The Week in Chess

The third round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki saw the most unlikely of winners in Leinier Dominguez Perez, who was on the verge of resigning before his opponent Vassily Ivanchuk self destructed on the clock.

Ivanchuk completely outplayed Dominguez in a Gruenfeld. 17...Rfe8 was mentioned as a mistake by Domginguez, 23.Bc7! came as a shock and the game should have ended on move 26 with 26.Be5! but the game continued and was also winning for Ivanchuk (31.Nxg7!) 31..Rc8 made life tricky for white 32.Bf4! but after that Ivanchuk first lost almost all his advantage then blundered a piece and at that point his flag fell. Dominguez actually wanted to repeat (Ivanchuk offered a draw in a winning position after first time control in a meeting in Linares which was scarred by time pressure from both and knocked over pieces but I'm not sure he should have in this case as the problems were totally self-inflicted this time). Distressing to watch but if a professional can't control his clock handling what does he expect? For me it's an important part of the game. The event is played without an increment before move 60, you could have 30 seconds a move instead, and stop such dire problems for certain players, it's a choice, but I think without is the proper way for elite tournaments.

Another player who got into a terrible mess on the clock but this time also over the board was Alexander Grischuk but this time he got away with it. Gata Kamsky played the London System vs his intended Gruenfeld and Grischuk got ambitious with 9...Nh5 but immediately lost confidence in it, his 10...b6 was probably the real mistake and 11....Bh8 was dreadful as Grischuk spent time in a position he clearly disliked and then made worse. Kamsky was nicely angling for a kingside attack but missed 24.e6! which seems to do the trick, 27.Nxf7 later wins but it's certainly hard to work out if you're not a ocmputer. 27.f4 was double edged and 28.Nxg6 finally going for it looks crushing but Grischuk found the best in terrible time pressure and the game finished in a repetition.

Veselin Topalov eventually managed to get an edge in the endgame against Ruslan Ponomariov in a Najdorf Sicilian with the creative 9...g5 but he couldn't find anything concrete.

Peter Svidler discovered his intended line of the Anti-Gruenfeld against Fabiano Caruana had been played recently and thus there was almost no chance he hadn't seen it. It was too late to change and as it was deep theory was played for quite some time. Later Svidler entertained hopes of a big advantage before spotting 30...Nc2!! as only move drew. Caruana found it. It seems Anti-Gruenfeld lines are getting as forcing and worked out as the main line.

Alexander Morozevich played enterprisingly in a King's Indian with black against Rustam Kasimdzhanov but after finding trouble making his intended 22...a5 work he lost faith in his position and became substantially worse (34.Qc2 was what he feared) but Kasimdzhanov lost all this advantage on the run up to first time control and the game was drawn.

Hikaru Nakamura drew in a Bishops Opening against Etienne Bacrot in 73 moves. Nakamura seems to be struggling and criticised his 11.0-0 and his assessment of the position at the board which he came to realise was overoptimistic.

Round 3 Standings: Kamsky, Morozevich, Grischuk, Caruana, Kasimdzhanov 2pts, Topalov, Ponomariov, Svidler, Dominguez 1.5pts, Bacrot 1pt, Ivanchuk, Nakamura 0.5pts.

Round 4 Sat 25th May Grischuk-Bacrot, Morozevich-Nakamura, Caruana-Kasimdzhanov, Dominguez-Svidler, Topalov-Ivanchuk and Kamsky-Ponomariov.