Tashkent 06: Naka shares lead with Andreikin

The second stage of the 2014-2015 FIDE Grand Prix is taking place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The tournament will run from October 20th to November 3rd, 2014. Some of the strongest players in the world will compete in a Round Robin event. The winner and runner-up of the Grand Prix series will earn their spot at the 2016 Candidate's Tournament.

Round Six

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Yulia Manakova, one of the event's official photographers

Gelfand, Boris ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
A very sharp and complicated Grunfeld. Both players missed some key chances in what would be a position much better handled by computer than by humans. At the end of the first tactical melee Gelfand emerged up a pawn and with a good position, but it was difficult to find the path to consolidation. MVL kept putting hurdles on White's position until he slipped and fell, having too many pieces hanging. This time it was MVL that missed a good resource and Gelfand's passed pawns were sufficient for a draw despite being down a piece.

MVL's prep in the Grunfeld looked shaky two days in a row, but today he survived with a draw

Jobava, Baadur ½-½ Jakovenko, Dmitry
An entertaining game in which Jobava kept trying to put pressure at the cost of a pawn. Jakovenko was unable to keep it for too long and the resulting endgame was drawn. Truly a lot of cool resources were left off the board and in the players analysis.

Jakovenko came in with as much fighitng spirit as Jobava,
but the simplifications caused the game to go into a drawn endgame

Andreikin, Dmitry 1-0 Karjakin, Sergey
With a very strange opening a strange position was on the board. White's pair of bishops were not terribly powerful but Black's king never felt comfortable stuck in the center. Karjakin was a little too optimistic about his possibilities for kingside expansion, and it was precisely on this flank that Andreikin counter-attacked and opened files and diagonals. Karjakin's king could not stand the attack and was mated.

Karjakin was the victim of his own confidence today

Giri, Anish ½-½ Radjabov, Teimour
Another novelty on move 25 in the Berlin, another draw.

Giri looks pretty pleased, he still has like 12 moves to go until he has to start to think

Radjabov seems to be playing the Berlin with both colors now

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 1-0 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam
A very aggressive game! Mamedyarov played a strange opening while sacrificing all the pawns that he possessed! Kasimdzhanov graciously accepted all the gifts. The Azerbaijani had some piece compensation and some open lines in the kingside to attack with, but it just did not seem enough. However Kasimdzhanov was unable to find the precise continuation and he allowed Mamedyarov's activity to keep growing until an exchange sacrifice was forced. In a complicated but equal position, but in time pressure, Kasimdzhanov dropped a pawn of paramount importance and his position collapsed like a house of cards.

Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
Something went wrong in Nakamura's opening as he found himself in an inferior position going into the middlegame. Caruana kept improving his position little by little when the American decided to sacrifice a pawn and liberate his pieces. Caruana was on the driver's seat, but it was never clear. Nakamura's activity eventually got him a good passed pawn and Caruana had to force a perpetual.

A little suffered, but Nakamura retains his lead

Photos by Yulia Manakova and Anastasiya Karlovich from the official website

Standings

Round Six Games

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Schedule

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being 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.