Bacrot & Karjakin share first in Poikovsky

Etienne Bacrot and Sergei Karjakin finished shared first at the Karpov tournament in Poikovsky, Russia. Both players scored 5.5/9 (UPDATE: it was Etienne Bacrot who was declared the winner on tie-break) and only one player finished on '+1': Fabiano Caruana. Until the very end the tournament stayed peaceful with only 11/45 decisive games.

In our first report on the tournament in Poikovsky we already mentioned the high number of draws (sixteen of the first twenty games), and unfortunately this didn't really change in the remainder of the tournament. In the end the drawing percentage was 76%, which is very high for a tournament like this. However, perhaps it's not that surprising for a private tournament where many of the players are friends with the organizer and each other, and have played the tournament more than once.

The tournament named after 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov saw two players finish shared first: Sergei Karjakin (Russia) and Etienne Bacrot (France), who caught Karjakin in the very last round. The Frenchman scored the only decisive game in the fifth round against Fabiano Caruana (Italy):

[Event "12th Karpov Int"]
[Site "Poikovsky RUS"]
[Date "2011.10.08"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Bacrot, E."]
[Black "Caruana, F."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D86"]
[WhiteElo "2705"]
[BlackElo "2712"]
[PlyCount "155"]
[EventDate "2011.10.04"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 c5 8.
Ne2 Nc6 9. Be3 O-O 10. O-O Na5 11. Bd3 b6 12. Qd2 e5 13. Bh6 exd4 14. Bxg7 Kxg7
15. cxd4 cxd4 16. Rac1 Nb7 17. Bc4 (17. Rc4 Nc5 18. Rxd4 {
1/2-1/2 Cheparinov,I (2665)-Safarli,E (2629)/Moscow RUS 2011}) 17... Nc5 18.
Bd5 Rb8 19. Qxd4+ Qf6 20. Qe3 Be6 21. Nc3 Rbd8 22. Rfd1 Rfe8 23. Rd4 Qe5 24. f4
Qf6 25. Rcd1 Bxd5 26. e5 Qf5 27. Nxd5 Ne6 28. R4d2 {Something's gone wrong for
Black, as in this position already he can't avoid losing material.} h5 (28...
Kh8 29. Qf3 $1 {threatens 30.g4 and after} h5 30. Ne3 {wins.}) ({
The best might have been} 28... Rxd5 29. Rxd5 Nxf4 30. R5d4 g5) 29. Nc7 Nxc7
30. Rxd8 Rxd8 31. Rxd8 Qb1+ 32. Kf2 Ne6 (32... Qxa2+ 33. Rd2 Qe6 34. Qc3 $18)
33. Rd2 h4 34. h3 Qf5 35. g4 hxg3+ 36. Kxg3 b5 37. Re2 a5 38. Qe4 Qh5 39. Rf2
Nc5 40. Qd5 Ne6 41. Qe4 Nc5 42. Qc2 Ne6 43. f5 Nd4 44. f6+ Kg8 45. Qe4 Ne6 46.
Rc2 Qg5+ 47. Kh2 b4 48. Rc8+ Kh7 49. Rc4 Kg8 50. Qa8+ Kh7 51. Qd5 Kg8 52. Rg4
Qh6 53. Qa8+ Kh7 54. Qe4 Qd2+ 55. Qg2 Qh6 56. Qc2 Qh5 57. Qe4 Ng5 58. Qe3 Ne6
59. Kg3 Kg8 60. Kg2 Kh7 61. Qe4 Kg8 62. Qe3 Qf5 63. Qe4 Qh5 64. Qa8+ Kh7 65.
Qa7 Kg8 66. Qxa5 Ng5 67. Qd8+ Kh7 68. Qd3 Ne6 69. Qe3 Kg8 70. Rxb4 Qd1 71. Rb2
Qd5+ 72. Kh2 g5 73. Rg2 Kh7 74. Rd2 Qa5 75. Qe4+ Kh6 76. Rc2 Qa3 77. h4 Kh5 78.
Rg2 1-0

The best game of the tournament was no doubt the following, from the seventh round - brilliant stuff from Motylev:

[Event "12th Karpov Int"]
[Site "Poikovsky RUS"]
[Date "2011.10.11"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Motylev, A."]
[Black "Laznicka, V."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B48"]
[WhiteElo "2690"]
[BlackElo "2701"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "3r1k2/2q4p/p4PpN/7n/1p1b2R1/3Br3/PPP4P/1K3R1Q w - - 0 29"]
[PlyCount "9"]
[EventDate "2011.10.04"]

29. Bxg6 $1 hxg6 30. Rxg6 Qh7 31. Qb7 $3 Qxg6 32. Qxb4+ Ke8 33. f7+ 1-0

Sergei Karjakin tricked his former compatriot Zahar Efimenko already right after the opening:

[Event "12th Karpov Int"]
[Site "Poikovsky RUS"]
[Date "2011.10.12"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Karjakin, Sergey"]
[Black "Efimenko, Z."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C24"]
[WhiteElo "2772"]
[BlackElo "2703"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "r1b2rk1/ppb2ppp/2p1qn2/4pNB1/4P3/1PP2Q2/1P1N1PPP/R4RK1 w - - 0 15"]
[PlyCount "29"]
[EventDate "2011.10.04"]

15. Bh6 $1 Nxe4 16. Qg4 g6 17. Nxe4 Qxf5 18. Qxf5 Bxf5 19. Nf6+ Kh8 20. Bxf8
Rxf8 21. Rxa7 Rb8 22. Rd1 e4 23. Nd7 Rd8 24. Rxb7 Bf4 25. h3 e3 26. Kf1 Kg7 27.
Rd4 g5 28. Ne5 Rf8 29. Nxc6 1-0

Karpov Tournament (Poikovsky) 2011 | Round 9 (Final) Standings