Mamedyarov & Grischuk Lead in Beijing After Spectacular 7th Round

After a most spectacular seventh round in Beijing, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk are sharing the lead at the FIDE Grand Prix. Mamedyarov quickly beat Veselin Topalov, who all of a sudden got his knight trapped in the middle of the board. Grischuk needed 77 moves and more than 6 hours to grind down Wang Yue in an ending. Sergey Karjakin lost again, this time in what seemed to be a dead drawn ending, against Peter Leko. In a round with five wins for White (!) Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Alexander Morozevich and Wang Hao won against Anish Giri. 

Let's start with that last game, which was in fact the first to end on Thursday. Giri played the Philidor with an early ...exd4, and Wang Hao took with his queen. Then, on move seven, the Chinese played the startling move Bxf7?!! which is known to be incorrect because of Black's tricky reply ...Ke8 and ...c5. However, defending such a position is easier said than done over the board, and the Dutchman just didn't manage. White continued developing his pieces, like a modern Paul Morphy, and he finished the game in 19th century style as well!

Veselin Topalov also lost very quickly, but there was nothing wrong with his opening, on the contrary. He managed to surprise his opponent by taking with the bishop on c3 instead of with the knight, and a few moves later he also gave his other bishop for a knight; a remarkably strong concept. With 20...Nf5! Black would have kept a slight advantage, but instead the Bulgarian decided to "win a pawn", missing the fact that his knight would get trapped.

The third winner of the day was Vassily Ivanchuk, who outcalculated Alexander Morozevich in a complicated middlegame. The Russian sacrificed his d-pawn to create attacking chances against the enemy king, but he missed the simple but strong 26.Ka2! and then there was not much to play for.

Gata Kamky and Boris Gelfand drew a Grünfeld where the Israeli chose a setup with ...c7-c6, just like how his opponent likes to play it when he has the black pieces! Somehow this piece of psychological warfare worked quite well, because Black got out of the opening with a slight advantage. Kamsky managed to avoid serious problems and the players drew on move 51. 

The game between Peter Leko and Sergey Karjakin seemed to be heading to a draw right from the start. Playing against his own Queen's Indian repertoire, the Hungarian couldn't get an opening advantage. The position after move 29 was very drawish and in fact 33...Qxc4 34. Qxc4 Nxc4 35. Kf1 f5 would have forced that draw. Just before the time control, Leko got a slight edge due to more active pieces, and after the wrong plan 35...Qc5?! and 36...Kf8?! things got out of control. Karjakin fought for forty more moves, but the result was never in doubt.

At the end of the day Alexander Grischuk joined Mamedyarov in first place by beating Wang Yue. It was a pity for the Chinese, who had been defending the ending like a lion, but on move 57 he went wrong. Afterwards Grischuk showed the line  57... Rd4 58. Ke3 Rd1 59. Rc8 Ke7 60. Rb8 Rd6 61. Ke4 Re6+ 62. Kd4 Rd6+ 63. Kc4 Rh6 and it's a draw. The rook vs knight ending was winning because 62... Nb7 fails to 63. Ra7! Kb8 64. Rxb7+! Kxb7 65. Kd4 and the pawn ending wins.

Beijing GP 2013 | Scores

Beijing GP 2013 | Round 7 standings

The 5th Grand Prix takes place 4-16 July, 2013 in Beijing, China. The games start 15:00 CST (09:00 CET, 03:00 EDT); the final round starts two hours earlier. Tournament website: http://beijing2013.fide.com. Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich courtesy of FIDE. Games via TWIC.