Tashkent GP: Jobava Also Beats Gelfand; Joins Andreikin, Nakamura

After clinching Chess.com's first Titled Tuesday on a Wednesday, Baadur Jobava duly continued winning.

The Georgian grandmaster defeated Boris Gelfand in round eight of the Grand Prix in Tashkent, and is now tied for first place with Dmitry Andreikin and Hikaru Nakamura.

Baadur Jobava is a strong grandmaster who plays a wide variety of openings, a player who seems to be looking for sacrifices all the time, and a player who logs in at night to play and win our first Titled Tuesday tournament.

He's also a player who entered the Grand Prix at the last minute but now shares the lead, with three rounds to go!

In the eighth round, Jobava was in fact the only winner (his third win as Black!). He faced an out-of-form Gelfand, and so a slightly provocative opening (1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6) was more likely to succeed than backfire. 

On move 8, Gelfand took his queen on an adventure that made the game very complicated at an early stage. White was trying to avoid a continuation where Black could simply castle queenside and double rooks on the g-file, but eventually it was Gelfand who got into trouble. His pieces were somewhat clumsy, and lacked coordination. As soon as the center collapsed, White's whole position did.

Andreikin and Nakamura both drew their games, and so they had to allow Jobava joining them in first place.

Andreikin's game was an especially short affair. Vachier-Lagrave played his favorite Grünfeld, but not for the first time he was “out of book” at an early stage.

However, in this 5.Bg5 sideline he found some pretty good moves over the board, and his opponent suspected it was home preparation! “I wanted to make it look like,” said the French grandmaster.

The game ended in a move repetition rather quickly where it was Andreikin who perhaps could have played on. 

Nakamura's quick draw as White had two reasons, as he explained at the press conference: 1) he got surprised in the opening — hence his safe play, and 2) “The players who also played in Baku are a bit more tired. It's important not to do anything stupid right now.”

Radjabov's surprise was playing the Ragozin, and already on move 11 Nakamura went for an ending, because he didn't like the middlegame positions that could have arisen after either e3 and Be2, or g3 and Bg2. That ending was just very equal, and in no time the players reached the necessary 30 moves.

Mamedyarov-Karjakin was much more entertaining. After their amazing Nimzo-Indian fight at the Candidates’ Tournament, Mamedyarov again played the 4.f3 variation, but Karjakin deviated immediately.

Still, this game saw another sharp middlegame and as it turned out, Karjakin had prepared it very deeply: “I think I was prepared very good today.”

At some point the Russian GM could force the draw, but since he was a hour up on the clock in a complicated position, he decided to continue.

“A few moves later I wasn't very happy,” said Karjakin, who soon was on the defensive side. Luckily for him Black was always OK.

Giri and Jakovenko played a bunch of theory as well. Black's positional queen sacrifice in this Symmetrical English had been tried before in a game Bacrot-Nisipeanu last year, but Giri had found a slight improvement: avoiding a quick rook trade.

However, the Dutch grandmaster then hesitated on the kingside (an immediate h2-h4 was called for) and Jakovenko found a smart setup, a.k.a. a fortress!

At the press conference, Giri lamented that he wasn't able to find any weakness in his opponent's solid but somewhat passive repertoire. Jakovenko pointed out that sometimes against weaker opponents he plays other openings. \

Giri: “Unfortunately he didn't realize that I am a weaker opponent too!”

Giri a weak world number 7? Nah!  | Photo © Yulia Monakova courtesy of FIDE.

Caruana and Kasimdzhanov then also drew their game, a Queen's Gambit (we haven't seen that one for a while!) where the world number two went for a quick ending. 

“I have to say it wasn't a very good game from my side,” Caruana said, and that remark was mostly about one move: the weird 18.Bc7.

“I don't have to get worse in a few moves which is what I managed. (...) I don't have an explanation for 18.Bc7,” he said. 

At some point the players reached this position in their analysis, when Caruana said his knight is strong. Kasimdzhanov laughed out loud: “Yours is, but mine isn't?”

Caruana then went Be2-f3: “Yes, because I'm dominating yours! But... OK, the position does look pretty symmetrical.”

Thursday is the second and last rest day in Tashkent. On Friday two leaders meet in the game Jobava-Andreikin!

2014 Grand Prix, Tashkent | Round 8 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	Pts	SB
1	Andreikin,D	2722	2848		½		½	1	½	½	1	½		½		5.0/8	20.50
2	Nakamura,H	2764	2838	½		1		½	½			½	½	½	1	5.0/8	18.75
3	Jobava,Ba	2717	2846		0		½		½	½	1	½		1	1	5.0/8	16.75
4	Vachier Lagrave,M	2757	2790	½		½			½	0	½	1		1	½	4.5/8	16.50
5	Mamedyarov,S	2764	2799	0	½				½		½	½	½	1	1	4.5/8	14.75
6	Radjabov,T	2726	2750	½	½	½	½	½		½	½		½			4.0/8	17.75
7	Jakovenko,D	2747	2739	½		½	1		½		0		½	½	½	4.0/8	15.50
8	Karjakin,S	2767	2744	0		0	½	½	½	1			1		½	4.0/8	15.00
9	Caruana,F	2844	2744	½	½	½	0	½					½	½	1	4.0/8	14.75
10	Giri,A	2768	2715		½			½	½	½	0	½		½	½	3.5/8
11	Kasimdzhanov,R	2706	2624	½	½	0	0	0		½		½	½			2.5/8
12	Gelfand,B	2748	2576		0	0	½	0		½	½	0	½			2.0/8

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