Beijing GP: Karjakin Maintains Lead, Grischuk Now Second
In the fifth round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Beijing, Sergey Karjakin maintained his half point lead after drawing his black game with Boris Gelfand. There's a new number two: Alexander Grischuk, who beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with the white pieces. Vassily Ivanchuk and Anish Giri won their games as well, against Wang Yue and Gata Kamsky respectively.
Before explaning his game, Alexander Grischuk said at the press conference: "It's very difficult for me to play against Shakhriyar because my daughter is in love with him and she secretely roots for him! So today it was also not easy." Well, in the opening Mamedyarov made it easy for Grischuk, as he missed some tactics, especially the long line 18...Bxf3 19.exf3 Ne7 20.Bd7! b5 21.Qg4 h5 22.Qh3 and White wins material. Later on Grischuk played a positional sacrifice but it still wasn't fully clear what was going on. But the game ended where it began, with Mamedyarov missing the tactic 60...Rb8 61.exf7+ Kh7 62.f8N+!+-
This was a good result for Karjakin, who dropped half a point against Gelfand. Well, in the final position the Israeli is better of course so perhaps it was White who dropped the half point!
Where he had only won on time in what wasn't a very good game against Gelfand, Anish Giri won "for real" in the fifth round. Gata Kamsky said afterwards that he "just wasn't seeing anything". It was hard to explain how White could get into a lost position from the usually solid 3.Bb5 Sicilian so quickly.
Vassily Ivanchuk was the third winner of the day. The Ukrainian defeated Wang Yue in a Taimanov Sicilian with the old move 5.Nb5. This Hedgehog line is not supposed to be very dangerous for Black, but the game got quite interesting when the Chinese went for a very concrete variation. As it turned out, it was theory for 18 moves and soon after Black played a dangerous-looking piece sac. Ivanchuk defended everything with many precise moves, and remained material up.
Wang Hao versus Topalov was an old line of the Fianchetto Grünfeld. White got a slight advantage out of the opening, and then Topalov went for the dubious plan of taking on e4 twice and then on d5. Only afterwards it became clear how dubious it really was: the move 19.Bd6! would have been close to winning!
Peter Leko and Alexander Morozevich drew rather quickly in the same opening, although the Hungarian's choice of 6.Bf4 e5 7.Be3 led the game into a Kalashnikov type of middlegame. Black's 11...Nh6!? was an interesting attempt to make use of the extra half-tempo, and it seems to be equalizing directly.
Beijing GP 2013 | Scores
| Round 1 | 15:00 CST | 04.07.13 | Round 2 | 15:00 CST | 05.07.13 | |
| Giri | 0-1 | Karjakin | Karjakin | 1-0 | Wang Hao | |
| Morozevich | ½-½ | Wang Yue | Grischuk | ½-½ | Ivanchuk | |
| Gelfand | 0-1 | Topalov | Mamedyarov | ½-½ | Kamsky | |
| Leko | ½-½ | Mamedyarov | Topalov | ½-½ | Leko | |
| Kamsky | 0-1 | Grischuk | Wang Yue | ½-½ | Gelfand | |
| Ivanchuk | ½-½ | Wang Hao | Giri | ½-½ | Morozevich | |
| Round 3 | 15:00 CST | 06.07.13 | Round 4 | 15:00 CST | 07.07.13 | |
| Morozevich | 0-1 | Karjakin | Karjakin | ½-½ | Grischuk | |
| Gelfand | 0-1 | Giri | Mamedyarov | 1-0 | Wang Hao | |
| Leko | ½-½ | Wang Yue | Topalov | ½-½ | Ivanchuk | |
| Kamsky | ½-½ | Topalov | Wang Yue | 1-0 | Kamsky | |
| Ivanchuk | 0-1 | Mamedyarov | Giri | ½-½ | Leko | |
| Wang Hao | ½-½ | Grischuk | Morozevich | 1-0 | Gelfand | |
| Round 5 | 15:00 CST | 09.07.13 | Round 6 | 15:00 CST | 10.07.13 | |
| Gelfand | ½-½ | Karjakin | Karjakin | - | Mamedyarov | |
| Leko | ½-½ | Morozevich | Topalov | - | Grischuk | |
| Kamsky | 0-1 | Giri | Wang Yue | - | Wang Hao | |
| Ivanchuk | 1-0 | Wang Yue | Giri | - | Ivanchuk | |
| Wang Hao | ½-½ | Topalov | Morozevich | - | Kamsky | |
| Grischuk | 1-0 | Mamedyarov | Gelfand | - | Leko | |
| Round 7 | 15:00 CST | 11.07.13 | Round 8 | 15:00 CST | 12.07.13 | |
| Leko | - | Karjakin | Karjakin | - | Topalov | |
| Kamsky | - | Gelfand | Wang Yue | - | Mamedyarov | |
| Ivanchuk | - | Morozevich | Giri | - | Grischuk | |
| Wang Hao | - | Giri | Morozevich | - | Wang Hao | |
| Grischuk | - | Wang Yue | Gelfand | - | Ivanchuk | |
| Mamedyarov | - | Topalov | Leko | - | Kamsky | |
| Round 9 | 15:00 CST | 14.07.13 | Round 10 | 15:00 CST | 15.07.13 | |
| Kamsky | - | Karjakin | Karjakin | - | Wang Yue | |
| Ivanchuk | - | Leko | Giri | - | Topalov | |
| Wang Hao | - | Gelfand | Morozevich | - | Mamedyarov | |
| Grischuk | - | Morozevich | Gelfand | - | Grischuk | |
| Mamedyarov | - | Giri | Leko | - | Wang Hao | |
| Topalov | - | Wang Yue | Kamsky | - | Ivanchuk | |
| Round 11 | 13:00 CST | 16.07.13 | ||||
| Ivanchuk | - | Karjakin | ||||
| Wang Hao | - | Kamsky | ||||
| Grischuk | - | Leko | ||||
| Mamedyarov | - | Gelfand | ||||
| Topalov | - | Morozevich | ||||
| Wang Yue | - | Giri |
Beijing GP 2013 | Round 5 standings
| # | Name | Rating | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Points | SB |
| 1 | Karjakin,Sergey | 2776 | * | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 4.0/5 | |||||||
| 2 | Grischuk,Alexander | 2780 | ½ | * | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.5/5 | |||||||
| 3 | Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar | 2761 | 0 | * | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 3.0/5 | 5.75 | ||||||
| 4 | Topalov,Veselin | 2767 | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 3.0/5 | 4.75 | ||||||
| 5 | Giri,Anish | 2734 | 0 | * | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.0/5 | 4.50 | ||||||
| 6 | Leko,Peter | 2737 | ½ | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | 2.5/5 | 7.00 | ||||||
| 7 | Ivanchuk,Vassily | 2733 | ½ | 0 | ½ | * | 1 | ½ | 2.5/5 | 6.50 | ||||||
| 8 | Morozevich,Alexander | 2736 | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | 1 | 2.5/5 | 5.00 | ||||||
| 9 | Wang,Yue | 2705 | ½ | 0 | ½ | * | ½ | 1 | 2.5/5 | 4.00 | ||||||
| 10 | Wang,Hao | 2752 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | 1.5/5 | |||||||
| 11 | Gelfand,Boris | 2773 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | * | 1.0/5 | 3.25 | ||||||
| 12 | Kamsky,Gata | 2763 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | * | 1.0/5 | 3.00 |
The 5th Grand Prix takes place 4-16 July, 2013 in Beijing, China. The games start 15:00 CST (09:00 CET, 03:00 EDT); the final round starts two hours earlier. Tournament website: http://beijing2013.fide.com. Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich courtesy of FIDE. Games via TWIC.
