Thessaloniki Grand Prix Round 8
Gata Kamsky grabbed the sole lead of the Thessaloniki Grand Prix by beating his compatriot Hikaru Nakamura in a thrilling eighth round.
The all-American clash was virtually decided as early as move 15 when Nakamura blundered with Qa3?? The game continued until move 50, but there was no miracle escape from Nakamura this time. He tweeted, "When you start missing 1-2 move combinations in every game, it is time to take a long break from chess".
There was no shortage of excitement in the eighth round, even by the high standards set by the Thessaloniki Grand Prix so far, with only one game ending as a draw! Fabiano Caruana drew with the black pieces against Alexander Grischuk to drop half a point behind the leader Kamsky.
Joining Caruana on 5½ points is Leinier Dominguez, who thrashed Alexander Morozevich to stay in close contention at the top of the standings.
Friday is the last rest day, so round nine is on Saturday.
In the all-American clash, Gata Kamsky was a convincing winner
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Fabiano Caruana shares second place after drawing his game with Alexander Grischuk
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Surprise package Leinier Dominguez is still a contender
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Etienne Bacrot defeated Veselin Topalov (pictured) for his first win of the event
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Vassily Ivanchuk sacrificed the exchange in search of a win...but lost to Peter Svidler
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Rustam Kasimdzhanov inflicted Ruslan Ponomariov's first defeat of the competition
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The standings after 8 rounds
| Name | Fed | Elo | Pts |
| Kamsky, Gata | USA | 2741 | 6 |
| Dominguez Perez, Leinier | CUB | 2723 | 5½ |
| Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2774 | 5½ |
| Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2779 | 4½ |
| Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 2742 | 4 |
| Kasimdzhanov, Rustam | UZB | 2699 | 4 |
| Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2769 | 3½ |
| Bacrot, Etienne | FRA | 2725 | 3½ |
| Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2760 | 3½ |
| Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2793 | 3½ |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2775 | 3 |
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2755 | 1½ |
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The schedule for the 2013 Thessaloniki Grand Prix
| 21st May 2013 | Arrival & Opening Ceremony |
| 22nd May 2013 | Round 1 |
| 23rd May 2013 | Round 2 |
| 24th May 2013 | Round 3 |
| 25th May 2013 | Round 4 |
| 26th May 2013 | Free Day |
| 27th May 2013 | Round 5 |
| 28th May 2013 | Round 6 |
| 29th May 2013 | Round 7 |
| 30th May 2013 | Round 8 |
| 31st May 2013 | Free Day |
| 1st June 2013 | Round 9 |
| 2nd June 2013 | Round 10 |
| 3rd June 2013 | Round 11 & Closing Ceremony |
| 4th June 2013 | Departure |
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The fourth Grand Prix of the 2012/13 series runs from 21 May - 4 June in Thessaloniki, Greece. The full pairings are available here.
The overall winner and runner-up of the 2012/13 Grand Prix series will qualify for the next Candidates Tournament, expected to be held in March 2014. The first three events were held in London, Tashkent and Zug. The current standings are shown here.
Each tournament is a single round-robin featuring 12 out of the 18 players in the Grand Prix, and each player competes in four of the six events. The best 3 scores of each player count towards their overall score. The official regulations for the 2012/13 FIDE Grand Prix can be found here.
All rounds start at 14:00 local time (11:00 UTC) except the final round which starts 2 hours earlier. The time control used is 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 20 moves in 1 hour, then 15 minutes plus a 30 second increment after move 60.
Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich at the official website, which has live games, analysis and video.
Games via TWIC.
