Caruana, Gelfand Share First Place in Baku

They were leading together for most of the tournament and eventually finished shared first at the Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan: Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand. They drew in the final round, and kept their half-point lead.

Grand Prix points and money prizes are split equally, but Caruana will receive the winner's cup and medal on greater number of victories. In the last round, five games ended in a draw, and as a result the standings table didn't change much. Tail-ender Leinier Dominguez wasn't spared; he finished with another loss to Alexander Grischuk.

And suddenly it is all over. The first of four Grand Prix tournaments, held in Baku, was won by Caruana on tiebreak, but that's not really relevant. The Italian GM finished first together with Gelfand, and so it's these two players who currently have the best chances to qualify for the next Candidates Tournament!

As Gelfand pointed out during his press conference, it's all about playing well in the three tournaments played. And who knows? After qualifying for a world championship match against Vishy Anand in 2012, the 46-year-old Israeli GM might just do it again...

In the final round, it was excellent preparation that resulted in a comfortable draw against Svidler. Gelfand is still an excellent theoretician, and his both his Sveshnikov and Najdorf look very, very solid.

Caruana played the white pieces against Tomashevsky but never had serious winning chances. He got some Ruy Lopez preparation on the board, but it wasn't much for White. In fact it was Tomashevsky who had the advantage in the final phase of the game, but he didn't see a way to make progress.

Two players still had a chance to catch Caruana and Gelfand: Karjakin and Nakamura, but both drew their games. The American GM finished his tournament with a comfortable draw in a Panno King's Indian against Teimour Radjabov:

Karjakin split the point with Andreikin in a rather dull game.

Mamedyarov and Kasimdzhanov also finished with a draw, but a rather interesting one. In this topical line of the Queen's Gambit Accepted, Black sacrifices an exchange in the opening in return for a pawn and central control. Both players must have missed something in their calculation, because for a moment Black was doing very well.

And so Grischuk was the only winner of the day. The Russian GM defeated poor Dominguez, who had an absolutely horrible tournament and normally speaking has no chance anymore to qualify for the Candidates.

Afterward Grischuk explained why his second half of the tournament went so much better: he had moved to a "hotel with windows"!

“I felt like I was in a submarine for more than one week," said Grischuk.  "When I was waking up I felt like I'm pregnant. I was feeling so bad every morning, the whole day, and my play showed it very clearly. Of course I'm lucky that I won three games out of four after I moved but still, the level of my play increased dramatically.”

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | Final Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	Pts	SB
1	Gelfand,B	2748	2816		½	½	½	1	½	½	1	0	½	1	½	6.5/11	35.25
2	Caruana,F	2844	2808	½		½	½	0	1	1	½	1	½	0	1	6.5/11	34.50
3	Tomashevsky,E	2701	2788	½	½		½	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	6.0/11	32.25
4	Nakamura,H	2764	2782	½	½	½		½	0	½	½	½	1	1	½	6.0/11	31.75
5	Grischuk,A	2797	2780	0	1	½	½		½	½	0	½	1	½	1	6.0/11	31.25
6	Karjakin,S	2767	2782	½	0	½	1	½		½	½	½	½	½	1	6.0/11	31.25
7	Svidler,P	2732	2785	½	0	½	½	½	½		½	1	½	½	1	6.0/11	30.75
8	Radjabov,T	2726	2754	0	½	½	½	1	½	½		½	½	½	½	5.5/11
9	Mamedyarov,S	2764	2720	1	0	½	½	½	½	0	½		½	½	½	5.0/11	27.50
10	Kasimdzhanov,R	2706	2724	½	½	½	0	0	½	½	½	½		1	½	5.0/11	26.75
11	Andreikin,D	2722	2691	0	1	0	0	½	½	½	½	½	0		1	4.5/11
12	Dominguez,L	2751	2582	½	0	½	½	0	0	0	½	½	½	0		3.0/11

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | All Results

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