The Week in Chess

The first round of the FIDE Grand Prix started with three decisive games and much enterprising play. Favourite Fabiano Caruana was defeated by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in what is now becoming a mini-slump. Caruana has lost almost 19 rating points in the last six games, surely as a result of finally running out of energy following an intensive programme of events going back to June.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played a sharp Najdorf Sicilian as black against Fabiano Caruana. Perhaps Caruana expected 15...g6 (Svidler-Sjugirov this year) or 15...Nf4 (a number of recent games) but was instead faced with 15...Qc7. Caruana gave up a pawn with 16.Nd5 and a second one after 26...Qxh2. Maybe 22.cxb4 was a mistake (22.h4) but Caruana couldn't find compensation and Vachier-Lagrave eventually stabilised his position and converted his material advantage.

Hikaru Nakamura beat Baadur Jobava in a very enterprising game. Jobava was a last minute addition as the news came through that Tehran had been replaced as a Grand Prix venue by Tbilisi. Jobava played his usual exciting sharp chess but was soon having to justify the play. 28...Qxc1 was the decisive error with 28...Qe5 keeping things going at least for a while.

Dmitry Andreikin was another player who tried to take the initiative as black and he too looked set for defeat. 19...Qd6 (19...Qf6) 20.f4! left Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in control and eventually winning on the run up to first time control but missed chances 37.Rd6! and 40.Rb6! through all of the advantage away. White needed to bail out with 45.Ra8 but instead after 47.Kh4? it was Andreikin who brought home the full point.

Anish Giri seemed to run into some classic Boris Gelfand preparation and 10...Nh5 followed up with 12...Qh4+ black seemed to have almost no problems. Giri sacrificed a pawn which left him with a completely safe position where black definitely couldn't undertake anything active but it seems white can't either and the game was agreed drawn.

Teimour Radjabov went for an interesting attack against Sergey Karjakin but black defended precisely and was perhaps slightly better at one point. Then pieces were traded and a drawn ending was reached.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov obtained the two bishops out of the opening in a Berlin Defence but black never seemed in any real trouble and the game was drawn in 61 moves.

Round 1 Standings: 1-3 Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave, Andreikin 1pt 4-9 Karjakin, Giri, Gelfand, Jakovenko, Radjabov, Kasimdzhanov 0.5pts 10-12 Caruana, Mamedyarov, Jobava 0pts

Round 2 Pairings Wed 22nd Oct 10am BST: Gelfand-Karjakin, Jakovenko-Radjabov, Vachier-Lagrave-Kasimdzhanov, Jobava-Caruana, Andreikin-Nakamura, Giri-Mamedyarov.