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Andreikin Crushes Karjakin, Catches Nakamura in Tashkent GP

Andreikin Crushes Karjakin, Catches Nakamura in Tashkent GP

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| 18 | Chess Event Coverage

Sergey Karjakin got crushed today at the Grand Prix in Tashkent by Dmitry Andreikin, who now leads the pack together with Hikaru Nakamura, who drew with Fabiano Caruana.

The theme of the sixth round seemed to be calculating in time trouble. Jobava held a draw by the skin of his teeth thanks to accurately checking tactics with less than a minute on the clock. Karjakin spent too much time in the opening, and was missing too many things later on. Both Gelfand and Vachier-Lagrave overlooked a nasty tactic, and also in Nakamura-Caruana the computer pointed out some improvements.

It was the key battle of the round: the tournament leader versus the top seed, and also the longest game today. Nakamura said he tried to “keep it simple” in the opening, but was worse out of the opening when Black got in the move 25...a4, “disconnecting” White's queenside pawns.

The American GM sacrificed a pawn to get a knight to d4 but that didn't bring enough compensation. After missing more small things (e.g. 39...h5) he was clearly worse just after the time control.

Caruana spent thirteen minutes on his 41st move, a critical moment in the game, but it seems like the Italian didn't find the most dangerous continuation.

Nakamura vs Caruana | Photo © Anastasiya Karlovich courtesy of FIDE.

Dmitry Andreikin reached the final of the World Cup in 2013 where he lost to Vladimir Kramnik. The 24-year-old grandmaster from Ryazan played a very decent Candidates’ Tournament (7.0/14), but last month he finished on -2 and the 11th place at the Baku Grand Prix.

But after six rounds in Tashkent we find Andreikin in shared first place with Nakamura thanks to a spectacular victory over Karjakin, who was on plus one but has now lost two games in a row.

Karjakin needed too much time in the opening (trying to figure out if he could do without ...Bb4 and ...Bxc3) and later came under huge pressure on both the board and the clock. GM Dejan Bojkov analyses:

Andreikin beat Karjakin for the second time in a Torre Attack. | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.

Mamedyarov defeated Kasimdzhanov and is now one of the three players trailing the leaders by half a point. Starting with 1.e4 is very rare for the Azeri GM (“I can't remember the last time,” he said), and it wasn't a big success. On the contrary, Black was more than OK out of the opening.

However, Kasimdzhanov missed a key tactic. “Somehow this idea of Rg1, Ne2+ never crossed my mind,” said Kasimdzhanov, who made another mistake in time trouble that decided the game.

In between modern art: Mamedyarov & Kasimdzhanov | Photo © Anastasiya Karlovich courtesy of FIDE.

And it's still all about tactics! Let's do a puzzle — a really nasty one. Laughing Below the last, tactical part of the game Gelfand - Vachier-Lagrave is shown.


Two questions:

1) Couldn't Black play the tricky 28...Rc8?
2) Does this option mean anything to the game sequence?

Find out the answers below in the annotations.

Although for a moment he seemed to be winning, Vachier-Lagrave was clearly relieved to have drawn this game. Despite huge experience in the Grünfeld, he erred in he opening.

The French GM was surprised by 4.Bf4, and where he normally plays 6...Be6, this time he went for 6...c5 to avoid his opponent's preparation. And then? “I didn't take on c4 and I still don't know why at this time of the day.” 

A study-like finish in Gelfand vs Vachier-Lagrave. | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.

Giri-Radjabov was another Berlin Ending, and... another draw. As a result, both players still have played only draws so far!

The story of the game was that Radjabov played it as Black this time, while he was behind the white pieces yesterday in this ending. Asked about this, the players reacted jokingly:

“Everyboy does it. Otherwise you're not in fashion anymore!” (Giri)
“Yeah otherwise you're really out of trend.” (Radjabov)

It seems that Giri missed one small chance early on, and then it was always a draw. “In order to get my king to c5 I misplaced all of my beautiful pieces,” said the Dutch GM.

Giri and Radjabov | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.


Jobava-Jakovenko was quite a nice game as well and these two gentleman gave an absolutely splendid press conference. You can find their lines in the game viewer below. About the opening (a 
4.e3 Nimzo) Jobava joked: “To play some safe game. I can sometimes play like this!”


A fascinating fight between Jobava and Jakovenko. | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.


2014 Grand Prix, Tashkent | Round 6 Standings

# Name Rtg Perf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 Pts SB
1 Nakamura,H 2764 2880 phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 4.0/6 12.00
2 Andreikin,D 2722 2882 ½ phpfCo1l0.png 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 4.0/6 11.50
3 Mamedyarov,S 2764 2817 ½ 0 phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ 1 1 3.5/6 8.25
4 Jobava,B 2717 2817 0 phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ ½ 1 1 3.5/6 8.25
5 Vachier-Lagrave,M 2757 2814 phpfCo1l0.png ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 1 3.5/6 7.75
6 Radjabov,T 2726 2746 ½ ½ ½ phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ ½ 3.0/6 9.75
7 Jakovenko,D 2747 2737 ½ 1 ½ phpfCo1l0.png 0 ½ ½ 3.0/6 8.50
8 Giri,A 2768 2759 ½ ½ ½ phpfCo1l0.png ½ ½ ½ 3.0/6 8.25
9 Caruana,F 2844 2691 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ phpfCo1l0.png 2.5/6 9.00
10 Karjakin,S 2767 2678 0 0 ½ ½ 1 phpfCo1l0.png ½ 2.5/6 7.25
11 Gelfand,B 2748 2641 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ phpfCo1l0.png 2.0/6
12 Kasimdzhanov,R 2706 2555 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ phpfCo1l0.png 1.5/6

xxx

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | All Results

Round 1 15:00 UZT 21.10.14   Round 2 15:00 UZT 22.10.14
Giri ½-½ Gelfand   Gelfand ½-½ Karjakin
Mamedyarov 0-1 Andreikin   Jakovenko ½-½ Radjabov
Nakamura 1-0 Jobava   Vachier-Lagrave 1-0 Kasimdzhanov
Caruana 0-1 Vachier-Lagrave   Jobava ½-½ Caruana
Kasimdzhanov ½-½ Jakovenko   Andreikin ½-½ Nakamura
Radjabov ½-½ Karjakin   Giri ½-½ Mamedyarov
Round 3 15:00 UZT 23.10.14   Round 4 15:00 UZT 24.10.14
Mamedyarov 1-0 Gelfand   Gelfand ½-½ Jakovenko
Nakamura ½-½ Giri   Vachier-Lagrave ½-½ Karjakin
Caruana ½-½ Andreikin   Jobava ½-½ Radjabov
Kasimdzhanov 0-1 Jobava   Andreikin ½-½ Kasimdzhanov
Radjabov ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave   Giri ½-½ Caruana
Karjakin 1-0 Jakovenko   Mamedyarov ½-½ Nakamura
Round 5 15:00 UZT 26.10.14   Round 6 15:00 UZT 27.10.14
Nakamura 1-0 Gelfand   Gelfand ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave
Caruana ½-½ Mamedyarov   Jobava ½-½ Jakovenko
Kasimdzhanov ½-½ Giri   Andreikin 1-0 Karjakin
Radjabov ½-½ Andreikin   Giri ½-½ Radjabov
Karjakin 0-1 Jobava   Mamedyarov 1-0 Kasimdzhanov
Jakovenko 1-0 Vachier-Lagrave   Nakamura ½-½ Caruana
Round 7 15:00 UZT 28.10.14   Round 8 15:00 UZT 29.10.14
Caruana - Gelfand   Gelfand - Jobava
Kasimdzhanov - Nakamura   Andreikin - Vachier-Lagrave
Radjabov - Mamedyarov   Giri - Jakovenko
Karjakin - Giri   Mamedyarov - Karjakin
Jakovenko - Andreikin   Nakamura - Radjabov
Vachier-Lagrave - Jobava   Caruana - Kasimdzhanov
Round 9 15:00 UZT 31.10.14   Round 10 15:00 UZT 01.11.14
Kasimdzhanov - Gelfand   Gelfand - Andreikin
Radjabov - Caruana   Giri - Jobava
Karjakin - Nakamura   Mamedyarov - Vachier-Lagrave
Jakovenko - Mamedyarov   Nakamura - Jakovenko
Vachier-Lagrave - Giri   Caruana - Karjakin
Jobava - Andreikin   Kasimdzhanov - Radjabov
Round 11 11:00 UZT 02.11.14        
Radjabov - Gelfand        
Karjakin - Kasimdzhanov        
Jakovenko - Caruana        
Vachier-Lagrave - Nakamura        
Jobava - Mamedyarov        
Andreikin - Giri        

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 phpfCo1l0.png



PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

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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