9/22/2012 – The games for the most part continue to be very exciting. Leko shows Hungarian precision and positional mastery, while Nakamura punishes his opponent with sheer willpower and tenacity. Gelfand and Giri were easily neutralized by Topalov and Wang Hao respectively, and although Dominguez also drew against Grischuk it was not exactly easy. Annotated report by GM Alejandro Ramirez.
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The First FIDE Grand Prix is taking place from September 21 to October 3rd
in Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, London. The games start at 14:00h local time
(= 15:00h CEST, 17:00h Moscow, 09:00 a.m. New York). The tournament has a prize
fund of 240,000 Euros.
Round two report
By GM Alejandro Ramirez
The games for the most part continue to be very exciting. Leko shows Hungarian precision and positional mastery, while Nakamura punishes his opponent with sheer willpower and tenacity. Gelfand and Giri were easily neutralized by Topalov and Wang Hao respectively, and although Dominguez also drew against Grischuk it would be a stretch to say that he did it easily.
Round 2 on 2012/09/22
at 14:00
Leko Peter
2737
1-0
Ivanchuk Vassily
2769
Adams Michael
2722
½-½
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar
2729
Giri Anish
2730
½-½
Wang Hao
2742
Grischuk Alexander
2754
½-½
Dominguez Perez Leinier
2725
Gelfand Boris
2738
½-½
Topalov Veselin
2752
Kasimdzhanov Rustam
2684
0-1
Nakamura Hikaru
2783
Hikaru Nakamura: "You win, you lose. Life."
Kasimdzhanov - Nakamura: In a strange Kings Indian, the game was probably level all the way throughout. Eventually, in time pressure, Kasimdzhanov made a mistake that allowed the American to seize the initiative in what otherwise seemed a mindless endgame. With his king on the ropes and playing on the few seconds he had left, Kasim blundered checkmate in two. You just can’t get in time pressure against Hikaru. Nakamura wins.
Gelfand - Topalov: Nothing to see here. Draw
Another example of Leko's mastery
Leko - Ivanchuk: After Ivanchuk seemingly transposes into an equal endgame, he commits a series of imprecisions that allow Leko to put on pressure. A blunder soon follows, the Hungarian pounces, and it is all over. The French defense suffers another defeat. Leko wins.
Giri - Wang Hao: Not as dull as the Gelfand game, but it comes close. Draw.
So far the Cuban player has done very well
Grischuk - Dominguez: Grischuk sacrifices a pawn early on to put on a lot of pressure on Dominguez’ queenside, which is also underdeveloped. The Cuban is suffering the entire game but manages to wiggle out into an uncomfortable endgame, where Grischuk’s passed d-pawn is causing him a lot of headaches. Unfortunately by this point, that is his one and only trump card, and once it has been blockaded there is little left. He eventually transposes into a pawn up rook endgame, but the material is too simplified. Dominguez hols on to his life and draw.
Adams - Mamedyarov
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1.e4c62.d4d53.Nd2dxe44.Nxe4Bf55.Ng3Bg66.h4h67.Nf3Nf6
Already a very unusual and provocative move. The main idea for black is to
prevent Ne5 by playing Nd7, and only then developing the knight to f6. White
doesn't hesitate in taking advantage of this situation, but this is not the
first time Mamedyarov employs this mover order. He beat Harikrishna at the
Olympiad with it.8.Ne5Bh79.Bd39.Bc4e610.Qe2Nd511.Qh5Qc7was
the Harikrishna game, and Black ended up being very solid.9...Nbd710.f410.Bxh7Nxe511.dxe5Qa5+12.Kf1Nxh7has been tested by Dreev who scored
a draw against Istratescu.10...e611.Bxh7Nxh712.Be3Be7We're out of
theory and it's not hard to guess what is going on. Black has a solid position
but White is pushing his pawns trying to 'storm the barricades' and on top of
that has a nice spatial plus. A standard strategical battle.13.Qf3Qa5+14.c3Nhf615.h5Black has a difficult choice in castiling. If he chooses the
kingside, he will quickly be under fire with a move such as f5. If he chooses
the queenside, it is unclear how he is going to defend his f7 pawn. For now,
he decides it is best to put some pressure on the White position before making
any rash decisions.Qb516.0-0-0Nd5!?White has the option of keeping
Black's king in the center, but with Black's strong queen on b5 and knight on
d7 he can be sure the center will be kept closed.17.Bd2Nxe518.dxe5
Adams played this move, so it must have a reason for existing, but more
natural to me seemed to open the f-file. Of course this would allow a
potential c5 break, but now I don't see how White will make much progress.0-0-019.b3Nb620.Qe2The endgame is slightly unpleasant for Black because
of White's space advantage. Pushing the g-pawn forward will net him weaknesses
and eventually an edge. Also, white is playing Mamedyarov. Whoever heard of
Mamedyarov willingly defending a worse endgame (except for yesterday's game!)Rd3!?If I could put more !!!s and ???s I would. This move is wild, crazy
and unnecessary to a point. Black sacrifices a full rook for what seems like a
fleeting attack, but Mamedyarov has this under control.21.c4If White
doesn't accept, the doubling on the d-file will actually give black an edge.Qa622.Qxd3Qxa2White is being threatened with Ba3 checkmate. There are two
ways to protect against this, blocking with b4 (before or after c5) and moving
the rook on d1.23.c523.b4?Rd824.Qc2Qa1+25.Qb1Qa3+26.Qb2Qxg3This knight hanging is the point of Black's attack. Once the knight is
regained Black is not down that much material, and he still retains strong
pressure.23.Rde1Rd824.Qc3a5!25.Ne425.Nf1Bb426.Qc2Qa1+27.Qb1Qxb1+28.Kxb1Bxd229.Re4Black has a lot of positional plus, but
White is up the exchange after all.25...Ba3+26.Kd1∞23.Rdg1!?∞23...Bxc524.b4Nc4forced.24...Rd825.Qc2Qa1+26.Qb1Qa3+27.Qb2Qxg328.bxc5simply does not work.25.Qb1Forced25.Qc3?Rd8!26.bxc5Rd3-+White can't defend b2 and the attack crashes through.25...Qa3+26.Kc2Qxg327.Qb3Qxb3+28.Kxb3Nxd2+29.Rxd2After a wild wild
sequence we have this endgame in which Black must be slightly worse. Although
normally having two pawns for an exchange is a good thing, here those pawns
are far behind and the rooks have a lot of targets. However, Shakhriyar is
able to easily hold this endgame after some explosive fireworks.Be330.Rd3Bb630...Bxf431.Rf1Bxe532.Rxf7Gives White too much activity.31.Rg3Rg832.Rd1Bd833.b5This pawn sacrifice really seems more threatening than
it is. After this Black has little to worry about.cxb534.Rc3+Kb835.Rd7Rf836.Rg3Mickeys brilliant plan has only one flaw. White is threatening to
win by taking on g7, and it seems unstoppable, unfortunately the rook on d7
has no space on the 7th rank.Kc837.Rd1Rg838.Rc3+Kb839.Rd7Rf8An
intermediate move before a funny repetition.40.Kb4a641.Rg3Kc842.Rd1Rg843.Rc3+Kb844.Rd7Rf845.Rg3Kc846.Rd1Rg847.Rc3+Kb848.Rd7Rf849.Rg3The Computers like trying on with g4, but it seems like that wouldn't
win either. A very hard fought game where both players played very precisely
after deciding that they wanted to play some rough chess. Bravo!½–½
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Throughout the video course, Sasikran shows various examples from his career to explain sacrifices for initiative, an attack, a better pawn structure and much more.
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