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Home » Chess News » Events » FIDE Grand Prix London 2012 » Gelfand outplays Nakamura to lead after Round 1 of London Grand Prix

Hikaru Nakamura decided to test Boris Gelfand's preparation in the Sveshnikov an opening that Anand only had one go against in the recent World Championship match. Gelfand got at least equalised (somewhere around 18.c4 and 21.Nb5) but it was 38.Bg4? that cost Nakamura the game. 38...h5! was excellent and although it took Gelfand an extra move to find the right idea (39...Rf5!) once 39.Be2 Rf6 40.Rde1 Rf5! 41.Bd1 Rbf8! was played with the idea that after the sequence 42.Rxf5 gxf5! 43.Bxh5 he sacrificed an unimportant pawn which gave him two connected passed pawns which were decisive.

Nakamura thought his blunder came "right before time control" but he was surely at least somewhat worse before that.

Losing is fun when you decide to fall asleep and blunder right before time control!

Hikaru Nakamura via his Twitter account

42. Rxf5 gxf5 43. Bxh5 Kf6 44. Rh1 Kg5 45. Bd1 Kh4 46. Rf1 Rg8+ 47. Kh1 Rg5 48. Bc2 Kxh3 49. Rf2 Kg3 50. Rh2 Rg4 51. Rg2+ Kf4 52. Rf2+ Kg5 53. Rd2 Rg3 54. Re2 Rh3+ 55. Kg1 Kf4 56. Kg2 Rh2+ 57. Kf1 Rxe2 58. Kxe2 Ke5 0-1

Rustam Kasimdhanov was out-prepared by Peter Leko in a Berlin in spite of having looked at it with world champion Viswanathan Anand. At first Kasimdhanov thought 19. Re1 was tricky but Leko had 19...g5! with the idea of 20. Bxg5 Bxf2+ 21. Qxf2 Qxg5 22. h4 when black is fine so had to choose 19.c3 and the game finished in a draw on move 34.

Topalov against Grischuk was a lively struggle in an English where Topalov gave up three pawns for a piece but the resulting position was dynamically equal.

Anish Giri somewhat outplayed Leinier Domginguez Perez as black winning an important Kingside pawn but his shattered queenside (with another extra pawn) and double rook ending meant the position was never anything but a draw.

Michael Adams was a last minute replacement for Peter Svidler and may have had excuses for being underprepared but he got a fantastic opening against Wang Hao shattering his opponent's pawns with a nice tactical sequence and setting up a big ending advantage. However Wang Hao defended well (finishing with a very nice stalemate idea) and Adams advantage didn't prove to be quite enough, the game finished with a very nice stalemate idea from Wang Hao.

72. Rg2+! fxg2 draw. It is Stalemate.

Vassily Ivanchuk won a pawn against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with some wonderfully creative play but it was not enough in a knight and pawn ending where white had to play carefully and defend for what turned out to be 110 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.	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2738	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
2.	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2769	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	½	2729
3.	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2754	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2752
4.	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2752	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2754
5.	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2742	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	½	2722
6.	Leko, Peter	g	HUN	2737	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	½	2684
7.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2730	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	½	2725
8.	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2729	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	½	2769
9.	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	g	CUB	2725	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	½	2730
10.	Adams, Michael	g	ENG	2722	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	½	2742
11.	Kasimdzhanov, Rustam	g	UZB	2684	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	2737
12.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2783	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (September 21, 2012)
Topalov, Veselin	- Grischuk, Alexander	½-½	43	A35	English Symmetrical
Wang, Hao	- Adams, Michael	½-½	72	E56	Nimzo Indian
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	- Ivanchuk, Vassily	½-½	110	E32	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Dominguez Perez, Leinier	- Giri, Anish	½-½	59	C42	Petroff's Defence
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam	- Leko, Peter	½-½	34	C67	Ruy Lopez Berlin
Nakamura, Hikaru	- Gelfand, Boris	0-1	58	B33	Sicilian Sveshnikov

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