Zug R04: all games drawn again

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 four report

For the second day in a row all games finished in draws, leaving Alexander Morozevich, Veselin Topalov and Ruslan Ponomariov on the top with 2.5/4 points. With the exception of Ruslan Ponomoriov, who didn’t get any advantage against Anish Giri, all other players with the white pieces managed to create problems for their opponents. Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Veselin Topalov played a thrilling game, which started with a piece sacrifice by Kasimdzhanov on the 13th move. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov managed to get a very dynamic position and was hoping to use the activity of his pieces but Fabiano Caruana defended precisely. Sergey Karjakin went for a worse bishop endgame but manage to hold it against Alexander Morozevich. Teymur Radjabov had good winning chances against Peter Leko but the Hungarian player managed to defend. Hikaru Nakamura tried to convert his extra pawn in a rook endgame into a full point, but Gata Kamsky was also not in the mood to lose today.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov - Veselin Topalov ½-½
The two former FIDE world champions played a very interesting line of the Classic King’s Indian, which Topalov (above left) had previously played with white! Undoubtedly, Kasimdzhanov had analyzed this line, as it has been played by a number of tops grandmasters, including Boris Gelfand. “Unfortunately I didn’t check this idea with a computer, and it was a pity to play 13.Nf5 without real preparation,” said Rustam during the press conference. Topalov gave back the piece and then played the very daring 20…Kh7. However, Kasimdzhanov’s sacrifice paid off as he recovered the exchange. But Topalov had very active pieces, and his defence was quite impressive despite the position looking very difficult for him.

Hikaru Nakamura - Gata Kamsky ½-½
The American derby saw White (Nakamura) adopting a line which gave Kamsky few problems. After Kamsky adopted his favorite opening structure we got an e3 variation of the Grunfeld. Black had no problem in equalizing with 10…c5 and White remained saddled with a backward b-pawn. “I forgot what I’ve prepared against 10…c5. I checked the line with e4 but I think I confused the order. Today it was the day when I could not remember anything or calculate clearly at all. Almost every move Gata played took me by surprise,” said Hikaru Nakamura with smile. Eventually White unraveled his pieces and Black made an error with 23…Rxc5. Once again Kamsky got into time trouble and eventually decided to enter an endgame a pawn down in a rook endgame, which he managed to save.

Teimour Radjabov - Peter Leko ½-½
Radjabov (above right) has not had a great start in this event and today chose a solid, rarely played line the Queen’s Gambit Declined, Ragozin Variation. It seems the Azeri player was more familiar with the position after the opening than Peter Leko, who hadn’t “checked the rare line deep enough”. Peter said he decided to play quickly today, but still spent a huge amount of time in the middle game and around move 17 he had left himself with 18 minutes for 23 moves. Teimur Radjabov found a very strong move, 17.Rb1, with many threats, and it was not easy for Black to find the right way. The Hungarian player went for Rc7 and after more or less force line White got the better endgame. Leko defended very well but could have finished the game earlier with stalemate: 58…Rg1 + 59…Rg5.

Alexander Morozevich - Sergey Karjakin ½-½
White chose the Alekhine Variation against the Nimzo Indian. Black was well prepared and chose Romanishin’s line with 6…Qf5. Whilst Morozevich tried to keep the position complicated, Black managed to equalize in a straightforward manner with 10…e5. Black may have played for a little bit more with 15 or 16…g6, but after the exchange of queens it was very difficult for either side to create much in the resulting position. Karjakin managed however to get into serious time trouble and gave Morozevich chances in bishop endgame. It’s hard to draw final conclusions on whether it was winning for White or not, as the ending should be analyzed quite deeply. But both players said at the press conference that they didn’t see chances for White to improve his position.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - Fabiano Caruana ½-½
White played out a main line of the Be2 variation in the Exchange Grunfeld. As is the norm for Mamedyarov (above standing) he played his first 22 moves very quickly, but maybe he should have paused to consider 19.d6!? as an option. During the press conference Fabiano indicated he might have played 19.d6 Nxd6 20.Qd5 Be6?? which would have been answered by 21.Qxe6 fxe6 22.Bxe6+ Kh8 23.Ng5 winning! The position was unclear after 19.Rxf7, and Fabiano Caruana consumed a lot of time in the opening and middlegame. Black then decided to facilitate his defence with the counter exchange sacrifice 28..Rxe3!? and created enough counter play. An inaccuracy 33.Bc8?! by Mamedyarov gave Caruana the opportunity to equalize and despite a tough time control Black maintained equality.

Ruslan Ponomariov - Anish Giri ½-½
Anish Giri (above middle, analysing with Ponomariov and press chief Anastasiya Karlovich) played confidently against former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov. He chose the Archangel Variation in the Ruy Lopez with black and his moves came fast and thick. White spent a lot of time on 13.Qb1, but this posed no problems to Giri’s preparation, as he continued to play quickly and was always well ahead of Ponomariov on the clock. Maybe 16.e5 could have posed some more difficulties for black, but Anish showed in the press conference he was well prepared.

AGON CEO GM Robert Fontaine and FIDE CEO Geoffrey Borg doing commentary

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Information and pictures by FIDE press chief WGM Anastasiya Karlovich

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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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