Tashkent GP: Andreikin in Sole Lead After Beating Jobava

On Friday, Dmitry Andreikin put an end to Baadur Jobava's cinderella story at the Grand Prix in Tashkent. The Russian grandmaster now tops the leaderboard with two rounds to go.

In the eighth round, there was one more winner: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated Dmitry Jakovenko as Black despite huge problems after the opening.

It's crunch time. No more rest days, no more relaxation. With three rounds to go, for many players a very important phase has started — especially the ones who also played in Baku: Fabiano Caruana, Boris Gelfand, Hikaru Nakamura, Dmitry Andreikin, Sergey Karjakin, Teimour Rajdabov, Rustam Kasimzdhanov and Shakhryiar Mamedyarov.

Perhaps this explains the relatively high number of rather short draws in this tournament: many players are getting tired, and in general they cannot take too many risks. Take for example the game Karjakin-Nakamura, where White has a nice edge on move 22, but goes for a move repetition anyway. 

In such cases we tend to say that the onus is on White. Here's how Karjakin explained his decision not to play 22.b4:

“Maybe objectively White is better but it's hard to play. (..) I lost already so many games because I did some stupid things and today I thought OK, I play safer. I mean I was playing the game, but as you can see I had to choose between going to a very complicated and unclear position having twenty minutes, or to make a draw.”

Playing safe and solid is important, and that probably also explains the high frequency of the Berlin Ending. It's arguably the most reliable defense against 1.e4 for Black, and therefore several players are playing it with both colors.

But sometimes the preparation is not as one would expect at this level. In Radjabov-Caruana today, the Italian GM decided at the board to do something different on move 11, avoiding a scenario from Giri-Radjabov earlier in the tournament. Black was playing a known setup a tempo down, but that didn't matter much.

For everyone who is a bit fed up with the Berlin: the annotations (taken from the press conference) at the end are quite interesting with lots of checkmate ideas.

It's known that Jobava has a very different approach to openings. He's not the kind of guy to spend hours behind a computer screen before the game. At the press conference he said he played 1.d4, 2.Nc3 and 3.Bf4 “to get a playable position,” and that worked. It would be too easy to blame his quick loss on his first couple of moves.

However, on move 7 the Georgian miscalculated seriously, and this got him into big trouble. Another mistake followed, and in no time White was strategically dead lost. Andreikin could have played it more accurately perhaps, but he was always on top.

Andreikin wins easily and grabs the lead. | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.

Jakovenko has been a bit under the weather in Tashkent, and that might have influenced his game with Mamedyarov today. The Russian GM got a big advantage out of the opening but completely spoilt it and even lost. GM Dejan Bojkov analyzes:

Vachier-Lagrave and Giri was another Berlin, but here White went 4.d3. But also here Giri was well prepared and got a good position out of the opening.

MVL played an ambitious but risky 10th move, and suddenly there was a huge amount of tactical variations, as the players showed afterward. The queens were traded in a spectacular way, and the game quickly petered out to a draw.

Kasimdzhanov-Gelfand was the longest game of the round. The Uzbek grandmaster had dusted off his 6.Bc4 Najdorf and more than that: his home analysis went beyond move 30! Not everything came on the board, but about one long line he said: “I thought if he would find it I would shake his hand for a long time.”

Gelfand played well, but used a lot of time on the clock. Just before the time control Kasimdzhanov avoided a move repetition twice, but he soon regretted that second time as he missed an important check. Suddenly Black was better in the ending, but not much.

2014 Grand Prix, Tashkent | Round 9 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	Pts	SB
1	Andreikin,D	2722	2875		½	1	½	1	½	1	½	½		½		6.0/9
2	Nakamura,H	2764	2829	½		½		1	½	½	½		½	½	1	5.5/9	23.50
3	Mamedyarov,S	2764	2833	0	½				½	½	½	1	½	1	1	5.5/9	21.00
4	Vachier Lagrave,M	2757	2788	½				½	½	½	1	0	½	1	½	5.0/9	20.75
5	Jobava,B	2717	2792	0	0		½		½	1	½	½		1	1	5.0/9	19.00
6	Radjabov,T	2726	2761	½	½	½	½	½		½	½	½	½			4.5/9	22.00
7	Karjakin,S	2767	2746	0	½	½	½	0	½			1	1		½	4.5/9	19.50
8	Caruana,F	2844	2742	½	½	½	0	½	½				½	½	1	4.5/9	19.25
9	Jakovenko,D	2747	2703	½		0	1	½	½	0			½	½	½	4.0/9	17.50
10	Giri,A	2768	2720		½	½	½		½	0	½	½		½	½	4.0/9	17.25
11	Kasimdzhanov,R	2706	2639	½	½	0	0	0			½	½	½		½	3.0/9
12	Gelfand,B	2748	2594		0	0	½	0		½	0	½	½	½		2.5/9

xxx

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | All Results

The total prize fund is €120,000. The games start each day at 14:00 local time which is 11:00 in Amsterdam, 10:00 in London, 05:00 in New York, 02:00 in Los Angeles and 19:00 in Sydney. The last round starts three hours earlier. 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