Paris 04: Dominguez, Ivanchuk win

by ChessBase
9/25/2013 – Dominguez and Ivanchuk scored today against Giri and Fressinet. The Cuban was able to quickly dismantle Giri's defenses after the latter's pawn sacrifice from the opening failed to yield full equality. Fressinet had chances for an advantage against Ivanchuk but slowly the tides turned against him and it is now the Ukrainian that is tied for first with Gelfand at 3.0/4. Round four report

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

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!

Musical chairs... almost, the arbiters have to figure out where each one of these custom set chairs go

Round 4

Round 04 – September 25 2013, 15:00h
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
1-0
Giri, Anish 2737
Bacrot, Etienne 2723
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2764
Wang Hao 2736
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
0-1
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
½-½
Caruana, Fabiano 2779

The American is sitting at a win and three draws, and the fourth place in the live rating list now that Grischuk is not doing so well in this tournament

Wang Hao ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Traditionally the Chinese player has had an advantage when playing against Nakamura, but the American has been able to fight back in recent times. Wang Hao employed one of his Reti set-ups that leads to a playable position for both sides without it becoming a theoretical duel. Nakamura countered his opponent's pair of bishops and queenside expansion with what he does best: activity and tactics. Eventually both sides were forced to simplify into a dead drawn endgame, but the fight was quite interesting.

The key moment of the game came at move 19, when Wang Hao decided to sacrifice his e-pawn. 19.e5!? would also have been interesting but Nakamura felt he could take the pawn without issues.

Gelfand has been leading since round one and he hasn't let go of the throttle, currently set at "steady at +2"

Bacrot, Etienne ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
The Israeli player keeps faithful to his Sveshnikov Sicilian, something no one has yet been able to crack, and Bacrot would have none of that. He chose 3.Bb5, the Rossolimo, to avoid the big lines of theory of the dreaded "B33" (the ECO code of the Sveshnikov) but also in this line that he chose Gelfand had little to worry about and he equalized, transposed into an endgame and drew.

The game actually followed the important game between Anand and Gelfand himself but it was clearly the Israeli that had learned more from that encounter than anything the Frenchman was able to extract from the duel.

A determined Dominguez crushed through Giri's defenses. Giri will have to step his play up this tournament as he has lost some half points he should not have.

Dominguez Perez, Leinier 1-0 Giri, Anish
The Spanish is of course a main battleground for players of this caliber, but there are always new things to be found even in this deeply analyzed opening. The Dutch came up with an interesting pawn sacrifice that gave him counterplay against White's weakened pawn structure, but he was overeager in recovering his material and the move 18...Re8? gave Dominguez the opportunity to trade his weak c6 pawn for Black's f7 pawn, therefore he just emerged up a clean extra pawn. The endgame was unpleasant for Black but Giri collapsed surprisingly quickly.

The new co-leader of the tournament checking out his opposition

Ponomariov, Ruslan ½-½ Tomashevsky, Evgeny
Tomashevsky recently adopted the triangle set-up against d4, with the idea of playing a Stonewall, as his pet defense. It seems solid enough for now as no one has really been able to break it down. Ponomariov was actually slightly worse out of the opening but he really had no issues as Tomashevsky was more interested in holding a solid draw with Black.

This guy's openings seem to be rock solid, but can he win any games?

Fressinet, Laurent 0-1 Ivanchuk, Vassily
Ivanchuk's Queen's Indian style of setup gave him a perfectly good position straight out of the opening. The opening of the kingside could not have favored him, though, and it seemed as if the Frenchman was soundly outplaying his opponent. He specifically missed a beautiful chance at move 30.Qe2! instead of trading the queens, this would have put the g4 knight in serious trouble and was strangely winning. The resulting endgame was still favorable for White, though, but a few unfortunate decisions allowed Ivanchuk to get rid of his main problems: a weak light-squared bishop and White's e-pawn, in a mater of a couple of moves. With these advantages gone White's rooks on the h-file started to look silly while black's free rook started roaming the queenside, picking uncontested pawn after uncontested pawn, after which Fressinet simply had to resign. An unfortunate game for Fressinet as he definitely had good chances to win.

Fressinet went from tying for first place to only half a point ahead of Giri who is in last place by losing two in a row. It's a brutal tournament!

Caruana also sits comfortably at 2.5/4, alongside Nakamura, and they are in hot pursuit of the leaders

Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
Grischuk has been employing this system against the Gruenfeld very recently. He used it to beat Nepomniatchi in the finals of the ACP Cup, but Caruana had his own plans. Instead of going for the Gruenfeld he took advantage of the fact that the move 4.e3 is undesirable in a King's Indian set-up and he did just that. However Grischuk did obtain a certain queenside initiative that allowed him to keep pressing for an advantage.

The Russian played a small combination to obtain a rook and two pawns against Black's two minor pieces. This was a clear advantage in the endgame and he was the only one playing for a win, but Caruana's defense was impeccable and he obtained a draw.

This game was very interesting from a standings point of view: both Grischuk and Caruana are the only two players who might qualify for the Cadidates' Tournament.

Most players prefer the nice chairs that the organization provided for them, but Grischuk likes it old school

Chuchelov, Caruana's second, was the special guest in Tiviakov's life coverage today

Anastasia Sorokina keeping everything under control

Tomorrow is a free day in Paris, and the players will visit the Palace of Versailles

Standings

Photos by Alina l'Ami

Replay round four 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
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
1-0
Giri, Anish 2737
Bacrot, Etienne 2723
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2764
Wang Hao 2736
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
0-1
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
½-½
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.


Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register