The Week in Chess

Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand lead on 5/8 going into the final rest day of the FIDE Grand Prix in Baku.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov played a highly theoretical variation of the Gruenfeld against Caruana and both players knew a lot about the position. The endgame was perhaps a tiny bit better for white but Caruana held the draw easily and was clearly content to hold after his bad game the day before.

Boris Gelfand built up a threatening position against Hikaru Nakamura in a Dutch but the position was still very sharp and Gelfand could only find a way to equality. Gelfand's suggested improvement of 15.Bb7 was complicated but looks like the best way for winning chances, he missed 17...Rb8 in the line played in the game after which he simplified quickly to a draw.

The only decisive game of the day was Peter Svidler's long endgame win against Leinier Domginguez Peres. Svidler played the same variation of the closed Ruy Lopez he did against Nakamura but Dominguez departed with 9.d4 and 10...exd4 broke new ground 14. Re1 was probably wrong and 14...h5 left black at least equal. 17.Qf5 was a mistake but Svidler didn't find 19...Nd3. 23.Bg5! was white's last chance to equalise after this Svidler had the advantage which eventually turned out to be a pawn in a double rook ending. Svidler eventually brought home the full point but only after a great deal of difficulty.

Evgeny Tomashevsky played a very sharp sacrifice with a prepared 15.Nxf7 sacrifice against Teimour Radjabov who doesn't normally play the Gruenfeld Defence. Tomashevsky had a huge advantage (19.Qc2) but this really wasn't his kind of position and the game quickly ended in simplification and a draw.

Sergey Karjakin got a big positional advantage against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov but also some very bad time trouble. Just as he was about to make first time control and with at least some of his advantage left, he agreed a draw.

The final game to finish was Berlin Defence between Alexander Grischuk and Dmitry Andreikin (who rarely if ever plays this). Grischuk got a small but stable advantage right into an ending of a rook each and bishops of opposite colours but the result was a draw.

Round 8 Standings: 1-2 Caruana, Gelfand 5pts, 3-6 Kasimdzhanov, Karjakin, Radjabov, Svidler 4.5pts 7-8 Tomashevsky, Nakamura 4pts, 9-12 Dominguez Perez, Andreikin, Grischuk, Mamedyarov 3pts

Round 9 Sunday 12th Oct 11am: Nakamura-Kasimdzhanov, Mamedyarov-Gelfand, Radjabov-Karjakin, Svidler-Tomashevsky, Andreikin-Dominguez, Caruana-Grischuk