Paris 05: Two Black wins

by ChessBase
9/27/2013 – The players used the rest day to visit the breath taking Palace of Versailles. During their visit, the Chapelle in which they are playing was used for a fascinating chess art exhibit by the famous French artist Zigou. The players came re-energized to the tournament, and Grischuk and Bacrot were able to win with Black. Gelfand is back to solo lead after his draw against Wang Hao. Full analysis and pictorial report.

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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!

Visit to Versailles

Many of the players took advantage of the day off to visit the closest main attraction to their playing site: the Palace of Versailles, one of the main tourist spots in France. 

Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1682 until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October of 1789 due to the French Revolution. Versailles is famous not only as a french chateau but also as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Regime.

Ponomariov and his second, Baklan, have just been informed that their
guided tour allows them to skip the hour long line to get into the palace

The players well full of questions and had a very interactive tour

The Galerie des Glaces, or known by its English name the Hall of Mirrors,
probably the most celebrated room in the entire chateau

Ponomariov inspecting every room in the castle, deciding which one is fit to hold the next Grand Prix

Nakamura is of course a famous figure, and it's easy to brand
him as an American with his New York Yankees t-shirt

The players enjoyed an amazing cultural experience

A breathtaking view of Versailles

The Gardens of Versailles are just as impressive, but they wil have to wait until next time

Art Exhibit at Chapelle de la Villadieu

While the players were exploring France's most famous castle, the Chapelle that is hosting their tournament was home to a chess-based art exhibition by Zigou, a french fashion designer and artist.

The Chapelle is lit to welcome the art exhibit

The art that is based on chess, in the unquestionable style of the artist

The French Chess Federation president, Diego Salazar
and the director of communications of St. Quentin, Serge Hegly-Delfour

The artist, Zigou, on the left and the official reporter of the tournament,
Alina L'Ami who has provided us with this amazing pictures

Zigou is a fashion designer for mnay labels from New York to Paris, including St. Laurent. She has been in the cover of Elle, Warhol's magazine, Vogue and many other prestigious magazines. She was the medalist of honor at the GANFA Nantes show in 2007 and 2008 for her paintings and now exhibits in galleries in Paris, Bordeaux and in the Dordogne.

Zigou doesn't sign her paintings, but there is always a distinct Z
in them marking them as hers. Can you find it in this painting?

Round 5

The exhibit is still up and going during the round

Round 05 – September 27 2013, 15:00h
Caruana, Fabiano 2779
½-½
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
0-1
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
½-½
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
Gelfand, Boris 2764
½-½
Wang Hao 2736
Giri, Anish 2737
0-1
Bacrot, Etienne 2723
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
½-½
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757

An interesting addition to the usual set up

Gelfand, Boris ½-½ Wang Hao
This line of the Queen's Gambit has become a little more popular in the last year. Black's idea is to accept a slightly worse position but with the goal of quickly exchanging pieces and hoping to salvage a draw in an endgame that is not so dangerous. This is precisely what happened today; after the queenside was annihilated and many pieces were traded off there simply wasn't enough material to play on.

Gelfand's draw against Wang Hao allows him to retake the sole lead as Ivanchuk lost to Grischuk

Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Fressinet, Laurent
The American player essayed a positional Spanish which trades on d6 only after Black has committed some of his pieces to arguably no the best squares for the pawn structure, especially the knight on f6. However Fressinet really had no issues equalizing and eventually he made a small sacrifice to force a perpetual.

Fressinet obtained equality from the start and never gave Nakamura an opening in his defense

Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½ Dominguez Perez, Leinier
White's minimal edge given by the pair of bishops was counterbalanced by Black's better pawn structure. After some trades Dominguez was able to win a pawn, but it was relatively useless as the only remaining pieces were a pair of opposite colored bishops, and Tomashevsky had no problem proving that it was an easy draw.

French Chess Federation president Diego Salazar whispering
moves to the founder-director of the Bibaisport, Gilles Lorin

Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ Ponomariov, Ruslan
Caruana posed no problems to Ponomariov's Berlin defense, and it was even the black player that held a slight edge due to his pair of bishops and then an extra (but crippled) pawn. It's hard to say that White was in any real danger at any point but it was certainly Black that had the easier game.

Ivanchuk, Vassily 0-1 Grischuk, Alexander
Ivanchuk's opening experiment against the Gruenfeld didn't go as well as planned. He took an important strategic decision early on with 13.f4?! Despite the fact that this kills Black's main idea, which was to play f5, it also weakened many squares and specifically the bishop on h2 was doomed to passivity for the rest of the game. Grischuk immediately took advantage of the weakened light squares by planting two powerful knights, one on g4 and another on e4, to pressure White's position.

Grischuk proved the strength of Black's pieces and swept Ivanchuk from the board

In an already bad position, Ivanchuk blundered the fabulous maneuver the finished off the game, here are the full annotations:

[Event "FIDE Grand Prix Paris 2013"] [Site "Paris"] [Date "2013.09.27"] [Round "5"] [White "Ivanchuk, Vassily"] [Black "Grischuk, Alexander"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D83"] [WhiteElo "2731"] [BlackElo "2785"] [PlyCount "62"] [EventDate "2013.??.??"] [EventCountry "FRA"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bf4 Bg7 5. e3 O-O 6. Rc1 {A topical line in the Gruenfeld. The old response...} Be6 (6... c5 {has come out of fashion because of} 7. dxc5 Qa5 8. cxd5 Ne4 9. Nge2 {And White's had amazing results in this variation.}) 7. c5 $5 {A move that has already been tried a few times. The idea is to quickly expand on the queenside while destroying Black's possibility of counterplay on the center. As a bonus, the move Be6 now looks silly. On the other hand White has to be worried about a quick e5 break.} c6 8. b4 {This however is unheard of. White usually develops his pieces first.} (8. h3 b6 9. b4 Ne4 10. Bd3 a5 11. Na4 Nd7 12. f3 b5 $1 $13 {Jumabayev - So, 2012}) 8... Nbd7 (8... Nh5 {immediately pursuing the bishop, is also an interesting idea.}) 9. Bd3 Nh5 10. Nge2 f6 {Black is trying to play Bf7 and e5, there is no rush in exchanging on f4 as that bishop is not going anywhere. The game highly resembles and a6 Slav, except that Black has not committed to that weakness yet.} 11. h4 (11. h3 Nxf4 (11... f5 12. Bh2 Bf7 13. f4 $13) 12. exf4 Bf7 13. f5 e5 $1 {And Black has nothing to complain about.}) 11... Bf7 $5 { Allowing the bishop to live, but Grischuk has a specific idea in mind.} 12. Bh2 f5 $1 {This is the point. Black is going to force e5 in the next move and obtain more than adequate counterplay. As a possible idea Black can consider locking the center with e5-e4 and then pushing f4 with proper preparation, alternatively he can take on d4 and hope to presure down the diagonal and/or obtain e5 for his pieces.} 13. f4 $2 {This move is too anti-positional; the idea of course is to prevent e5, but White is giving up too many factors to do this.} Nhf6 {White's light squares are too weak. If White's pawn was on h3 maybe this would be acceptable, but Black is clearly better as it is in this situation.} 14. Bg3 Ng4 15. Qd2 Ndf6 16. Nd1 Ne4 17. Bxe4 dxe4 {One powerful knight has been destroyed, but suddenly that bishop on f7 has gained life.} 18. a4 b6 {Breaking the position open is very natural: White's bishop on g3 won't play a roll any time soon and the pair of bishops need scope.} 19. h5 gxh5 20. Bh4 Bf6 {Trading off h4 wasn't necessary, but it's not bad either. White had to sacrifice a pawn for this and more importantly the g-file is now open for Black's rooks.} 21. Bxf6 Nxf6 22. Nf2 Kh8 23. O-O Rg8 24. b5 Rc8 25. cxb6 Qxb6 26. a5 Qb7 27. bxc6 Rxc6 28. Rxc6 Qxc6 29. Rc1 Qa6 {Black is better in every sense: He has an extra pawn, better minor pieces, more activity and a safer king. White's position doesn't need to collapse immediately but it is very hard to play this.} 30. Rc5 $2 Bc4 $1 {A beautiful maneuver that finishes the game.} 31. Nc3 Bf1 {And suddenly White's g-pawn is defenseless! Of course after that White's position will collapse and he has no counterplay whatsoever. } 0-1

Giri, Anish 0-1 Bacrot, Etienne
Giri seemed to be playing a nice positional game, slowly but surely consolidating his space advantage and making Black's position uncomfortable. He was well set-up to receive Black's break with b5, but he didn't respond in the best way and allowed Bacrot to equalize fully. Only a few moves later White missed an important resource by Black, the move 26.Rf1? made his position terrible because the threat on f6 was not real! Black ignored his hanging piece and recovered it through a well calculated tactical sequence. After that White's structure was ripe to be picked up one pawn at a time, and this is exactly what Bacrot did to take home the victory.

Giri is currently at -3 and will need to play much better to be able to recover

Standings

Photos by Alina l'Ami

Replay round five 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
½-½
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
0-1
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
½-½
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
Gelfand, Boris 2764
½-½
Wang Hao 2736
Giri, Anish 2737
0-1
Bacrot, Etienne 2723
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
½-½
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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