Zug R06: Nakamura and Ponomariov score

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 six report

Both leaders, Veselin Topalov and Alexander Morozevich, finished their games with draws, while Ruslan Ponomariov outplayed Gata Kamsky to join two other leaders on the top. Hikaru Nakamura won his first game in this tournament, against Rustam Kasimdzhanov. The craziest game of the sixth round, between Fabiano Caruana and Sergey Karjakin, ended in a draw, but not before both players had had winning positions.

Veselin Topalov and Teimour Radjabov analysing in the press conference

Teimour Radjabov - Veselin Topalov ½-½
Following yesterday’s game, Radjabov wanted to come back to the event and he selected the Alekhine Variation against the Nimzo Indian. The line they followed was quite extensively played before, and the new move was 17.0-0-0. But this did not change much. However, White decided to check Black’s preparation and Veselin Topalov had to play precisely in order to equalize. It seems both opponents were familiar with many different lines in this opening as the players used around one hour each for the 30 odd moves played today.

Two former child prodigies: Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Caruana - Sergey Karjakin ½-½
Six of the GMs in this event became grandmasters before the age of 15! The record holder Karjakin (GM at 12 years and 7 months, but now a ripe 23 years old!) was Black against Caruana who also achieved his title at a very young age (14y 11m 20d). They chose the positional variation of the Ruy Lopez Berlin with 4.d3, and while Black maintained equality until move 19.

During the press-conference Sergey (above) pointed out that probably he just didn’t deserve to win this game. His opponent replied with a smile that most likely both of them deserved to lose it.

Ruslan Ponomariov - Gata Kamsky 1 - 0
Interestingly, Ponomariov tested his opponent with 1.c4. Kamsky spent some time on his first move choice and then replied 1…c6 which soon transposed into a Caro Kann Panov Botvinnik with Bb4. Kamsky avoided the main line with 10…Bb7 and instead chose 10…Bxc3 which allowed white to resolve the traditional isolated pawn structure. “I tried to trick my opponent with this move order today. We had English, then Slav, Panov and even ended up in some Nimzo”, explained Ruslan Ponomariov. The new move came on with 15…Rfd8, but Kamsky was spending a lot of time on the position and around move 25 had only four minutes left for 15 moves in a very difficult position. Both players agreed that Black could have tried to play f6 earlier in order not to let White to get such a strong initiative. 29.d5! was a nice touch and White dominated from that point on.

In the press conference (with Kamsky and FIDE press chief WGM Anastasiya Karlovich) the former FIDE world champion Ponomariov said: “The tournament is very strong and it’s hard to win even one game here. I have +2 which I believe is a good result, taking into consideration my previous results in Grand Prix events.”

Alexander Morozevich - Peter Leko ½-½
Morozevich played a positional line against Leko as they chose the Symmetrical English. Black chose a minor line with 6…Bc5 instead of the main line 6…Qb6 or 6…Bb4 transposing to the Nimzo Indian. The idea of Black was just to avoid repeating the line with Qb6 played between same opponents in Tashkent. The Hungarian player lost that important game, and it was psychologically hard to repeat the same line. White in turn chose a rarely played line with 10.Nd5!? instead of 10.Bf4. “If I would have been ready for Nd5 I would have reacted immediately”, said Peter Leko at the press conference. Leko’s 12…d5 was a new move compared to the previous 12...b5. There was very little movement in the equality line, however, as both players played extremely accurately and gave no chance to the other side to take any realistic advantage. “Today I feel very happy because it’s the first game where I equalized with White," said Morozevich. "I’m pretty happy that I’m improving. I was not so sure after the opening if I would be able to do it today, but once I played Qe4 I thought it should be okay. Maybe I had some advantage, but not enough to put some real pressure. So, I plan to keep on playing game by game and equalizing.”

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - Anish Giri ½-½
After yesterday’s game the Azeri player (above) decided not to spend much time for preparation and just play some fighting chess. Anish Giri cleverly chose a line with few complications and one which they had both played before, as White! Mamedyarov tried to tempt Giri to take on c4 after 4.Bg5, but Black went for a Ragozin setup with a slight improvement of 13…Bd7. In the post-game analysis the players spent some time on 19.Nh5, and although White may have been better, he could not convert the position into a concrete advantage. Once the queens came off there was a steadfast exchange of pieces in very short time and a draw was agreed on move 46. However, after the inaccurate move 29.Rb1 Black could have tried to play for more with 29…a5.

"I’d already said to myself it is a draw, and in such case it’s not a good idea to change my mind. Maybe I have slight pressure in this position”, explained Anish Giri.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov - Hikaru Nakamura 0-1
Nakamura was obviously in a mood for complications as he first went for 1…Nc6 and then chose 3…Nge7 in the Ruy Lopez. Kasimdzhanov played very well and got a solid advantage up until the dubious sacrifice 26.Rxd6?! to which Black reacted very well and took the upper hand, defending against the immediate threats to emerge with a piece extra for three pawns. This might not have been enough to win, but Rustam was in time trouble and made a few mistakes. According to the former FIDE world champion the last mistake was 37.Be2. He should have played 37.Be4, changing the pieces and keeping good chances to make a draw. After the move Be2 Black pieces came close to White’s king and there was no defence against checkmate.

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Information and pictures by FIDE press chief WGM Anastasiya Karlovich

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