Poikovsky: Jakovenko & Riazantsev lead on rest day
Dmitry Jakovenko and Alexander Riazantsev lead the Karpov tournament in Poikovsky with 4/6. In a tournament where 24 of the 35 games ended peacefully, Ivan Sokolov is not joining the feast of draws but instead plays uncompromising chess.The 11th edition of the tournament named after 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov takes place June 2-13 in Poikovsky, Russia. For the first time the tournament has not 10, but 12 players. Today is the only rest day of the tournament. See our first report for more info.Rounds 3-6
So far the tournament in Poikovsky has mainly been exciting for what happened in the fifth round, when both tournament leaders Jakovenko and Karjakin lost. This way the whole pack of players stayed together within one point reach. However, it also has to be pointed out that the tournament has seen a big number of draws - after six rounds the drawing percentage is as high 70% - and more importantly, no fewer than seven games lasted 18 moves or less.In the first half the most adventurous player has been Ivan Sokolov, who drew just twice. In our previous report we already saw him going for one of his specialities, the Classical (3...Bc5) Ruy Lopez, twice with Black. It's one of the lines he discusses in his recent book.In round 4 Sokolov tried a very bold sacrifice against top seed Karjakin.
Black played the stunning 25...Nxg2!? 26.Kxg2 Rxa5!? but after the simple 27.bxa5 Qxh3+ 28.Kh1 Nh4 29.f3 Nxf3 30.Rc1! there was no real follow-up.A day later it went much better for the Bosnian/Dutch grandmaster, against Jakovenko. In the topical 4.e3 O-O 5.Nge2 line of the Nimzo he got an advantage at an early stage, and he could finish the game nicely:
36.Kb2! Rxe4 37.Qxe4! Bxe4 38. Rxe4 Kh7 39.Re7 Qd1 40.d7 Qd2+ 41.Ka3 b5 42.Ba5 1-0Yesterday Sokolov met an equally adventurous Riazantsev:
White sacrificed a pawn with 14.b4! Bxb4 14...Bc7 15.cxd5 cxd5 16.a4! is good for White) 15.Nxd5 cxd5 16.Bxb4 dxc4 17.e4 and soon Black had to give up an exchange for White's strong bishop, but didn't get enough compensation.Dmitry Jakovenko and Alexander Riazantsev are sharing the lead on the first rest day. Both grandmasters have 4 out of 6 and are followed by Emil Sutovsky and Sergei Karjakin who have 3.5 points.
Please note that Onischuk-Bologan (round 6) was postponed.Games rounds 3-6
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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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