Tashkent R7: Karjakin and Caruana edge the rest

The second stage of the 2012-2013 FIDE Grand Prix Series is taking place from November 21 to December 5th in the Gallery of Fine Art in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The games start at 14:00h local time (= 10:00h CET, 13:00h Moscow, 04:00 a.m. New York). The tournament has a prize fund of 240,000 Euros.

Round seven report

Karjakin-Morozevich 1-0: Alexander Morozevich surprised his opponent in the opening as he chose a rare line in the Scheveningen Sicilian. Sergey Karjakin could not remember his analysis, and after 14.Bf3 Bc6 Black managed to equalize the position. In the rook endgame White continued to play on in an objectively drawish endgame and after six hours of play Morozevich blundered on move 52. After the following forced line Black ended up with a lost position.

Commentary by GM Alejandro Ramirez

Ups and downs: mercurial GM Alexander Morozevich

Persistency pays: Sergey Karjakin of Russia (formerly Ukraine)

Down in the dumps: GM Leinier Dominguez from Cuba

Dominguez-Caruana 0-1: Fabiano Caruana decided to surprise his opponent right from the first move and played 1…d5, which he has never used in his practice before. Leinier repeated the line from his game against Judit Polgar but Black didn’t have problems to equalize the position and got comfortable play. As the Italian player pointed out during the press conference the idea behind his move 12…c5 is to play 13…Nbd7 after White's logical move 13.Ne5. The endgame turned to be more pleasant for Black but Fabiano believes White had “a solid enough position to keep the balance”. After the inaccurate 31.c4 Black got an extra pawn and started to increase his advantage. Leiner didn’t defend in the most precise way and passed a-pawn became unstoppable.

Top seed and tournament leader Fabiano Caruana

Kasimdzhanov-Leko 1/2-1/2: Rustam Kasimdzhanov expected the Ruy Lopez today. Peter Leko managed to surprise him with 9…d6, as nowadays 9…d5 seems to be a more popular move. White's 20.c4!? prevented Black’s idea to play d5 directly, and after 23.c5 the former FIDE world champion got a position with a long-playing advantage. Under time trouble Black arranged some counterplay and the opponents finished the game after a threefold repetition.

“Maybe it was not the best decision to force a draw in the final position, but I’ve lost enough games in time trouble blundering something on the 40th move”, Rustam said in the press conference.

Press officer Anastasiya Karlovich interviews Ruslan Ponomariov and Boris Gelfand

Ponomariov-Gelfand 1/2-1/2: Ruslan Ponomariov was repeating the game Caruana-Gelfand until move seven, but preferred 7.c3 to Fabiano's 7.d3. One critical moment appeared after 15.Bc3. As Boris Gelfand put it during the press conference he wanted to play 15…e5 and d6, but unfortunately White has the tactical reply 16.Be5 Ne5 17.d4, so he went for 15…d5 instead. After a few exchanges Black equalized the position. When opponents play so solidly then it’s not easy to find any improvement for either side.

Peter Svidler, Wang Hao analysing in the press conference with Anastasiya Karlovich

Wang Hao-Peter Svidler 1/2-1/2: An Anti-Gruenfeld was seen in the game. Peter Svidler was not sure about his 10…c6, as after 11.Ng5 Bg4 White 12.Be2 improves on the game Gelfand-Svidler, where Boris Gelfand played 12.f3. Nevertheless, Wang Hao didn’t manage to create difficulties for Black and after 32 moves the game was drawn.

Mamedyarov-Kamsky 1/2-1/2: The Slav Defence with 4.e3 g6 happened in the game, and after 15.f4 Black preferred to immediately play 15…dxc4, avoiding White's possible c5. The forced line transformed the game into to an ending which objectively should be about equal. Gata Kamsky decided to continue playing the risk free rook ending, and Shakhriyar had to defend precisely. Both players missed the winning chance for Black after the inaccurate 58.Rg6. After 58…Re4 and following f4-f3 Black could simply win the game.

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Standings after seven rounds

Summaries from the official web site, photos by Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule and results

Video Reports

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