London Rd7: Gelfand leads, Mamedyarov a half point behind

by ChessBase
9/29/2012 – After the sixth round we still had one leader: Boris Gelfand, with 4/6, chased by a pack of four players (Grischuk, Topalov, Mamedyarov and Leko) with 3.5/6. Today the Israeli GM scored his third win in this tournament, with no losses, and with it has displayed a 2900+ performance. One player is half a point behind him: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who won a nice game against Nakamura.

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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 seven report

By GM Robert Fontaine

Round 7 on 2012/09/28 at 14:00
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
½-½
Leko Peter 2737
Wang Hao 2742
½-½
Topalov Veselin 2752
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
1-0
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
½-½
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684
Adams Michael 2722
0-1
Gelfand Boris 2738
Giri Anish 2730
½-½
Grischuk Alexander 2754

Dominguez-Leko: Leinier avoided the main line of the Berlin Defence and went for the Closed Spanish Opening. Right after the opening, Peter decided to destroy the pawn centre with 15…c6 and 16…d5!? The endgame, which arose from these exchanges, was a bit better for White due to the pawn structure, but not enough to break Leko’s defence. and the draw was agreed after 40 moves.

Wang Hao-Topalov: A very exciting Grüfeld played by Topalov, who was two pawns down after eight moves, but of course still in his preparation. As compensation he immediately had a better development. After 13 moves, White hadn’t developed the kingside at all, with the bishop still on f1 and pawns on e2 and g2! All the black squares were weakened and Topalov logically took the advantage step by step. Approaching time trouble, Hao managed to survive his opponent’s attack and eventually equalized. A tough draw for the young Chinese player and a disappointment for Topalov.

Mamedyarov-Nakamura: Everyone was expecting blood in this game! “Shak” and Hikaru have explosive styles, based on attack. Without any big surprise, we had a King’s Indian arriving on the board and Shakhriyar went for a quiet line based on g3, Bg2. White took the space and Hikaru decided to change the course of the game by playing 17…c5?! White took the advantage by creating an attack after 18.e5! Mamedyarov kept on pressuring his opponent until the time trouble, where Black couldn’t find the best defence. He scored his second full point in a row. The game is annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez below.

Ivanchuk-Kasimdzhanov: After few moves, Vasily was not writing down his moves. Carol Jarecki, the arbiter, made the small remark to the Ukrainian player. Vasily had just forgotten about it! In a strange move order (Reti), Rustam took the c4-pawn and tried to keep it as long as possible with 10…Qd4. Vasily didn’t go to the arbiter to ask for a draw (two times repetition only) and finally the draw was agreed after only 11 moves!

Adams-Gelfand: These two players know each other well very well and are from the same generation (Boris Gelfand was born in 1968 and Michael Adams in 1971). Michael went for the Rossolimo line of the Sicilian, choosing the b3, Bb2 plan. Boris decided to develop his pieces in an original way with f6, Kf7. The position looked pretty equal but Black had compensation with the two bishops. Boris even went for the a2-pawn, which seemed risky. Black kept his two pawn advantage until the rook endgame and managed to win. An important victory for Boris who is in real good shape so far!


A flurry of moves at the start of the Giri-Grischuk confrontation in Round 7

Giri-Grischuk: Anish Giri played the solid Maroczy Bind against Grischuk's 6…Ba7 Paulsen Sicilian. The young Dutch player went for the usual plan with a4-a5 in order to take space on the queenside. Grischuk’s position remained solid, exchanging all the pawns on the queenside and equalizing comfortably. The draw was agreed after a 41-move fight.

All photos by Ray Morris-Hill

Mamedyarov-Nakamura – analysis by GM Alejandro Ramirez

[Event "FIDE Grand Prix - London 2012"] [Site "London"] [Date "2012.09.28"] [Round "7"] [White "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"] [Black "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E68"] [WhiteElo "2729"] [BlackElo "2783"] [Annotator "Ramirez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "85"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] [EventCountry "ENG"] {Mamedyarov and Nakamura are two players that have been featured a lot in the game of the days of this tournament. The reason is simple: some players play more interesting chess than others. And when they clash, usually something exciting will happen.} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d6 6. O-O Nbd7 7. Nc3 e5 8. e4 exd4 9. Nxd4 Re8 10. h3 Nc5 11. Re1 h6 {The point of this move is not obvious. In some ways it is simply a waiting move. b4 is not immediately a threat, so a5 is not necessary right away, and b5 has not been weakened.} (11... a5 12. Ndb5 $5 {Has been giving Black headaches.}) (11... Bd7 {is interesting.}) 12. Kh2 {White simply responds with a waiting move.} Bd7 13. Rb1 a6 14. a3 Qc8 15. f4 Rb8 (15... Nh5 $5) 16. b4 Ne6 17. Nf3 {This position is, at least to me, very aesthetically pleasing. Notice that White has a strong space advantage, but that comes with many weaknesses. For this reason Black wants to trade some pieces to be able to open lines to take advantage of those weaknesses. If Mamedyarov manages to not trade any pieces at all, it will become difficult for Hikaru to find moves - a typical Fianchetto Variation in the KID!} c5 $5 {Somewhat committing, Black instantly looks for counterplay.} (17... Ng4+ 18. hxg4 Bxc3 19. Bd2 $14 {Has the disadvantage that the pawn going from h3 to g4 is actually something White welcomes.}) 18. e5 $1 dxe5 19. Nxe5 cxb4 20. axb4 Nf8 21. Bb2 Be6 22. Nd5 {In many ways, White has gotten exactly what he wanted. His powerful knights in the center are obviously better than their counterparts. Black would love to eliminate this knights as soon as possible, but doing so right now would mean that White would have a powerful passed pawn on the d-file. Notice that some of the preparation moves that Black has done have been relatively futile. The major pieces are discoordinated and the minor pieces have no activity. It's difficult to get Hikaru in such a passive position!} Qd8 23. Qb3 h5 24. Rbd1 Bxd5 25. cxd5 h4 {Nakamura tries to complicate matters, but Mamedyarov doesn't fall for this.} 26. d6 $1 (26. g4 $6 {I think many masters would try to avoid complications by pushing the pawn forward - however} Qd6 $1 {emphasizes the weaknesses left by g4. Now Nc4 is not an option, and the pawn is at least temporarily blockaded.}) 26... hxg3+ 27. Qxg3 {The intruder must be taken} Nh5 28. Qg4 f5 29. Qf3 Qh4 30. d7 Red8 (30... Re6 $5 {is an unnatural suggestion by the computer. d8 is still defended, and in some ways many threats have been parried, and it's up to white to make progress. The computer suggests the insane Nxg6, which leads to a bunch of complex variations not easily seen by a human.}) 31. Rf1 Kh7 32. Qe3 Qe7 33. Qc5 Qxc5 (33... Bf6 {was maybe a bit more resilient, but Black's position is obviously bad.}) 34. bxc5 Ne6 35. Ba3 Nhxf4 36. Nf7 Rf8 (36... Nxg2 37. Nxd8 Rxd8 38. Kxg2 Nd4 39. Rd3 Rxd7 40. Bb2 $18 { wins easily for White since the knight cannot be rescued.}) 37. Rxf4 $1 { Without this tactic, White would have had very little. The knight is stuck defending d8, so the overload works.} Rxf7 38. Rh4+ Kg8 39. Bd5 {The coup de grace. The rest is very easy. A very powerful game by the Azeri. Hikaru has just not been allowed to create play and complications in this tournament, and this has cost him a bunch of points. However he is known to rebound furiously, so watch out for him going for the throat in the next few games!} Nd8 40. Re1 Bf6 41. Re8+ Kg7 42. Rhh8 Be5+ 43. Rxe5 1-0


Video stream of the whole game


Daniel King analyses the game Mamedyarov - Nakamura

Standings after seven rounds

Schedule and results

Round 1 on 2012/09/21 at 14:00
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684
½-½
Leko Peter 2737
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
0-1
Gelfand Boris 2738
Topalov Veselin 2752
½-½
Grischuk Alexander 2754
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
½-½
Giri Anish 2730
Wang Hao 2742
½-½
Adams Michael 2722
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
½-½
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
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
Round 3 on 2012/09/23 at 14:00
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
½-½
Leko Peter 2737
Topalov Veselin 2752
½-½
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
½-½
Gelfand Boris 2738
Wang Hao 2742
½-½
Grischuk Alexander 2754
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
1-0
Giri Anish 2730
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
½-½
Adams Michael 2722
Round 4 on 2012/09/24 at 14:00
Leko Peter 2737
½-½
Adams Michael 2722
Giri Anish 2730
½-½
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
Grischuk Alexander 2754
1-0
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
Gelfand Boris 2738
1-0
Wang Hao 2742
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684
½-½
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
½-½
Topalov Veselin 2752
Round 5 on 2012/09/25 at 14:00
Topalov Veselin 2752
½-½
Leko Peter 2737
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
½-½
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
Wang Hao 2742
½-½
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
½-½
Gelfand Boris 2738
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
½-½
Grischuk Alexander 2754
Adams Michael 2722
½-½
Giri Anish 2730
Round 6 on 2012/09/27 at 14:00
Leko Peter 2737
½-½
Giri Anish 2730
Grischuk Alexander 2754
½-½
Adams Michael 2722
Gelfand Boris 2738
½-½
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684
0-1
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
0-1
Wang Hao 2742
Topalov Veselin 2752
1-0
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
Round 7 on 2012/09/28 at 14:00
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
½-½
Leko Peter 2737
Wang Hao 2742
½-½
Topalov Veselin 2752
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
1-0
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
½-½
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684
Adams Michael 2722
0-1
Gelfand Boris 2738
Giri Anish 2730
½-½
Grischuk Alexander 2754
Round 8 on 2012/09/29 at 14:00
Leko Peter 2737
-
Grischuk Alexander 2754
Gelfand Boris 2738
-
Giri Anish 2730
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684
-
Adams Michael 2722
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
-
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
Topalov Veselin 2752
-
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
-
Wang Hao 2742
Round 9 on 2012/10/01 at 14:00
Wang Hao 2742
-
Leko Peter 2737
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
-
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
-
Topalov Veselin 2752
Adams Michael 2722
-
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
Giri Anish 2730
-
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684
Grischuk Alexander 2754
-
Gelfand Boris 2738
Round 10 on 2012/10/02 at 14:00
Leko Peter 2737
-
Gelfand Boris 2738
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684
-
Grischuk Alexander 2754
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
-
Giri Anish 2730
Topalov Veselin 2752
-
Adams Michael 2722
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
-
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
Wang Hao 2742
-
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
Round 11 on 2012/10/03 at 11:00
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2729
-
Leko Peter 2737
Ivanchuk Vassily 2769
-
Wang Hao 2742
Adams Michael 2722
-
Dominguez Perez Leinier 2725
Giri Anish 2730
-
Topalov Veselin 2752
Grischuk Alexander 2754
-
Nakamura Hikaru 2783
Gelfand Boris 2738
-
Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2684

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