Gelfand and Caruana share first in Baku Grand Prix

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Baku FIDE Grand Prix 2014 (11)

Gelfand and Caruana share first in Baku Grand Prix

Mark Crowther - Tuesday 14th October 2014

Caruana in action in the final round against Tomashevsky. Shared first with Gelfand in spite of being very disappointed with his play. Photo ©

Caruana in action in the final round against Tomashevsky. Shared first with Gelfand in spite of being very disappointed with his play. Photo © | http://baku2014.fide.com

Boris Gelfand and Fabiano Caruana shared first place in the FIDE Grand Prix in Baku. Gelfand was satisfied with this result but pointed out he will have to follow it with two more good results in the series, Caruana said "I can't say it's bad to tie for first." but was really disatisfied with the level of his play.

Peter Svidler tried to surprise Boris Gelfand in a sideline of the Najdorf Sicilian "The moment I realised Boris is not surprised by this my hopes of getting anything diminished greatly" and indeed Svidler thought he had to be careful to steer the game to a draw.

Fabiano Caruana had a sharp struggle in a Ruy Lopez against Evgeny Tomashevsky where towards the end it seemed he might stand slightly worse. Tomashevsky himself pointed out that +1 against a field where he was the lowest rated player was a good result and in the final position where he accepted a draw he couldn't think of any ideas. Caruana's full assessment below and game annotated in the PGN.

The only winner today was Alexander Grischuk who took advantage of Leinier Dominguez' collapse in form to eventually score a victory but only after the position was not very good for him. Grischuk scored 3/4 in the final rounds, it was a turn around that occurred when he "moved to the hotel with windows". Detailed quote below and game annotated in the PGN.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was faced with a very sharp Queen's Gambit Accepted from Rustam Kasimdzhanov. This led to a very interesting struggle and a draw. I compiled a detailed set of notes in the PGN from their comments.

Teimour Radjabov tried to follow in Mamedyarov's footsteps with his choice of anti-King's Indian weapon against Hikaru Nakamura but he didn't quite get it right and the game quickly traded to a draw. According to Mamedyarov he should have tried 15.f4 not 15.b4.

Dmitry Andreikin finished the event with a rather disappointing draw against Sergey Karjakin. Karjakin traded into an ending that could have been nasty for him but 29.Kf3? (29.f4!) lost the advantage as he missed the 29...Ra8 30...Rd8 regrouping that relieved the pressure.

Final standings: 1-2 Gelfand, Caruana 6.5pts (155 Grand Prix points) 3-7 Tomashevsky, Nakamura, Grischuk, Karjakin, Svidler 6pts (82 Grand Prix points) 8 Radjabov 5.5pts (50 Grand Prix points) 9-10 Mamedyarov, Kasimdzhanov 5pts (35 Grand Prix points) 11 Andreikin 4.5pts (20 Grand Prix points) 12 Dominguez 3pts (10 Grand Prix points)

Next Grand Prix starts in exactly 1 week's time in Tashkent. Round times likely to be the same as in Baku, same time zone.

Below quotes and link to the PGN file with three games annotated with the player comments in quite a lot of detail.

Quotes

Caruana

Are you satisfied with the result?

Caruana: "No, not really. I didn't play very well throughout the tournament and my result was probably better than I deserved. Still a bit disappointing."

Q:Is the quality of games more important than the result?

"In general is it more important because if you try to keep a good level of play you'll have a good result. You get unlucky sometimes, it will always balance out and so the most important thing is just to try to keep playing well, just normal chess, but I didn't manage in this tournament, I played many bad games, I lost two, just really awful games. OK the result, I can't say it's terrible. I can't say it's bad to tie for first. Still the results is a bit disappointing, I think I had many chances which I didn't take advantage of."

Caruana will stay in Baku for 5 days before traveling to Tashkent. "I'll just try to rest, regain some energy." Caruana.

Grischuk

How can you estimate your play in this tournament?

For me the tournament consisted of two parts. The first part I was completely struggling, playing extremely bad, but then I moved to the hotel with windows and it completely changed everything for me. I mean I just cannot live without windows. I just felt like I'm in a submarine or something for more than one week, when I was waking up I felt like I'm pregnant, I mean I was just feeling so bad every morning, the whole day, and my play showed it very clearly. And then I moved, of course I'm lucky that I won three games out of four after I moved but still the level of my play at least dramatically improved.

Baku FIDE Grand Prix 2014 Baku AZE (AZE), 2-15 x 2014															cat. XXI (2752)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2
1.	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2748	*	½	½	½	1	½	½	1	0	½	1	½	6½	2817
2.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2844	½	*	½	½	0	1	1	½	1	½	0	1	6½	2808
3.	Tomashevsky, Evgeny	g	RUS	2701	½	½	*	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	6	2792
4.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2764	½	½	½	*	½	0	½	½	½	1	1	½	6	2786
5.	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2797	0	1	½	½	*	½	½	0	½	1	½	1	6	2783
6.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2767	½	0	½	1	½	*	½	½	½	½	½	1	6	2786
7.	Svidler, Peter	g	RUS	2732	½	0	½	½	½	½	*	½	1	½	½	1	6	2789
8.	Radjabov, Teimour	g	AZE	2726	0	½	½	½	1	½	½	*	½	½	½	½	5½	2754
9.	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2764	1	0	½	½	½	½	0	½	*	½	½	½	5	2714
10.	Kasimdzhanov, Rustam	g	UZB	2706	½	½	½	0	0	½	½	½	½	*	1	½	5	2720
11.	Andreikin, Dmitry	g	RUS	2722	0	1	0	0	½	½	½	½	½	0	*	1	4½	2689
12.	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	g	CUB	2751	½	0	½	½	0	0	0	½	½	½	0	*	3	2576

Round 11 (October 14, 2014)
Caruana, Fabiano	- Tomashevsky, Evgeny	½-½	34	C88	Ruy Lopez Closed
Grischuk, Alexander	- Dominguez Perez, Leinier	1-0	40	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Svidler, Peter	- Gelfand, Boris	½-½	31	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Radjabov, Teimour	- Nakamura, Hikaru	½-½	30	E63	King's Indian 6...Nc6
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	- Kasimdzhanov, Rustam	½-½	31	D20	QGA
Andreikin, Dmitry	- Karjakin, Sergey	½-½	33	E15	Queens Indian