Khanty Rd2: Missed Opportunities

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 Matcch! The tournament is taking place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Ugra, Russia from May 13 to May 27.

Round Two

Gelfand, Boris ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Nakamura's second black in a row and his second aggressive opening choice. He decided to employ his trusty King's Indian Defense, and he obtained a great position from it. A nice transition into the endgame made it seem as if Black was simply up a pawn, but there were some very real technical difficulties in converting the pawn. Gelfand found some miraculous counterplay and was able to hold the draw in an opposite colored bishop situation.

Nakamura was the one pressing today

But Gelfand held the draw after finding some counterplay

Giri, Anish ½-½ Karjakin, Sergey
Some sot of strange Reti position, in which Black never played d5. Giri overpressed, and despite having the pair of bishops and some open files on the kingside, he was in danger as his structure on the queenside was decimated and his central pawns were under attack. Karjakin definitely had the better chances, and near the ned instead of the safe 30...Qc7?! he could have tried to go for the win with 30...Qxa2! taking a pan and asking Giri if he had any real compensation.

Karjakin took the safe path when he was already much better

Dominguez, Leinier 1-0 Jakovenko, Dmitry

Dominguez played a topsy-turvy game after an interesting opening idea

Svidler, Peter ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
Svidler definitely had a much comfortable position at some point. His bind on the queenside was very strong and it was uncomfortable to deal with - even though it is true that making progress was far from easy. It does feel that him trading into a drawn endgame was premature, and he could have made Caruana suffer a little more.

Two draws to start out with for Caruana

Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½ Grischuk, Alexander
What a series of missed chances...

Evgeny Tomashevsky could have been 2.0/2

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½-½ Jobava, Baadur
A very complicated Caro-Kann, but it seems that MVL was outplayed. Jobava even refused a repetition at some point, going for the win - and he was justified in doing so. They eventually reached a complicated rook endgame that was obviously better for Black, but it is unclear if it is winning. The position after 55.Kg2 might be the key one, as Jobava advanced too hastily with h4 and MVL managed a draw.

MVL couldn't use his two Whites to score more than 50%

Standings

Round Two Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Photos from the official website by Kirill Merkurev

Schedule

Links Official tournament site 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.