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Aronian and Jakovenko win in second round Jermuk GP

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
Jermuk GPIn round 2 of the Grand Prix in Jermuk, Dmitry Jakoveno recovered from yesterday's loss by beating Gata Kamsky in just 29 moves. Top seed Levon Aronian joined leaders Cheparinov and Leko thanks to a victory in a queen ending against Alekseev. Full, pictorial report.

The 5th tournament in the FIDE Grand Prix Series takes place in Jermuk, Armenia. It's a 14-player round-robin with Aronian, Jakovenko, Leko, Gelfand, Bacrot, Kamsky, Karjakin, Eljanov, Alekseev, Akopian, Ivanchuk, Cheparinov, Inarkiev and Kasimdzhanov. More info on the GP and Jermuk in our preview.

Round 2

Like the first round, there were five draws and two decisive games. Dmitry Jakovenko bounced back immediately with a quick win against Gata Kamsky, who got lost in a jungle of tactical possibilities. The American had equalized comfortably in his pet line - combining ...a6 and ...g6 in the Semi-Slav - because Jakovenko had missed that 15.Bd6 can be answered by 15...Nxc5! but 17...Be5? was Black's first mistake (17...Nde5) and 21...Nf3+? (21...Rf6) his second. Jakovenko on his turn should have played 20.Kxf2.

Jermuk GP

Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS) recovered well and defeated Gata Kamsky (USA)



The other winner was top seed Levon Aronian, who played a beautiful, model Catalan game against Evgeny Alekseev, won a pawn with the star move 28.Bxd5! and then managed to convert it in a queen ending at move 72. An impressive game that makes clear that Aronian is still in good shape, and therefore the absolute favourite in Jermuk.

Jermuk GP

Levon Aronian (ARM) beat Evgeny Alekseev (RUS) in a close to perfect game



After his win in round 1 Ivan Cheparinov continued well with a solid draw against Vladimir Akopian, using the Archangelsk variation of the Ruy Lopez. White's advantage was never big enough to hope for serious chances. The other leader, Peter Leko, played another strong game against Pavel Eljanov and according to online commentator Tigran Petrosian he missed a good chance twice, since both 34.Nf5! gxf5 35.Nh4! and 46.Qa5! look very good for White.

With simple moves Ernesto Inarkiev won a pawn against Vassily Ivanchuk in a Sveshnikov and Black had to fear for his life in the ending that started at move 33. And indeed White missed one or two wins in the game, in the ending with Np - Np but probably also before. The easiest would have been 83.Nd5! Nh5+ 84.Kg4 but in fact only 86.Kf8? gave away the win, where the paradoxical 86.Kg7!! still wins - a tablebase discovery that might be turned into an endgame study - Yochanan? ;-)

Jermuk GP

Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR): a narrow escape against Ernesto Inarkiev (RUS)



Bacrot-Kasimdzhanov and Karjakin-Gelfand were two Petroff defences and as we all know, on this level this opening rarely leads to very interesting games. Karjakin picked up the new trend of 3.d4 and got a slight plus due to Black's badly placed rook, but it wasn't enough. Kasimdzhanov drew even more easily.

Round 2 games

Click on the pairings at the top of the board to reveal a drop down list of all the games. More info on our new game viewer can be found here.

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Jermuk Grand Prix 2009 | Round 2 Standings

Jermuk Grand Prix 2009


Jermuk Grand Prix 2009 | Schedule & results



Jermuk GP

The beatiful playing hall in Jermuk...



Jermuk GP

...with a great view of the mountains...



Jermuk GP

...and of course the other boards to look at



Jermuk GP

Despite the bad weather a big number of spectators showed up...



Jermuk GP

...to follow the games outside - that's what a chess-loving country looks like!



Jermuk GP

The press room



Jermuk GP

Smbat Lputian captivated by Svetozar Gligoric's many stories



Jermuk GP

Alexander Motylev, Kateryna Dolzhikova and Sergei Karjakin



All photos © Arman Kharakhanyan

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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

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