Zug R02: three wins, three draws

From April 14 to April 30, 2013, the third stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2012-2013 is taking place in Zug, Switzerland. Twelve players are competing in a round robin tournament with time controls of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes and an increment of 30 seconds per move for each player. The Grand Prix Series consists of six tournaments to be held over two years, with 18 top players, each participating in four of the six tournaments. The winner and second placed player overall of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament to be held in March 2014.

Round two report

By GM Alejandro Ramirez

Teimour Radjabov from Azerbaijan

Radjabov-Karjakin ½-½
Karjakin's Gruenfeld held up easily as White found little more than to simplify to a position in which he had some compensation for a lost pawn, but as soon as he regained it the game was completely drawn.

Russian GM Alexander Morozevich

Morozevich-Mamedyarov ½-½
This could have been the highlight of the round as two of the most creative players in the world battle each other. Morozevich opened up super aggressively with an early h4-h5 against the Gruenfeld, and following it up with the maneouver Rh6-h4-xc4! However too many pieces came off the board quickly and the game was drawn.

Peter Leko vs Veselin Topalov

Topalov-Leko 1-0
Leko's aggressive setup in this game allowed him to quickly kick Topalov's dark square bishop around and at the same time permitted him to dangerously advance his queenside pawns. Black definitely stood better out of the opening, but he slowly allowed Topalov back into the game. Minor mistakes added up to a blunder in a difficult position and Topalov didn't forgive Leko.

Anish Giri against you-guess-who

Nakamura-Giri ½-½
Nakamura held a slight advantage of the opening, which meant he tortured Giri for seventy moves without any particular success.

Italian GM Fabiano Caruana playing former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov

Ponomariov-Caruana 1-0
Ponomariov showed great class in this match by outplaying young Caruana in a position where White had at most a smidgeon of an advantage. His maneouvers paid off and Caruana soon found himself down a pawn in the endgame, which was made worse by the presence of a bishop against a knight in Ponomariov's favor. He continued pressuring, won another pawn and converted a nice game.

Uzbek GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov

Kasimdzhanov-Kamsky 1-0
Yet another game in which Black outplayed White from the opening but was slowly pushed back. Kamsky even refused a three-fold repetition in the middle game to continue pursuing the full point, but he underestimated White's resources. Kasdimzhanov took one pawn after another and Kamsky had to resign in a hopeless endgame.

Wives: Firuza Kasimdzhanov and Sophie Leko

Annotation by GM Giorgi Margvelashvili

Giorgi Margvelashvili is an International Grandmaster from Georgia, born on February 9, 1990. His his current FIDE rating is 2565. He has won various international competitions. Some of Giorgi’s most notable achievements include winning U14 European Championship in 2004; second place at the Georgian Chess Championship in 2008; and winning U.S. Masters Championship in 2012.

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Information and pictures by FIDE press chief WGM Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule and pairings

The games start at 14:00h European time, 16:00h Moscow, 8 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.

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