |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
Games – Report |
|
Round 11: Friday, December 26, 2008 |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
- |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Vugar Gashimov |
- |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
Pavel Eljanov |
- |
Peter Leko |
Evgeny Alekseev |
- |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
Wang Yue |
- |
Teimour Radjabov |
Vladimir Akopian |
- |
Etienne Bacrot |
Alexander Grischuk |
- |
Ivan Cheparinov |
Games – Report |
|
Round 12: Saturday, December 27, 2008 |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
- |
Ivan Cheparinov |
Etienne Bacrot |
- |
Alexander Grischuk |
Teimour Radjabov |
- |
Vladimir Akopian |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
- |
Wang Yue |
Peter Leko |
- |
Evgeny Alekseev |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
- |
Pavel Eljanov |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
- |
Vugar Gashimov |
Games – Report |
|
Round 13: Sunday, December 28, 2008 |
Vugar Gashimov |
- |
Rustam Kasimdzhanov |
Pavel Eljanov |
- |
Ernesto Inarkiev |
Evgeny Alekseev |
- |
Dmitry Jakovenko |
Wang Yue |
- |
Peter Leko |
Vladimir Akopian |
- |
Shakh. Mamedyarov |
Alexander Grischuk |
- |
Teimour Radjabov |
Ivan Cheparinov |
- |
Etienne Bacrot |
Games – Report |
|
Monday, December 29, 2008
Departure |
|