Chessable Houska's Caro

FIDE Grand Prix London 2012 (10)

Mamedyarov maintains small lead into final round of London Grand Prix

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov takes a half point lead into the final round. Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov takes a half point lead into the final round. Photo © Ray Morris-Hill. | http://raymorris-hill.smugmug.com

Mamedyarov takes a half point lead into the final round of the FIDE Grand Prix in London. Mamaedyarov held Wang Hao to reach 6.5/10 and his rivals Grischuk (who probably came closest to a win), Topalov and Gelfand remain half a point further back after draws. The only decisive game of the day saw Hikaru Nakamura end his nightmare four game losing streak with a win against Anish Giri who misjudged a sharp ending.

Hikaru Nakamura beat Anish Giri.

Hikaru Nakamura beat Anish Giri. Photo © Ray Morris-Hill: http://raymorris-hill.smugmug.com.

After four losses in a row Hikaru Nakamura stopped the rot and beat Anish Giri in round 10. Nakamura didn't have anything much in the way of an advantage but both players kept things complicated and eventually Giri made a fatal misjudgement of the power of his pawns against a bishop and went down to defeat (he may actually be lost here too in which case Giri's error is in the position below).

Anish Giri

r___k___
_p____p_
_BbbBp_p
P_p__P_P
__Pp__P_
___P____
_____K__
____R___

Hikaru Nakamura

Position after 46.Re1

46. Re1 Be5

46... Bf4 was also possible but black saw no reason to prevent Nakamura's ambitious play but now it seems he probably should have.

47. g5 hxg5 48. h6 gxh6 49. Rxe5 fxe5 50. f6 Bd7 51. f7+ Ke7 52. Bxd7

Anish Giri

r_______
_p_BkP__
_B_____p
P_p_p_p_
__Pp____
___P____
_____K__
________

Hikaru Nakamura

Position after 52.Bxd7

52...Kxd7?

This is more than black's position can take white's bishop proves to be more than enough for the pawns. 52... Kxf7 and whilst white should be a bit better I don't think it will amount to a win.

I kept changing the strength of the above comment from good winning chances for white to the above. (The ChessMind Blog of Dennis Monokroussos thinks Giri is lost after Kxf7 too. It wasn't so much I was relying on the computer evaluation as I followed the game without computers in the afternoon before looking at them later. It's that even I could see the precise winning moves after Kxd7 which after Kxf7 there looked to be some hope, although maybe not as much as I thought.

53. Bxc5 h5 54. f8=Q Rxf8+ 55. Bxf8

I believe this is clearly winning for white because he can eventually stop the black pawns and the only way black might be able to win is with e4 but this would give white three running pawns which will in turn be unstopable.

55...h4 56. Bh6 g4 57. Bg5 h3

57... e4 58. dxe4 h3 59. Bf4 {is no kind of alternative.

58. Bh4 Kd6 59. Bg3

Bishop takes care of black's running kingside pawns, it's all over.

59...Ke6 60. Ke2 Kd6 61. Kd2 Kc5 62. Bxe5 Kb4 63. Kc2 Kxa5 64. Kb3 Kb6 65. Bxd4+ 1-0

Wang Hao drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

Wang Hao drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Photo © Ray Morris-Hill: http://raymorris-hill.smugmug.com.

Leader Shakhriyar Mamedyarov held Wang Hao on the black side of a rather strange Caro-Kann Classical which saw lively tactics and exchanges to a drawn endgame.

Alexander Grischuk was pushing as black for some time against Rustam Kasimdzhanov but it was always a difficult task. Maybe he missed a better chance on move 36. He quickly traded into a drawn ending shortly afterwards.

Alexander Grischuk

________
_p______
pkp__r__
___rpq__
_P____p_
P_R___Pp
____QP_P
____RK__

Rustam Kasimdzhanov

Position after 36.Rc3

36... Ka7

36... Rd4 is better and whilst 37. Re3 e4 38. Kg1 Rfd6 39. Qf1 Ka7 isn't forced it looks winning.

37. Re3 Ka8 38. Re4 Qf3 39. Qxf3 Rxf3 40. Rxg4 Rxa3 41. Rge4 Rb3 42. g4 Rd2 43. g5 Rf3 44. R4e2 Rd5 45. Rxe5 Rd2 46. R1e2 Rd1+ 47. Re1 Rd2 48. R1e2 Rd1+ 49. Re1 1/2-1/2

Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura. Photo © Ray Morris-Hill: http://raymorris-hill.smugmug.com.

Leinier Dominguez Perez and Vassily Ivanchuk drew a Ruy Lopez Steinitz Variation in 40 moves that was probably level throughout.

Veselin Topalov tested Michael Adams in a side-line of the Queen's Gambit which was a bit of a technical challenge but the game was probably balanced throughout.

Peter Leko possibly had a small edge in a Sicilian against Boris Gelfand but it never amounted to very much and the game was drawn in 59 moves.

1st FIDE GP London (ENG), 21 ix-3 x 2012 cat. XX (2739)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
1. Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2729 * 0 ½ ½ . ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 2849
2. Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2754 1 * ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ . 6 2804
3. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2752 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 . 1 ½ 6 2810
4. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2738 ½ 0 ½ * ½ 1 1 . ½ ½ ½ 1 6 2816
5. Leko, Peter g HUN 2737 . ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 2775
6. Wang, Hao g CHN 2742 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ * ½ ½ . ½ ½ 1 5 2735
7. Adams, Michael g ENG 2722 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ * 0 ½ ½ . 1 2705
8. Kasimdzhanov, Rustam g UZB 2684 0 ½ ½ . ½ ½ 1 * ½ ½ ½ 0 2708
9. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2769 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 . ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 2699
10. Giri, Anish g NED 2730 0 ½ . ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ 0 4 2666
11. Dominguez Perez, Leinier g CUB 2725 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ . ½ ½ ½ * ½ 4 2669
12. Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2783 0 . ½ 0 ½ 0 0 1 0 1 ½ * 2622
Round 10 (October 2, 2012)
Topalov, Veselin - Adams, Michael ½-½ 50 D30 Queen's Gambit (without Nc3)
Leko, Peter - Gelfand, Boris ½-½ 59 B30 Sicilian Rossolimo
Wang, Hao - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½ 32 B18 Caro Kann
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam - Grischuk, Alexander ½-½ 49 C69 Ruy Lopez Exchange
Dominguez Perez, Leinier - Ivanchuk, Vassily ½-½ 40 C72 Ruy Lopez Modern Steinitz
Nakamura, Hikaru - Giri, Anish 1-0 65 C42 Petroff's Defence

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