Tashkent R9: Wang beats Caruana, Karjakin leads alone

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 nine report

Wang Hao-Caruana 1-0: The Exchange Variation seems to have become White's main weapon against the Slav Defense, as this is already the third game played with 3.cxd5. In the eighth round Wang Hao played this variation against Morozevich with black, and now he was ready to try it with the white pieces.

Wang Hao at the start of his game against tournament leader Fabiano Caruana

Commentary by GM Alejandro Ramirez

Top seed and tournament leader Caruana suffered a second defeat in this event

Leko-Svidler 1/2-1/2: The Paulsen-Taimanov Variation in the Sicilian Defense used to be one of the main lines in Peter Svidler’s repertoire few years ago. As Peter Leko pointed out during the press conference, “I don’t know why I always choose e4 against Peter Svidler, who plays many moves against it. I should definitely think about 1.d4 next time!”

The two Peters: Leko and Svidler, in the press conference with Anastasiya Karlovich

White's 10.e5 indicated an intention to go for the most critical lines, but the Russian GM chose the less popular 11...Kf8. He even prepared at home the sharp 11...g6 12.Bh6 Rb8 13.Qh3 Rb4 14.Bg7. As he explained he changed his mind and played 11…g6 because “Peter looked too satisfied with the position”. After 11...Kf8 game continued in a positional vein and, after White's tempting but not too precise 18. Nd3, Black easily equalized. The closed character of the position didn't offer either opponent any real chances to break through. Both continued to play solidly, and after a threefold repetition a draw was agreed.

Kazimdzhanov-Morozevich 1/2-1/2: Rustam Kazimdzhanov was not ready for a dispute in Sicilian Dragon, which can appear after 3.d4, and so went for 3.c3. “I was not ready for the second move today. If we compare this game to the ones against Karjakin and Svidler, where I didn’t guess the first moves, we can see there is some progress ”, said former FIDE world champion.

Rustam Kazimdzhanov and Alexander Morozevich analyse their game

As his opening preparation failed, White was looking for a safe way to equalize right from the beginning. On the other hand 7.cxd4 instead of Qxd4 looks much more challenging against Black's set-up. After the following exchanges the position simplified a lot and at some point looked very similar to the ending from Karjakin-Morozevich. “Today the position with the same structure as in the game against Karjakin happened," said Alexander Morozevich. "It’s useful to train again in such a familiar position. It seems to me the Grand Prix in Tashkent is devoted to the study of this structure, since I get it all the time from different openings. Most probably I have a karma here – to learn this endgame.” The endgame was equal, and the only exciting moment happened after Black's 29...g5. After 30. Re5 both players had to calculate the pawn endgame precisely and had to play a few only moves in a row to achieve a draw. They repeated the moves in a position where the only logical attempt to continue the game – c4-c5 – would lead to a dead-drawish queen endgame.

Ponomariov-Kamsky 1/2-1/2: This game saw Alekhine’s Defence, with Black going for 4…dxe5 5.Nxe5 c6, a line which helped Gata Kamsky to score very important victory against Grischuk at the Olympiad in Istanbul. Ruslan Ponomariov went for the relatively rare 10.Bf4, trying to prevent the normal development of the black pieces (in a majority of games White continues 10.Nc3).

After a few more moves the position on the board was much more familiar to Kamsky (above right), as he explained during the press conference: "I'm used to play this structure from Slav Defence." Despite the fact that White had an optically better position due to his two bishops, and an advantage in space, Black's position was quite solid and the pressure on d4 was really unpleasant. Thus, White's decision to repeat the position looks logical, also taking into account that Ruslan was short on time. Gata showed fighting spirit as he continued to play (with 30...Qd8, instead of repeating the position after Bh4), but later on he failed to find any possible way to improve his position and finally accepted the draw.

Karjakin-Gelfand 1/2-1/2: No one seems to be ready to test Boris Gelfand (above right) in the Sveshnikov Variation. Kariakin chose 3.Nc3, aiming for a long positional pressure. The structure after 11.Be6 fe6 reminds that of an Anti-Marshall, which was already played a couple of times in Tashkent. Boris desperately fought for initiative and sacrificed an exchange with 23...Rxf3, but with precise play (Kh1!) Sergey managed to keep the balance. The game ended in the spectacular way – Black gave a perpetual check when he was two rooks down!

Dominguez-Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2: The game started as a Reti Opening but quite soon was transferred into a symmetrical Gruenfeld. Both players continued in very original manner, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov managed to surprise his opponent with a novelty on the sixth move! Lenier Dominguez found the very strong 9.Qc2, after which Black's decision to sacrifice a piece with 9...Nc6 looks reasonable. Otherwise White would enjoy typical slight advantage without much counterplay for Black.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Lenier Dominguez in the press conference

White accepted the challenge and the resulting position appeared to be really complicated. Perhaps 11.Qf4 would put a critical test on Black's idea, as in the game Shakhriyar had a chance (after 11.Qe3) to play 11...Bg4 with promising complications. Later on White could get an advantage after 16.Be4, but this move was missed by both opponents. Instead Lenier played 16.Nd2, and after the strong Bb2 Black got counterplay and even started to think of going for a win. The Cuban player managed to find 30.Ng4, which led to a repetition, as 30...Rf3 31.Rd1 looks too dangerous for Black.

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Standings after nine rounds

Summaries from the official web site, photos by Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule and results

Video Reports

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