Khanty R5: MVL, Tomashevsky fall again

The fourth and final stage of the 2014-2015 Grand Prix Series. This tournament is specially important as it will determine the winner and runner up of this year, both of which will automatically qualify for the 2015 Candidates Tournament - the winner of that will challenge Magnus Carlsen to the World Championship Match! The tournament is taking place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Ugra, Russia from May 13 to May 27.

Round Five

Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
The 4.Qxd4 anti-Sicilian chosen by Grischuk led to massive simplifications and a quick draw.

Another quiet game for Alexander Grischuk

Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ Jobava, Baadur
Jobava's trusty Caro-Kann is always unusual. This time he somehow managed to get a pawn all the way to d3 by move 14, but it was quite weak. Caruana strange decision to take on c5 meant that suddenly the d3 pawn was not so bad, as it had support from the rooks.

Always interesting chess from Jobava

White managed to win a pawn eventually, but it came at the cost of his structure and the resulting rook endgame was much closer to a draw than any real attempts to push for a win.

Jakovenko, Dmitry 1-0 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime

MVL hasn't found his style... he sits in -2 (1.5/5)

Karjakin, Sergey 1-0 Tomashevsky, Evgeny
A test of patience, for sure. Many people would have agreed to a draw at some point in this game, but the players kept fighting on. Tomashevsky lost the threat of the game after almost 30 moves of nothing actually happening. His doubling on the a-file was dubious as it allowed Karjakin to open the center with 70.e4. Yes, seventieth move. Tomashevsky's position went downhill from there, and eventually Karjakin won on move 99.

Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Svidler, Peter
Another Grunfeld in which an early h4 tried to dismantle the kingside. However this battle turned positional very quickly, with a locked center and Nakamura trying to open the kingside. It was a strange game, to say the least, but White must have made some inaccuracies as Black's extra pawn seemed to not be fully compensated. The player's agreed to a draw in a position in which the computers prefer Black, but it is extremely murky.

A tense game. Nakamura needs to finish two points ahead of Tomashevsky to qualify directly into the Candidates.

Giri, Anish ½-½ Dominguez, Leinier
Dominguez's structural weaknesses were more than compensated by his pair of bishops. That being said, it was never really enough for a big advantage. Giri played well to retain equality and the game eventually dissipated into an opposite colored bishop endgame.

Dominguez is looking out! Karjakin ties with him for second place.

Standings

Round Five Games

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Photos from the official website by Kirill Merkurev

Schedule

Links Official tournament site Download 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.