Grischuk Dominating Petrosian Memorial

With two rounds to go, Alexander Grischuk has a dominating lead of 1.5 points at the Petrosian Memorial. On Monday, the Russian GM won again: he beat Peter Leko in 33 moves.

In the same round, Boris Gelfand won his first game; he beat Alexander Morozevich, who is now sharing last place with Ernesto Inarkiev.

While the chess fans have switched their attention to what is happening in Sochi, 1350 km up north in Moscow, Alexander Grischuk is having a great week.

On Monday he won again to reach 4.5/5, winning 15.2 rating points, and getting to 2810 in the live ratings.

His game with Leko was a Queen's Gambit Declined with the classical 5.Bg5 (5.Bf4 is more popular these days), and the board caught fire when Grischuk pushed his g-pawn two squares on move 8. Can White do that also in this position? Yes he can!

Leko thought for half an hour and found quite a decent defense based on sacrificing an exchange. However, one mistake by the Hungarian was enough to get into big trouble.

Gelfand vs Morozevich was a great game too. Even though he played it as White recently, Morozevich somehow got confused and allowed a promising sacrifice of a knight for two pawns, which is quite typical for the Chebanenko Slav with 6.c5.

Black's attack was never dangerous enough to compensate for the marching white pawns. However, it seems there was one moment where Morozevich could have saved himself.

Yes, that 5.Bf4 QGD is quite popular. It was also seen in this round, in the game between Aronian and Kramnik.

It was the Armenian who had prepared something new: 13.Na4!? forces matters on the queenside. Kramnik decided to swap everything and defend a position with heavy pieces and slightly less space.

Indeed that should be a draw objectively, but at the end Aronian might have missed a chance.

And so there are still two players left who drew all their games. Besides Aronian that's Chinese number one Ding Liren, who split the point with Ernesto Inarkiev on Sunday. In a 4...Nd7 Inarkiev didn't play the most dangerous line, and Ding played a very solid game.

2014 Petrosian Memorial | Round 5 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pts	SB
1	Grischuk,Alexander	2795	3108			½		1	1	1	1	4.5/5
2	Kramnik,Vladimir	2760	2811			½	½	½	½	1		3.0/5
3	Ding,Liren	2730	2754	½	½		½		½	½		2.5/5	6.75
4	Aronian,Levon	2797	2741		½	½		½	½		½	2.5/5	5.75
5	Gelfand,Boris	2759	2753	0	½		½			½	1	2.5/5	5.00
6	Leko,Peter	2731	2691	0	½	½	½				½	2.0/5
7	Inarkiev,Ernesto	2688	2607	0	0	½		½			½	1.5/5	3.25
8	Morozevich,Alexander	2724	2607	0			½	0	½	½		1.5/5	3.00

2014 Petrosian Memorial | Pairings & Results

The Petrosian Memorial is held 3-11 November in Moscow. The prize fund is € 100,000 sponsored by Tashir Group.| Games via TWIC