5/22/2015 – Big mistakes today changed the standings significantly. Caruana lost to Jakovenko: the Italian player was pushing for a significant amount of time and then out of nowhere he blundered heavily! Jakovenko took advantage of his chances and won. Grischuk beat Karjakin in a very complex game marked by a last-minute Karjakin blunder. Finally Nakamura's game was unpredictable!
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
Winning starts with what you know The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Even more power for Fritz. Even more chess knowledge for you.
€89.90
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 Eight
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
Daniel King shows the highlights of round 8
Gelfand, Boris 1-0 Svidler, Peter Gelfand's preparation gave him a nice edge in the Russian variation of the Grunfeld. His pair of bishop advantage coupled with the passed a-pawn was annoying to deal with and finally helped Gelfand to win.
Svidler's Grunfeld was in serious danger today
Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½ Dominguez, Leinier Tomashevsky won two pawns in the opening, but Dominguez had typical Grunfeld counterplay. The Russian player decided to sacrifice a pawn to ease the pressure, giving the unusual material balance of a minor piece and two pawns against a rook. Dominguez thought he was worse and sacrificed the exchange back for a pawn, hoping to draw the opposite colored bishop endgame - which he was lucky enough to do.
Evgeny Tomashevsky missed a number of good chances
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½-½ Giri, Anish MVL at least didn't lose again, but he never managed to put Giri in any real problems. The Dutch player sacrificed a pawn that he was very clearly going to get back at some point.
MVL dropped down to place 29 in the World
Jobava, Baadur 0-1 Nakamura, Hikaru A hard game to understand. Nakamura was better the whole game and at some point he was even up three pawns. However he botched it up and Jobava had good chances to hold. He inexplicably, however, went for a completely lost rook and pawn endgame that Nakamura finally managed to convert.
And push he did, Jobava made it easy by eliminating one of the g-pawns and transposing into a lost endgame
Nakamura was winning, then not, then Jobava blundered
Grischuk, Alexander 1-0 Karjakin, Sergey
[Event "KM FIDE GP 2015"] [Site "Khanty-Mansiysk RUS"] [Date "2015.05.22"] [Round "8"] [White "Grischuk, A."] [Black "Karjakin, Sergey"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D43"] [WhiteElo "2780"] [BlackElo "2753"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "79"] [EventDate "2015.05.13"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 dxc4 7. e4 g5 8. Bg3 b5 9. Be2 Bb7 10. e5 {This line is rather rare nowadays. It was somewhat popular in 2009-2013 but h4 remains the main line.} Nd5 11. O-O Nxc3 (11... Nd7 {was Morozevich-Caruana from 2013, whih was won by Black.}) 12. bxc3 c5 13. a4 a6 14. Qb1 {White will recover his pawn on the queenside, so Black initiates operations on the kingside to undermine White's center. A whole board approach! } g4 15. Nh4 cxd4 16. axb5 d3 17. Bxg4 {A very strange position. White has many pluses: better development, safer king. However Black's passed pawn on d3 cannot be underestimated. It won't queen soon, but it heavily restricts White's pieces.} a5 18. Bf3 Bxf3 19. Nxf3 Qd5 20. Ra4 {Attacking the base of a pawn chain is as old of a chess concept as it gets.} Nd7 21. Qa2 {Black doesn't want to give up his c4 pawn, but maybe he should have.} Nb6 (21... Qxb5 22. Rb1 Qd5 23. Nd2 Be7 24. Qxc4 {and even though White's position looks a little more pleasant, Black should have enough to keep equal chances.}) 22. Rxa5 Rxa5 23. Qxa5 Bc5 {Black's the own down the pawn now, but with compensation.} 24. Qa2 $1 {Bringing the queen back into the game is excellent.} O-O 25. Qd2 Kh7 26. Re1 Be7 27. Bf4 Rg8 {Black creates his own threats against the White king.} 28. Kh1 Bf8 29. Be3 $1 Nd7 30. Bd4 Qxb5 {Black recovered his pawn but White has managed to bring his bishop to a far more active square. The powerful passed pawn is compensated by the weakness of the Black king.} 31. Qf4 Bg7 $2 {This move is simply bad. The f7 pawn could be sacrificed but not like this.} (31... Qd5 32. Qxf7+ Rg7 33. Qf4 Bc5 {with still complicated play.} ) 32. Qxf7 Qd5 33. Nd2 $6 {The knight transfers at an inopportune moment.} Rf8 34. Qe7 Rf5 $6 (34... Nb8 $1 {Was the surprising and powerful move here. The point is that Nc6 and Nxd4 is a very real and hard to stop threat.}) 35. Re3 Rg5 36. Rg3 Nxe5 (36... Rxg3 37. hxg3 Nb8 $1 {was still the way to go.}) 37. Rxg5 hxg5 38. Nxc4 $5 {A brave decision in deep time trouble. Grischuk calculated this very well.} Kg6 39. Qe8+ Nf7 $4 (39... Kh6 40. Ne3 d2 $1 41. h3 $1 Qb3 42. Kh2 d1=Q 43. Nxd1 Qxd1 44. Qxe6+ {is probably a draw.}) 40. Qg8 $1 { Black is completely pinned down and cannot defend properly against Qxg7!} (40. Qg8 e5 41. Nxe5+ {and no piece can take the e5 pawn.}) 1-0
One of many Russian duels
Caruana, Fabiano 0-1 Jakovenko, Dmitry Caruana was pressing, had the better position throughout the game, and then disaster struck:
[Event "KM FIDE GP 2015"] [Site "Khanty-Mansiysk RUS"] [Date "2015.05.22"] [Round "8"] [White "Caruana, F."] [Black "Jakovenko, D."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C65"] [WhiteElo "2803"] [BlackElo "2738"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "3qr2k/p5p1/1p2r1bp/2p5/4NR1P/1QbP2P1/PP3P2/4R1K1 w - - 0 35"] [PlyCount "26"] [EventDate "2015.05.13"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] 35. Qxc3 Qd5 {Still a complicated position. White is up a pawn but Black has all the activity. Chances should be around equal.} 36. Qb3 $2 {A big blunder!} (36. a3 $11) 36... c4 $1 {Excellent.} 37. Qc3 (37. dxc4 Qa5 $1 {And now White cannot defend the rook on e1 and the knight on e4 at the same time.}) (37. Qxc4 Qxc4 38. dxc4 Rxe4 $19) 37... cxd3 {White is simply lost. He cannot deal with all of the incoming threats.} 38. f3 Bxe4 39. fxe4 Rxe4 40. Rexe4 Rxe4 41. Rf2 Re3 42. Kh2 Qe4 {This swiftly finishes off the game.} 43. Qc8+ Kh7 44. Rf4 (44. Qf5+ Qxf5 45. Rxf5 Re2+ 46. Kh3 Rxb2 {is simply resignable.}) 44... Re2+ 45. Kh3 Qg2+ 46. Kg4 h5+ 47. Kxh5 Qxg3 {White is getting mated while Black isn't.} 0-1
He is human! Caruana with a big blunder.
Standings
Round Eight Games
Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games
Photos from the official website by Kirill Merkurev
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.
Alejandro RamirezGrandmaster 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.
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12092 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 1276 are annotated.
In this 60 Minutes, Andrew Martin guides you through all the key ideas you need to know to play with confidence. Whether you’re looking to surprise your opponents, or simply want a straightforward weapon against e5, the Centre Attack has you covered.
Videos by Mihail Marin: Najdorf Variation with 6.f4 and Nico Zwirs: Italian ‘giucco pianissimo’. ‘Lucky bag’ with 45 analyses by Edouard, Ftacnik, Gupta, Pelletier and others. Update service with over 50,000 new games for your database!
This video course provides a comprehensive and practical White repertoire in the Ruy Lopez! Through instructive model games and in-depth theoretical explanations, you will learn how to confidently handle both main lines and sidelines.
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
€21.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.