FIDE Grand Prix - Geneva: Harikrishna joins three-way lead

The Grand Prix is being organized by Agon Limited, the commercial partner of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. Agon has the exclusive commercial rights to organize the cycle of the World Championship.

Each Grand Prix has a prize fund of 130,000 euros, and the Geneva Grand Prix is supported by EG Capital Advisors, Kaspersky Lab and S.T. Dupont.

Twenty-four of the world’s best players are competing in the Grand Prix, with 18 of them participating in each of the tournaments. They will play a nine round swiss open played at 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move one.

The tournament runs from June 6-15, with a rest day on June 11 after round five. Each round starts at 2 pm local time (8 am New York time).

Round six

Photos by FIDE

The top game of the round was that between the leaders Alexander Grischuk and Teimour Radjabov. Anyone expecting them to agree to a short draw was heartwarmed to see the two duking it out, and not just for show. Grischuk unleashed a novelty that gave him a lasting edge, but explained that although he felt his opening was a success, Black’s position is still solid and it is not easy to break through. A mistake on move 31 was enough to let Radjabov equalize and the handshake on move 41 after the time control was no surprise.

A fascinating duel between the leaders as Alexander Grischuk showed he was there to win

One of the biggest surprises of the day was Levon Aronian’s loss to Pentala Harikirshna. Aronian is known to be particularly dangerous with White, and there was the hope by some of his fans that he might try to gain a long-shot at the Candidates spot should he win the event outright. He prepared an unusual opening novelty with 13.Re1 that would need a few moves to become apparent, and after 16.d4! he was firmly in the driver’s seat. However, not long after, with 20.f4? and 21.b5?  he fatally weakened his king’s position for no reason, and was punished very quickly.

Aronian - Harikrishna

The Indian never let go after this, and instead of Aronian being a longshot qualifier, it is Harikrishna, though he would need to not only win Geneva outright, but storm away with Palma later this year. Either way, he now shares the lead with Grischuk and Radjabov with 4.0/6 to the delight of the Indian fans.

Levon Aronian slipped badly and was duly punished by Pentala Harikrishna

Levon Aronian - Pentala Harikrishna

Peter Svidler really played with fire as he tried to build a sacrificial attack against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Instead, the Azeri was very much in control and could now conceive of winning and joining the leaders himself. White dug deep though, and little by little whittled away at Black’s advantage until he had saved the draw.

A video of the rest day by WGM Anna Burtasova

Ian Nepomniachtchi was a convincing winner in round six as well, as he dispatched Ernesto Inarkiev in a nice game. With his win he moves to a plus score with 3.5/6, just half a point behind the leaders. Enjoy the detailed analysis by GM Krikor Mekhitarian who shares his expertise in the system employed by Nepo.

Ian Nepomniachtchi - Ernesto Inarkiev (annotated by GM Krikor Mekhitarian)

Ian Nepomniachtchi shares his post-game impressions as well as some comments on his forthcoming games against Garry Kasparov at the Sinquefield Cup

Pavel Eljanov has certainly had a topsy-turvy event with only one draw out of six games, and sadly for the Ukrainian this is his second loss in a row. Li Chao took advantage of Black’s reluctance to castle, and when he saw his opponent seemingly think it was not urgent, set up a position to punish him and sure enough the hammer fell. Whereas Eljanov has had only one draw in six, Li Chao was happy to score his first win after five draws in the first half of the event.

Li Chao broke his drawing streak, a streak that is atypical for him, and defeated Pavel Eljanov when the latter became a little too adventurous about his need to castle

Li Chao - Pavel Eljanov

Hou Yifan and her legion of supporters will be delighted to see the Chinese player score her first win so far, though she has certainly had chances in other games. In a tough battle with Black against Saleh Salem, she pressured for the longest time, unable to get her opponent to crack. When he finally seemed to have things back in control, time trouble reared its ugly head and he blundered into a mate.

After a few unsccessful campaigns, it is finally mission accomplished as Hou Yifan scores her first win

Standings after six rounds

Links

• Official tournament site
• All games in PGN or Replay them directly here (many analyzed)

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