In the second round of Grand Prix tournament in Tashkent only one game was decided – Russian player Alexander Morozevich won against rating favorite Fabiano Caruana and became the sole leader in the second stage of GP. Despite the drawish result the game between Peter Leko and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov became one of the most exciting!
Morozevich-Caruana
As Alexander Morozevich pointed out during the press-conference, he was surprised by Caruana’s opening choice (Berlin Defense) and went for relatively harmless line starting with d3. After few moves Exchange Spanish structure arose on the board.
After few moves Exchange Spanish structure arose on the board. Black got descent chances but after few careless moves he found himself defending quite an unpleasant endgame. It seemed that after many exchanges, provoked by move 30.c4, the rook endgame was holdable. Caruana was making the only moves for some time but the decisive mistake on the last 40th move in the time trouble fatally changed the evaluation of the position.
Leko-Mamedyarov
“16 times (with 15 min interval) my alarm rang today until I managed to wake up”, said Shakhriyar Mamedyarov at the press-conference. “It was already too late to prepare for the main lines”, explained Azeri GM, so he went for rather unusual line (3…c6) . As a result, Shakh killed preparation of Peter who spent a lot of time checking variations against Caro-Kann.
During the game Hungarian player didn’t want to repeat 3.f4 which has been already played before, decided to continue with logical 4.Nf3 but absolutely forgot about 4…Bg4. Nevertheless, white got quite promising position but it took Peter too much time to calculate all variations. As a result, he ended up with 7 seconds for 5 moves!!
As Peter Leko explained during the press-conference, with 7 seconds on the clock, he remembered his game against Anatoly Karpov in Linares 2001, when Karpov had only 7 seconds for 7 moves in a very complicated position. Former world champion managed to make the best moves and when the time troubles passed he spent another 53 minutes calculating pawn ending. “That game finished in a draw, so at least I had an example that someone succeeded to do it”, said Peter. Shahriyar seemed to be very excited about what happened as well and admitted there were only few GMs in the World who were capable to find and made the best moves with such time.
During the game Peter Leko found fantastic defensive idea 35.f4 and it turned out that everything works for white. After the first time trouble despite Black’s extra pawn white had enough compensation and overall draw seemed to be logical.
Kamsky-Karjakin
Petrosian variation of Queens Indian was chosen in the game Kamsky-Karjakin, however, after 6.Bg5 position is closer to QGD. Sergey managed to equalize in a very convincing way, after 11.Ne4 white could’ve tried 12.Bf4, which would lead to more complicated game. After Be7 it’s was predictable that everything is going to be changed and eventual peace was signed in the Queens endgame after three-time repetition. Sergey Karjakin was happy to grab 1,5 points out of two games with black.
Gelfand-Svidler
Peter Svidler decided to avoid 4.Bc6 line, which was debated in the World Championship match Anand-Gelfand. After 10.b4 the position was quite new for both players . Boris Gelfand chose the most principal continuation 10…Nce5, but both players agreed that 10…cb3 would give black reasonable chances as well. However Israeli player might regret his decision, as later on Peter Svidler got very promising chances. If Peter Svidler would find in his calculations the exact move 27.Re7! in the force variation 24. Rf7 Rg8 25. Nf5 Nh8 26. Rd7 Kc8, It would be hard to give a good advice for black. As Peter Svidler pointed out during the press-conference e7 -square became a blind spot for him in the game. White chose 24.Ra1 instead of 24.Rf7 and missed a good opportunity to fight for advantage.
Wang Hao–Dominguez
As Wang Hao pointed out during the press-conference his preparation finished after 8…c6 – the move which was missed during his home preparation. The position became quite sharp but both opponents played creatively and it’s not easy to suggest any improvements for both sides. Perhaps, the best chance for Wang Hao was to take b4 pawn on move 29th hoping to convert the game into the endgame with extra pawn (4 against 3 on the King’s side). Later on above mentioned b4 pawn was advanced and became the real danger, so Chinese player finished the game by perpetual check.
Kasimdzhanov-Ponomariov
Rustam Kasimdzhanov was not ready for discussion in Breyer variation, which could happened in the game, so he chose this line in order to avoid some possible variations. Rustam was sure black had to face some problems in the middle game but it didn’t really happened as massive exchanges followed and the was converted into a drawish ending. Ruslan Ponomariov proposed 15. Ra5 instead of Ra7, which could give more promising chances for white.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Genius at work!