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Caruana, Karjakin Winners in 7th Round Tashkent GP

Caruana, Karjakin Winners in 7th Round Tashkent GP

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| 5 | Chess Event Coverage

Fabiano Caruana got back to 50 percent today at the Grand Prix in Tashkent as Boris Gelfand blundered a double attack. Sergey Karjakin bounced back after two losses, and beat Anish Giri.

After round 5, Caruana said: “A lot of players have shown that even if you start badly there's always chances to come back so I still keep some hope for a decent result.”

That is still possible for the world number two after Gelfand kind of helped him to get to 50 percent today.

GM Dejan Bojkov analyzes what was a Nimzo-Indian where Black was fairly comfortable out of the opening. But then “it went from completely unclear to me slightly pressing,” said Caruana. 

The game was still clearly within the drawing margin when Gelfand overlooked a double attack: “I thought it was a clear draw, then I couldn't find anything clear and then I blundered,” he said. 

Caruana and Gelfand, the two winners of the previous Grand Prix. | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.

Giri was still fairly cheerful at the press conference despite the fact that he lost a pretty bad game. In a sideline of the Sicilian Taimanov, the Dutchman erred as early at move 10 and was lucky that he didn't become the victim of a miniature!

Can you see why 13.Nxb5 is so strong?

The way Karjakin played it gave Black a chance to get back into the game, and suddenly things looked bright again from a strategic point of view: Black had the bishop pair, and e5 was weak. This got Giri to overestimate his position, and soon his king came under a second wave of attack.

Not a great game by Giri; Karjakin now back to 50 percent. | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.

Jobava has played fairly solid openings so far, but what he did against Vachier-Lagrave today was far from solid. After just 12 moves in an Advance Caro-Kann, he was forced to give up a piece, but as so often his creativity saved the day.

Or maybe it was simply the fact that MVL isn't in top shape — the French GM was quite disappointed: “It's a pity I couldn't finish it off,” MVL said. 

The press conference between these two players ended somewhat mysteriously as Jobava left with the words: “There is a reason why I played like this today but I cannot say it now.”



Another wild game between Vachier-Lagrave and Jobava. | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.


Kasimdzhanov-Nakamura, however, was a fairly good game by both players. Nakamura said he went for the Dutch because his opponent wasn't in great shape, but in this game the Uzbek GM was the one who had chances for an advantage — even in the final position!

A correct GM draw between Kasimdzhanov and Nakamura. | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.

Nakamura kept his shared first place in the standings because Andreikin had drawn his game before him, against Jakovenko. In fact, the Russian followed Nakamura's recipe in the well-known QGD line that was also seen in Gelfand-Jakovenko (as Black!) earlier in this tournament: putting the bishop on f6. 

A draw in Jakovenko-Andreikin. | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.

The draw between Mamedyarov and Radjabov was the quickest, and the easiest to predict. It seems like these players have made a pact for life to stay friendly in all their mutual games!

Another very quick draw between Radjabov and Mamedyarov. | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.


2014 Grand Prix, Tashkent | Round 7 Standings

# Name Rtg Perf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 Pts SB
1 Andreikin,D 2722 2861 phpfCo1l0.png ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 4.5/7 16.00
2 Nakamura,H 2764 2854 ½ phpfCo1l0.png 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 4.5/7 14.50
3 Jobava,B 2717 2808 0 phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 4.0/7 12.75
4 Vachier-Lagrave,M 2757 2800 ½ phpfCo1l0.png ½ 1 0 ½ 1 ½ 4.0/7 12.00
5 Mamedyarov,S 2764 2803 0 ½ phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ ½ 1 1 4.0/7 11.25
6 Radjabov,T 2726 2748 ½ ½ ½ ½ phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ ½ 3.5/7 13.25
7 Caruana,F 2844 2749 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ phpfCo1l0.png ½ 1 3.5/7 12.00
8 Jakovenko,D 2747 2735 ½ ½ 1 ½ phpfCo1l0.png 0 ½ ½ 3.5/7 12.00
9 Karjakin,S 2767 2741 0 0 ½ ½ 1 phpfCo1l0.png 1 ½ 3.5/7 11.25
10 Giri,A 2768 2710 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ 3.0/7
11 Kasimdzhanov,R 2706 2590 ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ phpfCo1l0.png 2.0/7 7.75
12 Gelfand,B 2748 2614 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ phpfCo1l0.png 2.0/7 7.00

xxx

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | All Results

Round 1 15:00 UZT 21.10.14   Round 2 15:00 UZT 22.10.14
Giri ½-½ Gelfand   Gelfand ½-½ Karjakin
Mamedyarov 0-1 Andreikin   Jakovenko ½-½ Radjabov
Nakamura 1-0 Jobava   Vachier-Lagrave 1-0 Kasimdzhanov
Caruana 0-1 Vachier-Lagrave   Jobava ½-½ Caruana
Kasimdzhanov ½-½ Jakovenko   Andreikin ½-½ Nakamura
Radjabov ½-½ Karjakin   Giri ½-½ Mamedyarov
Round 3 15:00 UZT 23.10.14   Round 4 15:00 UZT 24.10.14
Mamedyarov 1-0 Gelfand   Gelfand ½-½ Jakovenko
Nakamura ½-½ Giri   Vachier-Lagrave ½-½ Karjakin
Caruana ½-½ Andreikin   Jobava ½-½ Radjabov
Kasimdzhanov 0-1 Jobava   Andreikin ½-½ Kasimdzhanov
Radjabov ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave   Giri ½-½ Caruana
Karjakin 1-0 Jakovenko   Mamedyarov ½-½ Nakamura
Round 5 15:00 UZT 26.10.14   Round 6 15:00 UZT 27.10.14
Nakamura 1-0 Gelfand   Gelfand ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave
Caruana ½-½ Mamedyarov   Jobava ½-½ Jakovenko
Kasimdzhanov ½-½ Giri   Andreikin 1-0 Karjakin
Radjabov ½-½ Andreikin   Giri ½-½ Radjabov
Karjakin 0-1 Jobava   Mamedyarov 1-0 Kasimdzhanov
Jakovenko 1-0 Vachier-Lagrave   Nakamura ½-½ Caruana
Round 7 15:00 UZT 28.10.14   Round 8 15:00 UZT 29.10.14
Caruana 1-0 Gelfand   Gelfand - Jobava
Kasimdzhanov ½-½ Nakamura   Andreikin - Vachier-Lagrave
Radjabov ½-½ Mamedyarov   Giri - Jakovenko
Karjakin 1-0 Giri   Mamedyarov - Karjakin
Jakovenko ½-½ Andreikin   Nakamura - Radjabov
Vachier-Lagrave ½-½ Jobava   Caruana - Kasimdzhanov
Round 9 15:00 UZT 31.10.14   Round 10 15:00 UZT 01.11.14
Kasimdzhanov - Gelfand   Gelfand - Andreikin
Radjabov - Caruana   Giri - Jobava
Karjakin - Nakamura   Mamedyarov - Vachier-Lagrave
Jakovenko - Mamedyarov   Nakamura - Jakovenko
Vachier-Lagrave - Giri   Caruana - Karjakin
Jobava - Andreikin   Kasimdzhanov - Radjabov
Round 11 11:00 UZT 02.11.14        
Radjabov - Gelfand        
Karjakin - Kasimdzhanov        
Jakovenko - Caruana        
Vachier-Lagrave - Nakamura        
Jobava - Mamedyarov        
Andreikin - Giri        

The total prize fund is €120,000. The games start each day at 14:00 local time which is 11:00 in Amsterdam, 10:00 in London, 05:00 in New York, 02:00 in Los Angeles and 19:00 in Sydney. The last round starts three hours earlier. 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 phpfCo1l0.png



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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