Morozevich Edges Jakovenko at Poikovsky
A last-round draw completed an undefeated nine rounds for GM Alexander Morozevich at the 15th Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky, Russia. The split point turned out to be enough as pre-round co-leader GM Dmitry Jakovenko lost to GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, dropping him to second. The event took place from May 11-20, 2014.
Morozevich had shared the lead with Jakovenko since the conclusion of round five, but the former ended on 6/9, a half-point ahead at the wire.
The winner's final round draw was not your average early handshake affair (as opposed to round 8, when he drew with Nepomniachtchi as White in 16 moves). All results were possible with open lines everywhere:
Meanwhile, co-leader Jakovenko suffered the same fate as GM Alex Lenderman. Just a few days previously, Lenderman led the U.S. Championship but lost to GM Gata Kamsky on the Black side of a King's Indian Attack.
Nepomniachtchi played in almost the exact same way as Kamsky - advancing his pawn to h6 and eventually creating constant problems on the dark squares. In the end, Jakovenko couldn't stop the c-pawn (for Lenderman, the a-pawn led to his eventual downfall, even though it never moved).
GMs Etienne Bacrot and Alexei Shirov also finished undefeated; they both garnered a lone win with eight draws for 5/9. GM Ivan Saric, the tournament leader early on, tripped in the second half. He only scored 0.5/4 and fell to even and a tie for fifth.
15th Karpov Tournament Final Crosstable
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Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to 99 countries.
