Carlsen starts Gashimov Memorial with a routine win against Mamedyarov

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Vugar Gashimov Memorial 2014 (1)

Carlsen starts Gashimov Memorial with a routine win against Mamedyarov

Mark Crowther - Sunday 20th April 2014

Carlsen started with a comfortable win against Mamedyarov where he seemed to have many roads to victory. Photo ©

Carlsen started with a comfortable win against Mamedyarov where he seemed to have many roads to victory. Photo © | http://www.shamkirchess.az

Magnus Carlsen started the Gashimov Memorial with a fine positional win against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Carlsen has the white pieces in the first two rounds so it was important that he at least secured one win with these, he did this in a way that made it look easy. Carlsen meets Hikaru Nakamura in round 2 who had a lucky escape against Fabiano Caruana after first time control. Sergey Karjakin was surprised by Teimour Radjabov in a French Defence (an old favourite) and both players seemed somewhat at sea. It is hard to believe Karjakin's choice to go into the endgame rather than keep the queens on was correct. All the games in the very strong B-Group were drawn.

Round 1 Standings: Carlsen 1pt, Caruana, Nakamura, Karjakin and Radjabov 0.5pts and Mamedyarov 0 pts.

Round 2 Monday 21st April: Mamedyarov-Radjabov, Caruana-Karjakin, Carlsen-Nakamura.

Gashimov Memorial Round 1

Carlsen vs Mamedyarov. Photo © http://www.shamkirchess.az.

Mamaedyarov chose the same defence that Carlsen chose against Gelfand in the London 2012 Candidates and with a small modification Carlsen chose the same plan of e4-e5. After 17...c5 18.d5 black's bishop was in danger of being cut off, it's not clear that Mamedyarov was yet in trouble 21...Rcd8 reducing the pressure seemed better than 21...Ng6 and after 22...Re6? (it's not clear that black has a satisfactory continuation). 24.Rd8+ (Houdini) wins a piece although play does get messy. The way Carlsen played it gave him what appeared to be a big strategic advantage, at least in his hands, and after 29.Rd1 it already looked like he would win and after the understandably desperate 35...Qxa4 black finished things with a direct attack on the king. Sadly there was no sound for the press conference.

Fabiano Caruana. Photo © http://www.shamkirchess.az.

Nakamura played a Maroczy bind against Fabiano Caruana but couldn't really make his space advantage count. Nakamura's advantage mostly disappeared before first time control and afterwards he admitted he wasn't sure what to do and he started making mistakes. It was clear black had at least equalised when he played 41...a5. Nakamura's 42.b5 was a bad mistake that put him on the back foot and his position started to fall apart. 54...Bh5+ would have led to a decisive advantage for Caruana but in time trouble he played 54.Bxe4+ and eventually Nakamura escaped.

Stage at the Gashimov Memorial during round 1. Photo © http://www.shamkirchess.az.

Teimour Radjabov could hardly have had a worse 2013 and hasn't played for many months. He surprised Sergey Karjakin with the French Defence but in turn was surprised by his choice of the Tarrasch. White got a nice advantage with many attacking ideas on black's broken kingside but he wasn't in tune with the position and was seduced into trying to win an ending by burying black's light squared bishop, this didn't turn out to be anything more than a small edge which led to a draw. Either 20.d5 or 20.Qe2 when black always has to worry about being mated were certainly better.

Vugar Gashimov Mem 2014 Shamkir AZE (AZE), 19-30 iv 2014											cat. XXII (2780)
					1		2		3		4		5		6
1.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2881	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
2.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2783	.	.	*	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2772
3.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2772	.	.	½	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2783
4.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2772	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	½	.	.	.	½	2713
5.	Radjabov, Teimour	g	AZE	2713	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	*	.	.	½	2772
6.	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2760	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	0

Round 1 (April 20, 2014)
Carlsen, Magnus	- Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	1-0	47	D52	Queens Gambit Cambridge Springs
Nakamura, Hikaru	- Caruana, Fabiano	½-½	61	A33	English Symmetrical
Karjakin, Sergey	- Radjabov, Teimour	½-½	54	C07	French Tarrasch

Vugar Gashimov Mem B 2014 Shamkir AZE (AZE), 19-30 iv 2014															cat. XVII (2663)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2734	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2722
2.	Eljanov, Pavel	g	UKR	2732	.	*	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	½	2660
3.	Bacrot, Etienne	g	FRA	2722	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2734
4.	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	g	POL	2716	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	½	2584
5.	Motylev, Alexander	g	RUS	2685	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	½	2516
6.	Mamedov, Rauf	g	AZE	2660	.	½	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	2732
7.	Safarli, Eltaj	g	AZE	2656	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	½	2621
8.	Guseinov, Gadir	g	AZE	2621	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	½	2656
9.	Durarbayli, Vasif	g	AZE	2584	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	2716
10.	Abasov, Nijat	g	AZE	2516	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	*	½	2685

Round 1 (April 20, 2014)
Wang, Hao	- Bacrot, Etienne	½-½	34	E90	King's Indian Classical
Eljanov, Pavel	- Mamedov, Rauf	½-½	37	A52	Budapest Defence Main Line
Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	- Durarbayli, Vasif	½-½	43	D97	Gruenfeld Russian
Motylev, Alexander	- Abasov, Nijat	½-½	75	C65	Ruy Lopez Berlin
Safarli, Eltaj	- Guseinov, Gadir	½-½	41	B36	Sicilian Maroczy Bind

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