Ivanchuk and Leko lead in Jermuk with one round to go
Ivanchuk and Leko lead the Grand Prix in Jermuk with 7.5 points after they both drew in round 12, while Kasimdzhanov lost to Gelfand. The last round starts Sunday 10.30 CET.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 12
The big clash between Leko and Aronian, which had been the decisive last-round game in the previous Grand Prix in Nalchik, was scheduled in round 12 (but with reversed colours compared to Nalchik). It's always interesting to see what happens when two of the biggest Marshall experts meet, and this time Leko chose 8.d4, the same move he had to defend to against Kamsky earlier in the tournament.
The Hungarian didn't go for 9.Bxf7 but instead continued in full gambit style. The theoretical verdit of this line has been the same for a long time already: White has just about enough compensation for the pawn, but not more. This was confirmed once more at this top level game, and so Leko kept his half a point lead with Aronian.Co-leader Ivanchuk also couldn't prove an advantage with the white pieces and after long manoeuvring in an Anti-Berlin Wall (4.d3) he and Jakovenko split the point. Kasimdzhanov had to say goodbye to his shared first place after an unnecessary loss with white against Gelfand - with GM Jan Smeets I was looking at the game in the press room of the NH Chess Tournament and he considered the position around move 24 pretty drawish. The losing move was 36.Bc5 but it's unclear whether White could still hold it there.
The other winner of the day was Kamsky, who defeated Eljanov after a long struggle in a closed, Spanish position. Perhaps the Ukrainian should have continued his waiting strategy because the result of his active 53...f5 seemed to be the loss of his b-pawn, which became a decisive factor. 
Round 12 games
Game viewer by ChessTempoJermuk Grand Prix 2009 | Round 12 Standings
Jermuk Grand Prix 2009 | Schedule & results
Links
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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