The Week in Chess

Dmitry Andreikin could not have asked for an easier way to take the lead of the FIDE Grand Prix in Tashkent when he defeated joint leader Baadur Jobava in Round 9. The only other game of the day was also a strange effort by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Hikaru Nakamura and Mamedyarov share 2nd place.

Jobava said he came with great ambitions to beat Andreikin today but it all went wrong early on in a Veresov. Judging from the press conference it seemed the main problem was Jobava was simply missing almost everything. Andreikin didn't even necessarily play the best but he was a pawn up in a winning ending in only a few moves and he eventually brought the full point home.

Hikaru Nakamura played the King's Indian against Sergey Karjakin and a sharp unclear position was reached. However Karjakin managed to leave himself 20 moves to play in 20 minutes so he repeated for a draw.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov played the Dutch for only the second time in his career in response to 1.Nf3. Mamedyarov was already in trouble after 6...e5 and practically lost after 15.Bf7. 16.Qc2 (16.ef was very hard to meet) was a serious inaccuracy from Jakovenko as 16...c6 gave Mamedyarov something to play for. After 23...exf5 the position was nearly equal and 26.c5, gambling on a fast running c-pawn was seriously flawed and Mamedyarov brought home the full point with his a-pawn.

Radjabov vs Caruana drew a heavyweight Berlin Defence that was very difficult to understand even for the players.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave against Anish Giri was a very sharp Ruy Lopez where white continually threatened to sacrifice material for an attack but Giri was accurate enough to avoid this and keep winning chances himself until they found a way to repeat.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov played some deep preparation in Boris Gelfand's favourite Najdorf Sicilian. Gelfand found a way to avoid serious disadvantage and even took the edge at one point before the game finished in perpetual check.

Round 9 standings: 1 Andreikin 6pts 2-3 Nakamura, Mamedyarov 5.5pts 4-5 Vachier-Lagrave, Jobava, 5pts 6-8 Radjabov, Karjakin, Caruana 4.5pts 9 Jakovenko, Giri 4pts 11 Kasimdzhanov 3pts 12 Gelfand 2.5pts

Round 10 Pairings Saturday 1st November 9am GMT: Gelfand-Andreikin, Giri-Jobava, Mamedyarov-Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura-Jakovenko, Caruana-Karjakin, Kasimdzhanov-Radjabov