Jermuk R5: five decisive games, Ivanchuk and Leko lead

Fifth FIDE Grand Prix in Jermuk, Armenia

This event is taking place from August 8th-24th 2009. It is a Category 19 tournament, with eleven of the 14 players rated over 2700. The event is a memorial to former world champion Tigran Petrosian, who held the title from 1963–1969 and would have turned 80 on June 17th this year.

Round five

Stop the presses! Five out of seven - 71.43% - of the games in Jarmuk today were decisive, bringing the total number to 13 out of 35, or 37.14%. Considering the gravity of this tournament, these are impressive figures, and perhaps better than those of recent memory.

Eljanov-Jakavenko and Alekseev-Leko were of identical length, at 36 moves apiece, the first a Queen's Gambit Declined with 5.Bf4 and the second an Anti-Meran Gambit. Fortunately for Leko, the draw was enough to keep him in a share for the lead. Aronian, on the other hand, went down in a 41-move effort in the Queen's Gambit Meran to Kasimdzhanov, leaving him on the outside looking in.

As for Ivanchuk, he continued his winning ways with a second consecutive victory, this time as Black against Cheparinov. The 42-move Nimzo Indian with 4.Nf3 left the one-time tournament leader demoralized, while allowing the Ukrainian to leapfrog into the lead, alongside Leko.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Ivanchuk's rating seems destined for revival,
with his performance rating currently sitting at a lofty 2867

Of course, the Ukrainians have more to cheer about, with Karjakin putting the boots to Bacrot in a 50-move struggle in the Ruy Lopez Closed.

Not to be outdone, Kamsky finally managed to optimally utilize his White, in the longest game of the round, a 68-mover in a Petroff's Defence against Inarkiev. Gelfand rounded out the group of this round's winners, needing only 42 moves in the Slav Defence to crush Akopian.

This marks the conclusion of the fifth of thirteen rounds, in what is shaping up to be a tournament for the ages, though absent of the world's top four players.

With five rounds down, and eight to go, the players are taking a much-deserved break from action. After three rounds of fighting chess, Dmitry Jakavenko, understandably, took the last two a little easier. In those same three rounds, Ivan Cheparinov went from co-leader to a full point back of the lead.

Peter Leko may very well be the story of the tournament. He has shared the lead of this tournament from the outset, with only the names of his co-leaders changing.

Vassily Ivanchuk, Leko's current partner at the top, has also had an unpredictably outstanding tournament. For an on-again, off-again player, he certainly seems to be lighting the board on fire currently.

Gata Kamsky has been having a rough go of it so far, though he chalked up his first win in this most recently concluded round, against the luckless Ernesto Inarkiev, who has nothing more than two draws to his credit.

Just two draws from the first five games: Russian GM Ernesto Inarkiev

Etienne Bacrot, Evgeny Alekseev and Vladimir Akopian are each playing reasonably, and might be expected to gain some ground on the leading pack, though Alekseev is the only one of the three that has seen the winning side of a game.

Having sealed his first victory in the fifth round, Karjakin seems to be stepping up his efforts as well, while sharing a tie for 6-9 with his fellow countryman, Pavel Eljanov, who has not yet been defeated – and not yet won.

Israeli GM Boris Gelfand, with four draws and one victory

Ever the crowd-pleaser, Levon Aronian sits in the chasing pack, alongside Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who has not played this well in a while, and Boris Gelfand, who continually defies the growing age gap between himself and the ever-changing crop of young talent. The story continues to take shape on Saturday.

All pictures by Arman Karakhanyan, courtesy of FIDE

Current standings

FIDE Grand Prix Jermuk 2009 – Schedule and results

The games start at 15:00h Armenian time (12:00 noon CEST, 11:00h London, 6 a.m. New York and 3 a.m. California). Full live coverage, including discussion and analysis with thousands of other visitors, is available on Playchess.

Links Full information on the FIDE site All ChessBase reports on the Jermuk GP 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 the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!