Paris 03: Four white wins

by ChessBase
9/24/2013 – Four important white victories where achieved today in Paris. Nakamura and Gelfand were able to defend their opponents initiative and cash in material, even though the latter's technique was a bit messy. Caruana outclassed Fressinet from a Spanish opening and lastly Ivanchuk won a game in which Wang Hao was too eager to push for a win Report of an exciting round three.

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Sixth FIDE Grand Prix - Paris 2013

The sixth and final Grand Prix of the system is taking place at the Chapelle de la Villedieu, founded in 1180 by soldier-monks of the Order of the Temple. The playing site is considerably west of Paris. The tournament will determine the last qualifiers for the Candidates tournament for the next World Chess Championship cycle. This leg of the series is being played under classical time controls: Time control: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and then each player gets 15 minutes and an increment of 30 seconds per move after the second time control). No draws offers: Sofia rules!

Round 3

Round 03 – September 24 2013, 15:00h
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
½-½
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Caruana, Fabiano 2779
1-0
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
1-0
Wang Hao 2736
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
1-0
Bacrot, Etienne 2723
Gelfand, Boris 2764
1-0
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
Giri, Anish 2737
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703

The serenity outside of the chapelle diverges from the struggles played inside of it

Nakamura, Hikaru 1-0 Bacrot, Etienne
The game started as a normal Orthodox variation of the Queen's Gambit, but it quickly turned sharp as Nakamura expanded aggressively on the kingside. Bacrot responded by countering on the center and initiating an attack on the queenside, where the American decided to castle. By move 17 Bacrot had already committed his chips, as he sacrificed a piece for tow pawns and the possibility of attacking his opponent's king with his queen. Nakamura calmly defended, but Bacrot retained compensation until his inaccuracy with 22...Qb5?! After this move Nakamura gained control of the position and repelled Bacrot's attack, after which the extra piece was simply too much.

"I have one horsey, he doesn't have a horsey... I should win this one" Hikaru Nakamura defended masterfully and converted his extra piece

Giri, Anish ½-½ Tomashevsky, Evgeny
Giri was unable to breach Tomashevsky's Spanish set-up. The Russian has shown to be unbelievably solid in this opening and he obtained an easy draw again today.

Tomashevsky keeps showing impressive opening knowledge and had no issues holding a draw today

The chairs are marked with each player's names. The idea is that the arbiters can move the chairs around as the rounds change so that the "settings" on the chair (height, firmness) stay with the player.

Ivanchuk, Vassily 1-0 Wang Hao
Wang Hao was able to obtain a slight edge with black straight out of the opening as his pair of bishops was the only factor that mattered in the position. He keps expanding and pushing for the win, but a clever resource by Ivanchuk on on move 44 allowed him to equalize the position. Wang Hao should've looked for a way to secure the draw, but instead he kept pushing forward without regard for his opponent's threats. Ivanchuk picked up a pawn and a further blunder soon afterwards cost the Chinese player a full piece, after which the game was over.

Wang Hao didn't sense the danger when he had to and lost a slightly preferable position

Caruana, Fabiano 1-0 Fressinet
Caruana repeated the variation that was seen in Nakamura-Aronian and Carlsen-Aronian from the recent Sinquefield cup, but added his own twist to this known variation by not trading queens. Fressinet's pawn weaknesses started to tell after some subsequent trades and his position slowly started to deteriorate. Caruana showed excellent technique in the endgame and won a nice technical game.

Caruana played a fantastical technical game

Fressinet loses on round three and goes back to 50%

Gelfand, Boris 1-0 Dominguez Perez, Leinier
Gelfand got the better end of this isolated queen's pawn position as soon as he was allowed to push his d-pawn forward with 15.d5! His advantage in development and his activity gave him a stronger position than his opponent's. Dominguez tried to retaliate by complicating the matter and sacrificing some material. Gelfand played an extremely precise game up until his move 40 which let Black somewhat back in to the game. Keeping the rooks on the board would have crushed the Cubans defenses promptly, but instead he had to be a little more patient and win the queen vs. rook and bishop endgame, which he did eventually convert although with many more problems than should have been allowed.

The tournament's official commentator, Sergey Tiviakov, eagerly engages Ivanchuk on a discussion about his previous game before the start of round three

Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ Ponomariov, Ruslan
Grischuk had one single advantage throughout the entire game: a superior knight against a somewhat lame bishop. However this was simply not enough to push for a win, even though he tried as hard as he could. Grischuk wanted to bounce back from his loss in the previous round but the Ukrainian's defense proved completely impenetrable.

AI from Australia, Anastasia Sorokina

Standings

Photos by Alina l'Ami

Replay round three games

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Schedule

Round 01 – September 22 2013, 15:00h
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
½-½
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
½-½
Wang Hao 2736
Caruana, Fabiano 2779
½-½
Bacrot, Etienne 2723
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
½-½
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
Gelfand, Boris 2764
1-0
Giri, Anish 2737
Round 02 – September 23 2013, 15:00h
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
½-½
Giri, Anish 2737
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2764
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
Bacrot, Etienne 2723
½-½
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
Wang Hao 2736
½-½
Caruana, Fabiano 2779
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
1-0
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
Round 03 – September 24 2013, 15:00h
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
½-½
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Caruana, Fabiano 2779
1-0
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
1-0
Wang Hao 2736
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
1-0
Bacrot, Etienne 2723
Gelfand, Boris 2764
1-0
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
Giri, Anish 2737
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
Round 04 – September 25 2013, 15:00h
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756   Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757   Giri, Anish 2737
Bacrot, Etienne 2723   Gelfand, Boris 2764
Wang Hao 2736   Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
Fressinet, Laurent 2708   Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
Grischuk, Alexander 2785   Caruana, Fabiano 2779
Round 05 – September 27 2013, 15:00h
Caruana, Fabiano 2779   Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731   Grischuk, Alexander 2785
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772   Fressinet, Laurent 2708
Gelfand, Boris 2764   Wang Hao 2736
Giri, Anish 2737   Bacrot, Etienne 2723
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703   Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
Round 06 – September 28 2013, 15:00h
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756   Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
Bacrot, Etienne 2723   Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
Wang Hao 2736   Giri, Anish 2737
Fressinet, Laurent 2708   Gelfand, Boris 2764
Grischuk, Alexander 2785   Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
Caruana, Fabiano 2779   Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
Round 07 – September 29 2013, 15:00h
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731   Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772   Caruana, Fabiano 2779
Gelfand, Boris 2764   Grischuk, Alexander 2785
Giri, Anish 2737   Fressinet, Laurent 2708
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703   Wang Hao 2736
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757   Bacrot, Etienne 2723
Round 08 – September 30 2013, 15:00h
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756   Bacrot, Etienne 2723
Wang Hao 2736   Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
Fressinet, Laurent 2708   Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
Grischuk, Alexander 2785   Giri, Anish 2737
Caruana, Fabiano 2779   Gelfand, Boris 2764
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731   Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
Round 09 – October 02 2013, 15:00h
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772   Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Gelfand, Boris 2764   Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
Giri, Anish 2737   Caruana, Fabiano 2779
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703   Grischuk, Alexander 2785
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757   Fressinet, Laurent 2708
Bacrot, Etienne 2723   Wang Hao 2736
Round 10 – October 03, 14:00h
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756   Wang Hao 2736
Fressinet, Laurent 2708   Bacrot, Etienne 2723
Grischuk, Alexander 2785   Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
Caruana, Fabiano 2779   Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731   Giri, Anish 2737
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772   Gelfand, Boris 2764
Round 11 – October 04, 14:00h
Gelfand, Boris 2764   Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Giri, Anish 2737   Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703   Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757   Caruana, Fabiano 2779
Bacrot, Etienne 2723   Grischuk, Alexander 2785
Wang Hao 2736   Fressinet, Laurent 2708

The games start at 15:00h European time, 17:00h Moscow, 9 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here.

Links

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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.


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