Tomashevsky Still Full Point Ahead After Tbilisi Round 5

Round five of the Tbilisi Grand Prix saw three decisive games, and GM Evgeny Tomashevsky was able to hold onto his full point lead over the field by drawing with GM Anish Giri in a balanced 6.h3 King's Indian Defense: 

GM Baadur Jobava, despite going into the round with only 0.5/4, stayed true to his style and essayed his favorite setup of b2-b3,Bb2,Nc3,d2-d4, Qd2, and 0-0-0. His opponent, GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, developed logically but was unable to react accurately against the sacrifice 15.Bxg6!? and allowed a powerful attack.

Mamedyarov even had a draw in hand as the players were repeating moves when he suddenly played 26...Kf7??, overlooking a simple mate-in-two and resigned before 28.Qf8# was on the board.

Annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov:

GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov employed GM Peter Svidler's own invention against the Grunfeld, choosing 5.Bd2 followed by the surprisingly effective plan of 6.e3 and 7.f4, a setup that Svidler himself famously introduced in the 2013 London Candidates’ Tournament.

Black achieved a reasonable position out of the opening, having some piece activity to compensate for White's bishops. But around the 20th move Kasimdzanov started to build up huge pressure against Black's center and Svidler collapsed within a few moves.

GM Dmitry Andreikin tried to press against GM Lenier Dominguez in a delayed Spanish Exchange, but Dominguez played calm and defended well, emerging with an edge by move 25.

Already by move 28 Andreikin was forced to sacrifice a piece with 28.Bxg5, but was unable to get enough compensation for it and Dominguez slowly but surely converted the piece-up endgame.

GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and GM Teimour Radjabov engaged in a sharp Winawer French, perhaps testing each other's preparation. It seems as though both players were equally well prepared as the complex middlegame soon turned into a drawn endgame:

And lastly in a game that's almost not even worth showing, GM Dmitry Jakovenko and GM Alexander Grischuk payed homage to the 2011 Candidates’ Matches in Kazan:

With that Tomashevsky continues to lead with 4.0/5, trailed by Grischuk, Kasimdzhanov, Jakovenko, Giri, and Dominguez. Round six takes place tomorrow, February 21.

2015 Tbilisi FIDE Grand Prix | Round 5 Standings

The third FIDE Grand Prix runs February 15-27 in Tbilisi, Georgia. It is a round robin, with 11 rounds in total. There are two rest days, on February 19 and 24.