Author Archives: Yelena Dembo

Grand Prix – Zug 2013 4th round

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Morozevich-Karjakin
(Photo taken from the official site)

Again all games were drawn, despite many interesting positions! Leaders are the same – Ponomariov, Topalov and Morozevich and they have 2.5 points out of 4 games.

Results of the 4th round

Round 4 on 2013/04/21 at 14:00

GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2709 ½ – ½ GM Topalov Veselin 2771
GM Nakamura Hikaru 2767 ½ – ½ GM Kamsky Gata 2741
GM Radjabov Teimour 2793 ½ – ½ GM Leko Peter 2744
GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2733 ½ – ½ GM Giri Anish 2727
GM Morozevich Alexander 2758 ½ – ½ GM Karjakin Sergey 2786
GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2766 ½ – ½ GM Caruana Fabiano 2772

Radjabov-Leko was a Queen’s Gambit Declined. Black King was safe in the center, even though the center was quite open. 18.Rb5-Re5 maneuver looks interesting and perhaps could give white an initiative if not more. Also, 33.g4 was an interesting path leading to advantage.

In Nakamura-Kamsky, Black equalized rather easily out of a mixture of Slav and Gruenfeld. Later on, due to better pieces, White won a pawn but Black was never in danger of losing due to active Rook.

Kasimdzhanov-Topalov was a King’s Indian with exd4 where White implemented a rare but very interesting piece sacrifice on f5. 14…d5 was a novelty which gave white the piece back by force but stopped the initiative. The position would have become equal had Black played 20…Bf8.

In Ponomariov-Giri, Black got a very solid position from the Archangel variation of Ruy Lopez. Once rooks came off the board nobody could press for an advantage anymore.

In Morozevich-Karjakin, White chose the very rare 9.Rc1 in the Classical Nimzo Indian and soon launched a pawn attack on the kingside. Still but breaking through in the center, Black’s position didn’t look dangerous. The R and bishop endgame looked equal despite the g7-pawn. Perhaps, it was worth playing 26…Rc5, preventing Bc2 and making the game more simple. The game got very complicated in the Bishops endgame and both sides missed many nice opportunities.

In Mamedyarov-Caruana game Black played an interesting novelty (14…Nc5) in the well known Gruenfeld line. 19.Rxf7 was a very nice sacrifice but it didn’t seem to work as Black King became safe again after some moves.

Today is the rest day!

Pairings of the 5th round

GM Caruana Fabiano 2772 – GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2709
GM Karjakin Sergey 2786 – GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2766
GM Giri Anish 2727 – GM Morozevich Alexander 2758
GM Leko Peter 2744 – GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2733
GM Kamsky Gata 2741 – GM Radjabov Teimour 2793
GM Topalov Veselin 2771 – GM Nakamura Hikaru 2767

Official Site.

The 13th Bangkok Chess Club Open 2013 – last round

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Zhao_zong-yuan

GM Zhao Zong-Yuan of Australia won this strong Open tournament with 7.5 points out of 9.

Results of top 10 games of last round (view all here)

1 GM Zhao Zong-Yuan 2537 7 ½ – ½ 6½ IM Wan Yunguo 2494
2 GM Hansen Sune Berg 2561 6½ ½ – ½ 6½ GM Gustafsson Jan 2621
3 GM Vajda Levente 2632 6 1 – 0 6½ GM Schebler Gerhard 2445
4 GM Koneru Humpy 2597 6 ½ – ½ 6 GM Venkatesh M.R. 2508
5 IM Saptarshi Roy 2426 6 0 – 1 6 GM Barbosa Oliver 2563
6 GM Laylo Darwin 2491 6 1 – 0 6 GM Megaranto Susanto 2541
7 GM Antonio Rogelio Jr 2527 6 ½ – ½ 6 IM Wang Chen 2485
8 GM Short Nigel D 2697 5½ 1 – 0 6 GM Czebe Attila 2479
9 GM Lu Shanglei 2562 5½ ½ – ½ 5½ Nouri Hamed 2356
10 GM Paragua Mark 2557 5½ ½ – ½ 5½ WGM Kulkarni Bhakti 2231

Top 10 players after the last round with ELO gains and losses (view full standings here)

1 GM Zhao Zong-Yuan AUS 2537 2537 7.5 2695 18.5
2 IM Wan Yunguo CHN 2494 2494 7.0 2607 14.5
3 GM Gustafsson Jan GER 2621 2621 7.0 2647 5.1
4 GM Vajda Levente ROU 2632 2632 7.0 2584 -0.9
5 GM Hansen Sune Berg DEN 2561 2561 7.0 2633 9.5
6 GM Laylo Darwin PHI 2491 2491 7.0 2592 12.9
7 GM Barbosa Oliver PHI 2563 2563 7.0 2581 3.1
8 GM Antonio Rogelio Jr PHI 2527 2527 6.5 2609 12.2
9 IM Wang Chen CHN 2485 2485 6.5 2571 13.2
10 GM Koneru Humpy IND 2597 2597 6.5 2568 -0.3

Congratulations to the winner! 🙂

Official Site.

Grand Prix – Zug 2013 3rd round

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Leko-Nakamura
(Photo taken from the official site)

All games ended in a draw! Ponomariov, Morozevich and Topalov lead the tournament with 2 points.

Round 3 on 2013/04/20 at 14:00

GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2766 ½ – ½ GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2709
GM Caruana Fabiano 2772 ½ – ½ GM Morozevich Alexander 2758
GM Karjakin Sergey 2786 ½ – ½ GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2733
GM Giri Anish 2727 ½ – ½ GM Radjabov Teimour 2793
GM Leko Peter 2744 ½ – ½ GM Nakamura Hikaru 2767
GM Kamsky Gata 2741 ½ – ½ GM Topalov Veselin 2771

Caruana-Morozevich was a quiet Spanish where Black managed to equalize by pushing c7-c6 and exchanges lots of pieces.

Mamedyarov-Kasimdzhanov was a Queen’s Gambit Declined. Black decided to allow exchanges in the center and got an isolated pawn in the opening instead of the usual 9…exd5. Still he controlled the center well and had a half open b-file to play on for it. After exchanging the minor pieces and the appearance of a Q and R middlegame the game became equal.

Karjakin-Ponomariov was a relatively rare line of the Scotch game which was played by many GMs including Carlsen with white. 12.Rhe1 was a novelty instead of Movsesian’s 12.Nd4 played last year. After many pieces came off the board white had a slight advantage in space and better pieces but didn’t manage to transform it into something larger.

Giri-Radjabov was a Catalan where white played the rare 12.a3 instead of the usual 12.Qc2 or 12.Bf4. Perhaps White should have gone for a pawn sacrifice 16.Nc5 but instead decided to repeat the position.

Leko-Nakamura was another “Poisoned Pawn” line but of the French :), with Nakamura playing it before at least twice (against Anand and Karjakin). Known theory ended on move 19 of Black as Nakamura made a novelty 19…Ba3 instead of the usual 19…Rc8. Looks like White was better in the middlegame and perhaps instead of exchange the dark square Bishops it was better to play 30.Qe3 securing a nice advantage.

Kamsky-Topalov was a rare line of the Moscow variation with 4.c3 (usual moves being 4.d4 and 4.0-0). Black got a solid position out of the opening and later initiative with the help of exd4 and knight maneuver Nd7-f8-e6. 26…Rxc3 was definitely an interesting exchange sacrifice but since White didn’t prevent it, it was still good on the next move. After that Black got a much better position and could have sealed it with 34…Qe5 going for the light squares on the kingside which got weakned by …g3.

Pairings of the 4th round

GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2709 – GM Topalov Veselin 2771
GM Nakamura Hikaru 2767 – GM Kamsky Gata 2741
GM Radjabov Teimour 2793 – GM Leko Peter 2744
GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2733 – GM Giri Anish 2727
GM Morozevich Alexander 2758 – GM Karjakin Sergey 2786
GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2766 – GM Caruana Fabiano 2772

Official Site.