FIDE Grand Prix Tashkent R1: Morozevich, Karjakin win

The second stage of the 2012-2013 FIDE Grand Prix Series is taking place from November 21 to December 5th in the Gallery of Fine Art in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The games start at 14:00h local time (= 10:00h CET, 13:00h Moscow, 04:00 a.m. New York). The tournament has a prize fund of 240,000 Euros.

The reception hall in fine Uzbek style

Participants

After the very entertaining London GP, in which Gelfand and Topalov shone, the lineup for the second Grand Prix series in is a finely balanced roster with players of all styles, ensuring the widest variety of battles on the board. Whether you favor the explosive chess of Alexander Morozevich, the boa constrictor style of Peter Leko, or the balanced play of Fabiano Caruana, it is all there.

The ratings in the following table are based on the November 2012 FIDE list. The average rating of event is 2747.1. Note that GM Gata Kamsky (US) replaces GM Vugar Gashimov (AZE) who is not able to play in this leg only.

Technical meeting

The technical meeting of players and officials before the event

GMs Ponomariov and Karjakin testing the tables (wait: that is not a prematurely graying
Sergey Karjakin on the right but FIDE Continental President for Africa Lakhdar Mazouz)

Wang Hao and Peter Svidler testing the reception of cell phones in the playing hall

The opening ceremony

The opening ceremony at the Gallery of Fine Art was attended by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Adham Ikramov, the Chairperson of Fund Forum’s Board of Trustees Gulnara Karimova and many others.

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov speaks to the players and visitors

The Chairperson of the Fund Forum’s Board of Trustees Gulnara Karimova

The media interest is gratifying

The dance pageant to celebrate the start of the Grand Prix

For the drawing of colours the players had to choose from some very attractive dolls

Alexander Morozevich picks the number one, inscribed at the bottom of his doll

Round one report

The first round featured two wins, the first and foremost between Alexander Morozevich and Gata Kamsky. Morozevich played his trademark style that has made him so deservedly popular, a high stakes game in which the most likely outcome is a series of fireworks worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster, and defeated Gata Kamsky to open his tally with a win. In many ways, what Shirov was to the 90s, with his high-risk creative play, Morozevich is to the current crop of top players: He is creative, uncompromising, and dangerous beyond belief. His fault, one that he himself has recognized, is that it is the sort of chess that is incredibly demanding on the player, and that cannot be sustained for a long career.

The other win of the game was between the Cuban Leinier Dominguez and Sergey Karjakin. It was a Ruy Lopez Breyer, that left one with the impression that the Russian’s understanding of the intricacies far outweighed those of his Latin American colleague as little by little the advantage swung to Black. A powerful game by Karjakin in which he outplayed his opponent in impressive fashion.

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Game analysis to follow tonight...

All photos by Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule and results

Video Reports

Links Official tournament site 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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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