Baku GP: Caruana Loses but Still Leads With Gelfand

Today at the Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan Fabiano Caruana surprisingly went down against tail-ender Dmitry Andreikin. It was Caruana's first loss since the end of August.

Boris Gelfand rejoined the Italian GM in the lead after drawing with Rustam Kasimdzhanov in a rook ending that might have been winning. In this round Sergey Karjakin defeated Hikaru Nakamura to take over third place.

It had to end somewhere. Caruana's amazing run of undefeated games, and many wins, came to an end on Thursday. Ironically, it was tail-ender Andreikin who did it, and rather smoothly. In a 3...Qd6 Scandinavian the Russian got an edge out of the opening, but later things got complicated.

Just before the time control Caruana missed a thing or two, and ended up a pawn down with QR vs QR. The safety of the kings is very important in these endings and Caruana's was just way too weak. Going for a rook ending didn't save him.

This allowed Gelfand to rejoin Caruana in the lead, and it could have been even more. The Israeli GM was probably winning in the rook ending, but it was extremely difficult and Kasimdzhanov defended really well. The ending certainly deserves further study and it can be very instructive to do so!

Nakamura played an interesting opening against Karjakin (the Veresov) but it looks like it eventually backfired, even though he succeeded in surprising his opponent somewhat. “It was a really interestin opening. (...) Already on move 5 I couldn't remember what I was going to play,” said Karjakin.

Although his f-pawn was doubled, Black's king position was safer in the long run. It was the first loss for Nakamura and the second win for Karjakin, who took over the number 3 position from his opponent.

Svidler-Grischuk was a short but spectacular draw. In a 3.Bb5 Sicilian White kind of neglected the development of his queenside and immediately went for a kingside attack. “After the game finished Boris came up to me and said: ‘They tell you you have to develop some of your pieces before you do all this stuff.’” — Svidler.

There were lots of nice variations, but in the end there was nothing more than a draw — something Grischuk knew already as he had everything in his computer!

After the game Grischuk joined commentator Emil Sutovsky and provided some interesting quotes. For example, he didn't agree that Caruana is bringing back into fashion a “serve-and-volley” approach, where opening theory is very important again: “It is more that Black players jump from opening to opening, this is what has changed.”

About the upcoming Anand-Carlsen match he said: “There is a very good chance for a real fight. I really think that Anand in his best form he is not weaker than Carlsen in his best form. The problem is that Carlsen is much much more often at his best form or close to it. (...) I expect Anand to play at 2850 level.”

Radjabov-Dominguez ended in a draw, but this was a great game too. The Cuban said afterward: “It was fun! By far the most interesting game I have played in this tournament. (...) I can say that I was enjoying most of the game.”

Last and perhaps least was Mamedyarov-Tomashevsky, a draw in a Slav.

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | Round 7 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	Pts	SB
1	Caruana,F	2844	2848		½	1		½		½	1		0		1	4.5/7	16.00
2	Gelfand,B	2748	2857	½		½	½		½			½	1	1		4.5/7	14.50
3	Karjakin,S	2767	2808	0	½		½		½	1		1		½		4.0/7	13.75
4	Kasimdzhanov,R	2706	2785		½	½		½	½		½	½	1			4.0/7	13.75
5	Radjabov,T	2726	2809	½			½				½	½	½	1	½	4.0/7	12.50
6	Tomashevsky,E	2701	2756		½	½	½			½		½		½	½	3.5/7	12.00
7	Nakamura,H	2764	2760	½		0			½		½	½	1	½		3.5/7	11.00
8	Svidler,P	2732	2760	0			½	½		½			½	½	1	3.5/7	10.75
9	Dominguez,L	2751	2690		½	0	½	½	½	½					½	3.0/7
10	Andreikin,D	2722	2653	1	0		0	½		0	½				½	2.5/7	9.50
11	Grischuk,A	2797	2642		0	½		0	½	½	½				½	2.5/7	8.50
12	Mamedyarov,S	2764	2652	0				½	½		0	½	½	½		2.5/7	7.75

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | Schedule & Pairings

The total prize fund is €120,000. The games start each day at 15:00 local time which is 12:00 in Amsterdam, 11:00 in London, 06:00 in New York, 03:00 in Los Angeles and 20:00 in Sydney. The last round starts two hours earlier. The tournament website provides live commentary by GMs Emil Sutovsky and GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko which can also be followed on Chess.com/TV! The winner and second placed player in the overall final standings of the Grand Prix will qualify for the Candidates’ Tournament to be held in the last quarter of 2015 or the first half of 2016. | Games via TWIC