Khanty Rd10: Jakovenko!

by Alejandro Ramirez
5/26/2015 – And just like that, a new challenger has appeared! With Jakovenko's excellent win today against Karjakin, he has put his own fate into his hands. If he is able to defeat Nakamura, with the black pieces, he will qualify for the 2015 Candidates. Anything less than that will leave him out of the competition. Three tie for first, but what everyone cares about is who will qualify?

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

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 Ten

Round 10 – May 25 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
½-½
Svidler, Peter 2734
Jobava, Baadur 2699
1-0
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
½-½
Giri, Anish 2776
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
1-0
Karjakin, Sergey 2753

The proud flags of the participants in Ugra

Gelfand, Boris ½-½ Tomashevsky, Evgeny
Sacrificing a pawn in order to equalize when Black gets his material back seems to be all the rage in opening theory. Tomashevsky did that very successfully today. Gelfand might have had the tiniest of pulls at the end of the game, but it was already very close to equal.

Solid Evgeny Tomashevsky

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½-½ Svidler, Peter
A solid Spanish for two players that are not in contention for anything, really. The draw was reached after several trades in a locked position.

MVL has one more game to play before he can finish this tournament and forget about it

Jobava, Baadur 1-0 Dominguez, Leinier
Jobava is the type of player who can be dead last in the tournament, and he is still incredibly strong psychologically and is always a very strong threat. Dominguez, who before this round was still tied for first, suffered a tough defeat at the hands of the Georgian player.

Dominguez falls down to a tie for fourth

In a still positionally complicated battle, Dominguez decided to give up his dark-squared bishop for his opponent's centralized knight. This created an opposite colored bishop situation on the board, but it heavily favored Jobava. White's superior pawn structure coupled with the excellent bishop on e3 - blocking the e4 pawn and safeguarding the kingside - were enough to give him positional advantages to work with. He played with expertise, precision and patience and won a nice point.

Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ Giri, Anish
A pretty complex game. Grischuk certainly had the better position throughout the entire game. His structure was more flexible and he had the opportunities to break in the center, not to mention his knight on b6 was particularly annoying. Even in the final position it did seem that the Russian had the better chances, but the players agreed to a draw.

Grischuk had the better chances today, but did not convert

Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Another Dragon! Unfortunately trades were heavy today - after Caruana "sacrificed" a bishop (the minor piece could not be taken as Nakamura's king would simply have been too exposed), Nakamura retaliated by taking a seemingly poisoned pawn on h2. The players traded a few blows but the endgame resulted in a draw.

Needing two draws to qualify for the Candidates one wouldn't have thought of playing the Sicilian Dragon!

Jakovenko, Dmitry 1-0 Karjakin, Sergey
An excellent game by Jakovekno. First, at the expense of his structure, he won the pair of bishops. This gave him a great deal of control over the dark squares, and this became even more significant when his bishop landed on d6. Black's queen was suddenly trapped in the middle of the board, but Karjakin obtained a rook, a knight and a pawn in compensation. Jakovenko proceeded to play in both flanks to try to bring down Karjakin's fortress, and he succeeded in doing so after a long struggle - one that was not void of mistakes in mutual time trouble.

With this result Jakovenko puts his fate in his own hands: a win against Nakamura tomorrow seals the deal and he will qualify for the Candidates.

Standings

Current Grand Prix Standings:

Caruana - 370

Nakamura - 347

Jakovenko - 310

Round Ten Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Photos from the official website by Kirill Merkurev

Schedule

Round 01 – May 14 2015, 15:00h
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2744
Jobava, Baadur 2699
0-1
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
½-½
Svidler, Peter 2734
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
½-½
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
1-0
Giri, Anish 2776
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Round 02 – May 15 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Giri, Anish 2776
½-½
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
1-0
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
Svidler, Peter 2734
½-½
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
½-½
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
½-½
Jobava, Baadur 2699
Round 03 – May 16 2015, 15:00h
Jobava, Baadur 2699
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2744
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
½-½
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
1-0
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
0-1
Svidler, Peter 2734
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
½-½
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
½-½
Giri, Anish 2776
Round 04 – May 17 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
½-½
Giri, Anish 2776
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Svidler, Peter 2734
½-½
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
½-½
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
0-1
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
Jobava, Baadur 2699
½-½
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
Round 05 – May 19 2015, 15:00h
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2744
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
½-½
Jobava, Baadur 2699
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
1-0
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
1-0
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
½-½
Svidler, Peter 2734
Giri, Anish 2776
½-½
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Round 06 – May 20 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
½-½
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Svidler, Peter 2734
1-0
Giri, Anish 2776
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
0-1
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Jobava, Baadur 2699
½-½
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
0-1
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
Round 07 – May 21 2015, 15:00h
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2744
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
½-½
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
½-½
Jobava, Baadur 2699
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
1-0
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
Giri, Anish 2776
1-0
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
1-0
Svidler, Peter 2734
Round 08 – May 22 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
1-0
Svidler, Peter 2734
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
½-½
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
½-½
Giri, Anish 2776
Jobava, Baadur 2699
0-1
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
1-0
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
0-1
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
Round 09 – May 24 2015, 15:00h
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2744
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
½-½
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
½-½
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
Giri, Anish 2776
1-0
Jobava, Baadur 2699
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
½-½
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
Svidler, Peter 2734
0-1
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Round 10 – May 25 2015, 15:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2744
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754
½-½
Svidler, Peter 2734
Jobava, Baadur 2699
1-0
Dominguez, Leinier 2734
Grischuk, Alexander 2780
½-½
Giri, Anish 2776
Caruana, Fabiano 2803
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
1-0
Karjakin, Sergey 2753
Round 11 – May 26 2015, 15:00h
Karjakin, Sergey 2753   Gelfand, Boris 2744
Nakamura, Hikaru 2799   Jakovenko, Dmitry 2738
Giri, Anish 2776   Caruana, Fabiano 2803
Dominguez, Leinier 2734   Grischuk, Alexander 2780
Svidler, Peter 2734   Jobava, Baadur 2699
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2749   Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2754

Links

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.


Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register