Baku GP: Caruana, Gelfand Both Lose; 6-Way Tie for First

In a spectacular 9th round at the Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan, both Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand lost. The leaders of the tournament went down to Alexander Grischuk and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov respectively.

Hikaru Nakamura won quickly against Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Dmitry Andreikin defeated Leinier Dominguez, and now no less than six players are tied for first place with 5.0/9.

The leaderboard was shaken up big time in the 9th round as both leaders Caruana and Gelfand lost. We now half six players, so half of the playing field, topping the standings!

Caruana lost his second game of the tournament to Grischuk, who brought a novelty as early as move 4. “I had noticed this move because Giri had mentioned his win against Gelfand. It's much better than Qa5+,” said Grischuk. 

“Superficial analysis. I didn't know that 4...e6. It was pretty ridiculous to start thinking for half an hour on move 4, although the opening wasn't really the reason I lost this game,” said Caruana, who basically gave away the game by one move.

For Gelfand the loss was quite different; he never really got into the game as Black and was outplayed almost from the start. Mamedyarov's opening was not the most ambitious, but it's incredibly solid and usually only White can play for a win. Gelfand couldn't manage to get any counterplay and so the whole thing looked like a master vs amateur game!

Nakamura-Kasimdzhanov was more similar to Caruana-Dominguez because here too everything was decided by one bad move. “A pure blunder; the simplest form. Probably something was wrong with my concentration,” Kasimdzhanov said about his 22nd move, which just gave away a piece. Nakamura said that he is having a strange tournament where he doesn't win good position and wins games he “shouldn't win”.

One player who will be searching for answers is Dominguez. The Cuban is the clear cellar-dweller after spoiling a winning position against Andreikin, who chose a dubious sacrifical path but got away with it after a time scramble with lots of errors.

Radjabov and Karjakin played a line of the Symmetrical English where the queens quickly leave the board. The Russian GM said he studied this old theoretical line from a number of Kramnik's games from the 90s, and so he felt at home in this queenless middlegame. 

Radjabov spent a lot of time on the clock and had an hour less at some point. “I couldn't figure out what was the theory there. I didn't expect Sergey to go for this line and I forgot all the lines,” he said. After his novelty lots of pieces were traded and there was nothing to play for.

Svidler-Tomashevsky was even shorter; in an Anti-Marshall Ruy Lopez the players repeated moves basically right out of the opening. The players spent quite some time to analyze their middlegame during the press conference, but unfortunately the chess fans didn't get to see that over the board.

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | Round 9 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	Pts	SB
1	Caruana,F	2844	2787		½	1	½	½	1	½		0	1	0		5.0/9	23.75
2	Nakamura,H	2764	2790	½		0	½		½	1	½	½		1	½	5.0/9	21.75
3	Karjakin,S	2767	2794	0	1		½	½		½	½	½	½		1	5.0/9	21.50
4	Gelfand,B	2748	2796	½	½	½				½	½	1	0	1	½	5.0/9	21.50
5	Radjabov,T	2726	2792	½		½			½	½	½	1	½	½	½	5.0/9	21.50
6	Svidler,P	2732	2791	0	½			½		½	½	½	1	½	1	5.0/9	20.50
7	Kasimdzhanov,R	2706	2750	½	0	½	½	½	½		½			1	½	4.5/9	20.25
8	Tomashevsky,E	2701	2750		½	½	½	½	½	½		½	½		½	4.5/9	20.25
9	Grischuk,A	2797	2714	1	½	½	0	0	½		½		½	½		4.0/9	18.75
10	Mamedyarov,S	2764	2716	0		½	1	½	0		½	½		½	½	4.0/9	17.75
11	Andreikin,D	2722	2721	1	0		0	½	½	0		½	½		1	4.0/9	17.00
12	Dominguez,L	2751	2617		½	0	½	½	0	½	½		½	0		3.0/9

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | Schedule & Pairings

The total prize fund is €120,000. The games start each day at 15:00 local time which is 12:00 in Amsterdam, 11:00 in London, 06:00 in New York, 03:00 in Los Angeles and 20:00 in Sydney. The last round starts two hours earlier. The tournament website provides live commentary by GMs Emil Sutovsky and GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko which can also be followed on Chess.com/TV! 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