Paris 06: Caruana wins, ties for lead

by ChessBase
9/28/2013 –  In today's large amount of draws, one person came out ahead. Fabiano Caruana kept pressuring Vassily Ivanchuk from the beginning. Black always had problems with activity and specially getting his bishops into play. In what was certainly a worse endgame for Black, but far from resignable, many spectators were surprised to see a sudden 1-0. Full 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!

Sebag Simul

Marie Sebag, the highest rated women French player, gave a simultaneous exhibition at the FFE (French Chess Federation) which is very close to the playing site. We have some pictures of the event and we will bring you the full results a little later:

Sebag, sitting at 2510 FIDE rating, is France's number one woman and the World's number 13

Round 6

Round 06 – September 28 2013, 15:00h
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
½-½
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
Bacrot, Etienne 2723
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
Wang Hao 2736
½-½
Giri, Anish 2737
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2764
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
Caruana, Fabiano 2779
1-0
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731

If you were wondering where Grischuk's chair went (he is using a normal wooden one)... well, the arbiters are putting it to good use!

Tomashevsky's Spanish: still perfect

Bacrot, Etienne ½-½ Tomashevsky, Evgeny
Tomashevsky keeps proving that his openings come with great preparation. Bacrot tied a more sedate approach against Tomashevsky's so far impenetrable Spanish defense, but it yielded nothing. With some precise moves Tomashevsky forced a dead drawn rook endgame. The Russian sits at 50% and it seems that he cannot be beaten even if he is holding the black pieces.

Giri tries to remember the Karpov-Caruana game

Wang Hao ½-½ Giri, Anish
The Chinese player decided to repeat a line that was seen in the game Karpov-Caruana from 2008. Giri was very familiar with the variation, and it is little wonder that he was - it is known that Giri and Caruana have used Chuchelov as a second in previous years. Wang Hao did not provide any clear improvement on the aforementioned game and Giri obtained equality without issues. White had no real chances in the resulting rook endgame.

Gelfand wanted a fight in a sharp Sicilian, but Fressinet was not in the mood for that

Fressinet, Laurent ½-½ Gelfand, Boris
Gelfand played the move 2...d6 in the Sicilian, already an indication that he was not going to play the Sveshnikov against 3.d4. It would have been interesting to see what sharp Sicilian Gelfand chose, but instead Fressinet was the one that quickly deviated by playing an unusual Bb5+ Sicilian. The move 4.c4 holds some poison but only if Black is unfamiliar with the territory, which was not the case with Gelfand. The Israeli played a simplifying combination and after all the pieces were traded off the board the draw became obvious.

Grischuk and Fressinet seemed to have some time during the opening to walk around and see the other games

Grischuk decided he wanted to place his king on c4 on move 17. This was somehow not suicide, and made sense.

Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Grischuk's king was on c4 by move 17, but that is not as exciting as it sounds as the truth of the position was that Black had already taken a slight initiative in an endgame that had a symmetrical pawn structure. Nakamura neutralized Grischuk's Catalan without problems and another drawn rook endgame was reached.

Nakamura has shown greater variety in his repertoire: insetad of relying on ultra-aggressive openings such as the King's Indian Defense and the Dutch he has mastered more sedate Catalans and Nimzo-Indians

Ponomariov, Ruslan ½-½ Dominguez Perez, Leinier
Ponomariov was simply unable to put a dent in Dominguez's Petroff and he had to settle for a draw to make sure that his pawn structure didn't become a serious issue.

Dominguez is at 50% with his only loss coming against Gelfand

Caruana was about to have to prove his endgame technique, but he didn't have to

Caruana, Fabiano 1-0 Ivanchuk, Vassily
Clearly the game of the round. The game was normal for quite some time; after obtaining a slight pull from a French Caruana kept pressing his advantages despite the very closed nature of the position. Black's bishops suffered somewhat but Black's position kept holding. The Italian simplified into a superior bishop endgame that seemed to hold many dangers for Black and Ivanchuk... well... he resigned! Probably out of all the players in this tournament Ivanchuk would be the only one to resign in such a position. He was surely worse, but he wasn't down material yet, he wasn't in a zugzwang and White's path to victory first of all wasn't obvious and second could still be botched up. With this victory Caruana moves to tied-for-first with Gelfand.

Ivanchuk's approach was actually rather logical: he thought he was lost, so he resigned...

Standings

Photos by Alina l'Ami

Replay round six 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
½-½
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
Bacrot, Etienne 2723
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
Wang Hao 2736
½-½
Giri, Anish 2737
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
½-½
Gelfand, Boris 2764
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
½-½
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
Caruana, Fabiano 2779
1-0
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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