Tomashevsky Wins Unique Ending, Increases Lead Again In Tbilisi

GM Evgeny Tomashevsky increased his lead to a full point again at the Tbilisi Grand Prix by winning the rare NBB vs R ending against GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

One more game ended decisively in round eight: GM Baadur Jobava defeated GM Peter Svidler as Black.

All photos courtesy of FIDE.

Who is going to stop GM Evgeny Tomashevsky? Three more players have a chance: Radjabov, Kasimdzhanov and Andreikin. But after another win, against GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the 27-year-old Russian grandmaster is now pretty close to tournament victory.

In today's round he won a unique ending: that of R vs NBB. When it appeared on the board the tablebase said “mate in 57”! (The 50-move rule wouldn't be a problem there since the rook would most probably be captured in time.)

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Evgeny Tomashevsky after 68.Ra1. pic.twitter.com/5gYw4RRGnB

— Europe-Echecs (@EuropeEchecs) February 23, 2015

What exactly happened in that ending, and before? Don't miss the annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov:

Meanwhile GM Baadur Jobava is on a roll. It took him some time (and points) to get into shape, but after his 0.5/4, he scored 3.5/4! Today's victim was GM Peter Svidler, who is not having his best tournament.

In an Advance Caro-Kann, Svidler focused on maintaining the initiative, even though he had to make some positional concessions. The whole concept was fine, but he should have played 16.g4. He did see it, but missed an important detail.

From that point Jobava was more than fine — especially after castling queenside, also missed by Svidler. Another fine game by the Georgian!

The press conference with GM Anish Giri and GM Alexander Grischuk lasted less than 10 minutes. Still it was more interesting than the game itself (which took 39 moves), especially for everyone who was aware of the game Tomashevsky-Grischuk, Baku 2014. The first 28 moves were the same!

Grischuk said:

“I don't really understand the young generation. I'm playing terribly here, blundering left and right and instead of going for the big battle Anish just went for the long line, which even I had in my game which leads to a drawish endgame.

Anish really has to win on the finish, I don't understand. I really didn't want to play some sh...[bleep] lines, I wanted White to do something to get a battle. It was really unexpected.”

Not amused, Giri started by saying: “I don't understand the older generation. Their time is ticking but they're still not world champion.”

Boom!

The Dutch GM quickly continued: “But OK basically, it's clear something went wrong in my preparation; I didn't have any chance to win. It was not part of the plan to follow the game of Tomashevsky, but that's what happened.”

This is a summary of my recent games... :) Looking forward to set things straight, after the restday! #TbilisiGP pic.twitter.com/2teptSDEvS

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) February 23, 2015

GM Dmitry Jakovenko, who was trailing the leader by half a point, drew his black game with GM Leinier Dominguez. In a 4.d3 Berlin he modestly developed his bishop to e7 when the flavor of the game became more like a Closed Spanish.

Dominguez's plan of b2-b4 and a4-a4 was interesting; White let go of the bishop pair in return for strong pressure along the a-file. He won a pawn there, but Jakovenko managed to win it back and swap everything on the queenside.

GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov kept his “plus one” score with a draw against tail-ender GM Dmitry Andreikin. The Russian GM played the Chebanenko Slav, an opening that was all the rage a few years back. Kasimdzhanov didn't choose one of the most critical lines, and by move 20 Black had equalized.

GM Teimour Radjabov and GM Shakhiyar Mamedyarov played their usual quick draw, this time in a Cambridge-Springs where a piece sac provided a nice and quick perpetual.

2015 Tbilisi FIDE Grand Prix | Round 8 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.