Zug 2013 FIDE Grand Prix Round 8

Official Website Report

Whilst the weather in Switzerland is still relatively cold, things were heating up over the chess boards in Zug! After 8 rounds of play former world champion Veselin Topalov became the sole leader in the tournament. He defeated Russian player Alexander Morozevich, who today lost the second game in a row after a good start of the tournament.  All other games finished in draws. Ruslan Ponomariov managed to defend a worse endgame against Hikaru Nakamura and is in second place half a point behind Topalov. Tomorrow is a free day and the ninth round is scheduled on 28th of April.

The most critical game today was obviously Morozevich – Topalov and it was clear that Morozevich had to make up for the lost ground of the previous day. The players went for a symmetrical English and White immediately sprung a novelty on the 9th move with c5 instead of the normal 9.Qe2. Topalov side-stepped but Morozevich was determined to get a complicated position on the board and there were immeasurable of thrusts and parries in the game. Topalov never seemed in any great difficulties however and kept good control over the position. White was in time-trouble when he could have tried to create more problems for Black by playing 41. Be5 or  52.c4.

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Veselin Topalov leads the Zug Grand Prix with 5½/8

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Nakamura returned to his favourite Najdorf variation in the Sicilian. Previously they had played a Najdorf but that time Ponomariov was Black! Both players know the theory in this variation extremely well and Ruslan was the first to try and deviate from the main path with 12.Qd2 in lieu of the main lines 12.h3 or 12.Be2. First new move on the board came with 17.f4 but this seemed to allow black to take the initiative and after 20..a4! Black was controlling the game. During the press-conference the American player pointed out that he could have tried to play 27...Qh5 instead of 27...d5 and this was a critical moment in the game. But even after the move in the game the position looked difficult for White but Ruslan defended very well.

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Ruslan Ponomariov is in second place with 5/8

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Hikaru Nakamura

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The two tail-enders seemed peacefully inclined before the next rest day and after Kasimdzhanov chose the Bf4 line against the Queen’s Gambit Declined, Radjabov did not wish to get involved in any of the long theoretical lines with and immediate c5 and opted instead for the Nbd7 line. White preferred the quieter 11.Be2 to the main line with 11.Be5 and the first “new” move cane with 20…Rac8 in a position which was already quite equal and the final result was never in doubt for either player. Clock Times 1:33 - 1:11.
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Teimour Radjabov drew with Rustam Kasimdzhanov

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Kamsky got his favourite Chebanenko-Grunfeld setup with c6-a6-g6 and the players trotted out the theory relatively fast. Mamedyarov adopted a lesser played line with 10.b3 instead of the main line 10.c5 but Black was prepared and he chose 15…Qd5 instead of the previously played 15…Qd7 which also ended in a draw. During the press-conference it became obvious how good the preparation of Azeri player was. After the exchange of queens Shakhriyar got a slight edge but Gata seemed comfortable with the position and there was very little play as pieces were exchanged at a steady pace. The point was shared on move 42.

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Gata Kamsky drew his game with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

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Again we had another delayed Ruy Lopez in Zug. Maybe Peter wanted to go for the Marshall’s Gambit but hardly any players at this level allow it today since it offers too many drawing lines for Black. Fabiano continued his quiet approach in the opening with the rare 9.a3 whereas the main line is 9.c3. Black’s 12…Nd4 was the first new move on the board but according to Peter Leko he’s seen the similar idea before with h3 Be6 on the board. Fabiano could not prove he had any edge and it was enough to keep equality for Black. White really had nothing much in the game with Houdini floating from a maximum of +0.22 to -0.23 throughout the game!

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Peter Leko (left) and Fabiano Caruana shared the points

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Giri threw off the positional style with which he had been playing in the first part of the event and a wild position soon arose from a King’s Indian Saemisch variation. Anish preferred to play 12…Bd7 instead of the more commonly played 12..h5 and this surprised Sergey who replied with 13.h3?! rather than 13.Be2. The resulting fray saw a new idea with 16…Nh5 and it was already clear that Black was looking to sacrifice this knight as after 17.g4 he played the complicated 17…Qh4! However 17.Ng3 was also worth considering but Anish Giri had doubts during the press-conference. White seemed a bit unsettled by Black’s aggressive play and opted for 23.f5 when 23.e5 may have posed Giri some serious problems given the poor position of the black queen. After the game move, Black equalised immediately and the exposed position of the white king allowed Black to obtain a relatively straightforward perpetual check.

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Sergey Karjakin drew with Anish Giri

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The Zug Grand Prix standings after 8 rounds

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The Zug Grand Prix runs from 17 April - 1 May, and 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 current standings are 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.

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The schedule for the 2013 Zug Grand Prix

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All rounds start at 14:00 local time (12:00 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.

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Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich and games from the official website.