Six Draws at Tashkent GP; Andreikin Leads Before Final Round

Dmitry Andreikin has excellent chances to win the second FIDE Grand Prix in Tashkent. The Russian grandmaster maintained his lead as all games in the penultimate round ended in draws.

Six draws doesn't sound too exciting but the penultimate round in Tashkent was in fact quite exciting. All games were “real” battles, and only one was a bit dull but that was only because the game was simply very correct!

That game was Nakamura-Jakovenko, a Queen's Gambit Declined, Lasker Defense where Black was just very solid from the start.

“I didn't think it was so easy to equalize,” said Nakamura, who reflected a bit more: “You try and find little ideas and maybe something works. But at the end of the day all these positions are equal if both sides play correctly. If your opponent plays well there's not much you can do really.”

The next game to finish was Kasimdzhanov-Radjabov, and the press conference of these players was really interesting. They had some different ideas about this Hedgehog, and at the same time both revealed deep knowledge of classical games.

Kasimdzhanov was very self-critical: “I think I played it horribly. The way it happened I think I was being outplayed very quickly.” But Radjabov pointed out that it wasn't all that bad for White.

Caruana made it clear at the press conference that playing two tough tournaments after each other is far from ideal. “It lowers the quality of the games,” he said, and he hadn't even seen all the computer evaluations of his game with Karjakin yet!

Before we move on, you can try a very difficult puzzle. Caruana said that it's “impossible to find even if you have a lot of time.” Can you?

In a Fianchetto Grünfeld the Italian got into trouble after some doubtful maneuvers in the middlegame. Karjakin missed two wins, but neither one was really easy to find.

The leader in the tournament had to work had for his half point. “After my game with Tomashevsky I thought Black had no problems but after this game I understands he really has to fight for a draw,” said Andreikin, who defended very well in the rook ending.

Mamedyarov vs Vachier-Lagrave was an absolutely fascinating battle and clearly the game of the round. Even the players weren't sure what was going on — well, they actually had a completely different opinion about many positions! Mamedyarov thought that “everything is better for White,” but his opponent didn't agree at all.

Vachier-Lagrave: “After 23...Kh7 I was looking for a forced win.”
Mamedyarov: “Come on Maxime, you're joking? I have a pawn.”
Vachier-Lagrave: “I have two bishops and four pieces towards your king.”

For what it's worth: the computer mostly agreed with the Azeri...

The longest game was Giri-Jobava, where the Dutch GM had excellent winning chances in an ending and in fact missed one win at some point. Jobava said he was “completely out of oil after yesterday.”

For a moment the press conference was somewhat unfriendly. Jobava felt he had attacking chances, but Giri didn't agree, and at some point the Dutch GM played a few moves of his opponent (27...Qh5, 29...Qh8) and smiled: “This proves that Black is not so much attacking after all.”

Jobava didn't like this and said: “If you continue ironic I will now say some words and them move over the press conference to you. Speak normal, OK? Not smile like [an] idiot, keep normal. I'm not the guy you can ironic... Speak normal. Have some respect for your opponents.”

Luckily after this intermezzo the post-mortem continued normally.

2014 Grand Prix, Tashkent | Round 10 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	Pts	SB
1	Andreikin,D	2722	2861		½	1	½	1	½	1	½	½		½	½	6.5/10
2	Nakamura,H	2764	2821	½		½		1	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	6.0/10	28.50
3	Mamedyarov,S	2764	2825	0	½		½		½	½	½	1	½	1	1	6.0/10	26.50
4	Vachier-Lagrave,M	2757	2785	½		½		½	½	½	1	0	½	1	½	5.5/10	26.25
5	Jobava,B	2717	2789	0	0		½		½	1	½	½	½	1	1	5.5/10	23.75
6	Radjabov,T	2726	2755	½	½	½	½	½		½	½	½	½	½		5.0/10	26.00
7	Karjakin,S	2767	2756	0	½	½	½	0	½		½	1	1		½	5.0/10	24.25
8	Caruana,F	2844	2744	½	½	½	0	½	½	½			½	½	1	5.0/10	24.00
9	Jakovenko,D	2747	2710	½	½	0	1	½	½	0			½	½	½	4.5/10	22.50
10	Giri,A	2768	2720		½	½	½	½	½	0	½	½		½	½	4.5/10	22.00
11	Kasimdzhanov,R	2706	2649	½	½	0	0	0	½		½	½	½		½	3.5/10
12	Gelfand,B	2748	2609	½	0	0	½	0		½	0	½	½	½		3.0/10

xxx

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | All Results

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