Paris 07: Astounding Blunders

by ChessBase
9/29/2013 – Two decisive games happened today. In the first one to finish, Nakamura took full advantage of an opening blunder by Caruana to win a queen for a rook and easily take a full point, the American surpasses his Italian rival and is now in second place. Gelfand and Grischuk, in heavy time pressure, blundered back and forth but ultimately the Israeli came ahead and leads. Report and analysis.

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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!

You may have re important ings planed for ter tonight, but first we bring you the report on today's round:

Round 7

Round 07 – September 29 2013, 15:00h
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2731
½-½
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
1-0
Caruana, Fabiano 2779
Gelfand, Boris 2764
1-0
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
Giri, Anish 2737
½-½
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
½-½
Wang Hao 2736
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
½-½
Bacrot, Etienne 2723

Not the most eventful draw of the tournament,
but it seems it is tough for Tomashevsky to find a fighting game

Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½ Wang Hao
The Russian obtained a slight advantage from this Catalan, but the Chinese was very resourceful. Despite his worse structure he was able to obtain sufficient counterplay to force many pieces off the board and was able to eventually hold the endgame without too many issues.

Wang Hao is on six draws and a loss to Ivanchuk

This is the face of concentration

Ivanchuk, Vassily ½-½ Ponomariov, Ruslan
In another Catalan in the Ukrainian duel it was impossible to say that White obtained anything from the opening. The variation is well known; White wins a pawn but the opposite colored bishops and the easy play for Black give him compensation. However on top of this Ponomariov was able to quickly regain his pawn and secure full equality.

The Ukrainian duel petered out to a simple draw for Ponomariov

Dominguez Perez, Leinier ½-½ Bacrot, Etienne
This Berlin defense went in completely the wrong way for the Cuban. His structure was shattered in the queenside early on while Black's pieces became active. With his kingside pawn expanse blocked on the light squares and being saddled with a dark squared bishop, it was only Black that had any hopes of being better. However Bacrot seemed to think that White's position was solid enough and forced a repetition in a position where maybe he could have at least played on for a few more moves.

Bacrot is also at 50% with a loss against Nakamura and a win against Giri

Giri hasn't lost in a couple of rounds, but he really would like to win a game

Giri, Anish ½-½ Fressinet, Laurent
The Queen's Indian will forever be a battleground between top grandmasters. There are always new resources to be found in this opening! Giri somehow managed not only to get e4 in, but also e5 and obtain a nice central/kingside expansion. Fressinet countered with an incursion into the queenside with his major pieces, threatening pawns and exchanging major pieces. Giri counter aggressively by disregarding his pawns and continuing to pressure the kingside despite the reduced material. Faced with imminent danger, Fressinet jettisoned his queenside pawns to obtain counterplay and distract White's queen. This worked as it gave him enough time to set up a defense and the resulting endgame was almost impossible to win for White despite the fact that he had an extra pawn: Black's activity and the fact that all the pawns were on the same side guaranteed the draw.

A confident Nakamura strolls while his opponent thinks his opening moves

Nakamura, Hikaru 1-0 Caruana, Fabiano
It is rare to see a near 2800 player blunder before move 15, but this is exactly what happened. The following quick annotations tell the story:

[Event "FIDE Grand Prix Paris 2013"] [Site "Paris"] [Date "2013.09.29"] [Round "7"] [White "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Black "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D70"] [WhiteElo "2772"] [BlackElo "2796"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "67"] [EventDate "2013.??.??"] [EventCountry "FRA"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 {An aggressive system against the Gruenfeld. Black could transpose back into the King's Indian Defense after which White would have already committed to the Saemisch.} d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nb6 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. O-O-O Qd6 {A position of much interest in recent years.} 10. h4 (10. Nb5 Qd7 11. Bh6 Bxh6 12. Qxh6 a6 13. Nc3 Nxd4 {was Sivdler-Caruana from earlier this year that ended in a draw.}) 10... Rd8 11. Nb5 Qd7 12. h5 a6 13. Nc3 Nxd4 14. hxg6 hxg6 $4 {Unexplainable. Black loses disastrous amounts of material with basic tactics.} (14... fxg6 15. g4 Qc6 $5 16. Qf2 Ne6 {Grischuk-Mamedyarov, Tal Memorial 2010. This ended in a draw.}) 15. Bxd4 Qxd4 (15... Bxd4 16. Qh6 {with the simple threat of Nge2, so Black must get out of the way and fall to the secondary threat.} Qd6 17. Rxd4 (17. Nge2 $2 Qf6 $11) 17... Qxd4 18. Qh7+ Kf8 19. Qh8+ Qxh8 20. Rxh8+ Kg7 21. Rxd8 $18 {And Black is simply down a piece.}) 16. Qe1 (16. Qf4) (16. Qg5 {both win as well with the same idea.}) 16... Qxd1+ 17. Nxd1 {Black has a rook and a pawn for a queen. That's just not enough.} Na4 18. b3 Nc5 19. e5 Bf5 20. f4 a5 21. Nf3 a4 {If Caruana hadn't blundered so early he might have resigned as soon as he lost his queen.} 22. b4 Nb3+ {might as well go for the desperado} 23. axb3 a3 24. Qc3 e6 25. Ne3 a2 26. Qa1 Bf8 27. Nxf5 gxf5 28. b5 c6 29. bxc6 Rdc8 30. Bc4 Rxc6 31. Nd4 Rcc8 32. Kc2 Bb4 33. g4 fxg4 34. f5 {Black's run out of immediate threats and he will get promptly mated. A big blunder for sure!} 1-0

A fateful blunder puts Caruana further away from a position in which he can win the tournament

A titanic struggle in which Gelfand came out ahead

Gelfand, Boris 1-0 Grischuk, Alexander
Gelfand's opening didn't yield much. It seems he wasn't entirely sure how to deal with Grischuk's early e6/b6 set up which allowed him to play f5 before developing his knight to f6. In an equal position Grischuk refused a threefold repetition and went for the win with a pawn sacrifice. Gelfand immediately returned the pawn so as to not be saddled with tripled pawns and he was admittedly slightly worse. The Russian kept piling pressure on the kingside while White seemed to be without a clear plan, but still with a space advantage and his position was far from collapsing. Grischuk might have over-committed to the kingside, but his definite mistake came with 31...Nh4?? it's unclear what he exactly missed, probably that after 32...Nxf3 33.dxc7 Rxc7 White has the amazing 34.Rxg7! winning. In time pressure the advantage was blundered and given back, but ultimately Gelfand won.

Grischuk declined a draw and fought on; you can't blame this man for not trying!

Standings

Photos by Alina l'Ami

Replay round seven 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
½-½
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2756
Nakamura, Hikaru 2772
1-0
Caruana, Fabiano 2779
Gelfand, Boris 2764
1-0
Grischuk, Alexander 2785
Giri, Anish 2737
½-½
Fressinet, Laurent 2708
Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2703
½-½
Wang Hao 2736
Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2757
½-½
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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