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.
Mamedyarov-Nakamura – analysis by GM Alejandro Ramirez
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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.d4Nf62.c4g63.Nf3Bg74.g30-05.Bg2d66.0-0Nbd77.Nc3e58.e4exd49.Nxd4Re810.h3Nc511.Re1h6The 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...a512.Ndb5!?Has been giving Black headaches.11...Bd7is interesting.12.Kh2White simply responds with a waiting move.Bd713.Rb1a614.a3Qc815.f4Rb815...Nh5!?16.b4Ne617.Nf3This 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!?Somewhat committing, Black instantly looks for counterplay.17...Ng4+18.hxg4Bxc319.Bd2Has the disadvantage that the pawn going from h3
to g4 is actually something White welcomes.18.e5!dxe519.Nxe5cxb420.axb4Nf821.Bb2Be622.Nd5In 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!Qd823.Qb3h524.Rbd1Bxd525.cxd5h4Nakamura tries
to complicate matters, but Mamedyarov doesn't fall for this.26.d6!26.g4?!I think many masters would try to avoid complications by pushing the
pawn forward - howeverQd6!emphasizes the weaknesses left by g4. Now
Nc4 is not an option, and the pawn is at least temporarily blockaded.26...hxg3+27.Qxg3The intruder must be takenNh528.Qg4f529.Qf3Qh430.d7Red830...Re6!?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.Rf1Kh732.Qe3Qe733.Qc5Qxc533...Bf6was maybe a bit more resilient, but Black's
position is obviously bad.34.bxc5Ne635.Ba3Nhxf436.Nf7Rf836...Nxg237.Nxd8Rxd838.Kxg2Nd439.Rd3Rxd740.Bb2+- wins easily for
White since the knight cannot be rescued.37.Rxf4! Without this tactic,
White would have had very little. The knight is stuck defending d8, so the
overload works.Rxf738.Rh4+Kg839.Bd5The 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!Nd840.Re1Bf641.Re8+Kg742.Rhh8Be5+43.Rxe51–0
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