The players who were in the lead for most of the time emerged victorious in the first of the Grand Prix tournament series. The oldest and the youngest, Gelfand and Caruana showed different play, but their victory is equally deserved. Gelfand played very interesting and intensive chess and apart from his loss to Mamedyarov all his games were of high quality. The quality of Caruana’s play was not up to the standard he got us accustomed to during the last few months, but it’s a sign of an exceptional player when he can win tournaments with far-from-perfect play. Only Carlsen is capable of the same and this is just a confirmation for me that Caruana is now in a league of his own when compared to the others who follow him on the rating list.

Another exciting round today with 4 decisive games. And I think it’s fair that the players who led the tournament for the most part are leading again before the last round – the youngest and the oldest participant of the tournament, Caruana and Gelfand.

Gelfand won unexpectedly easily against Radjabov. Radjabov decided to play solid and went for the QGD instead of the KID or Grunfeld and Gelfand in turn chose the Catalan. It cannot get more solid than that! They followed the 2nd game of the Candidates match Kramnik-Radjabov in 2011 and it was Radjabov who deviated from that game, but it wasn’t a good idea. Radjabov really spoiled his tournament with this careless loss.

Caruana also won rather easily against the despondent Dominguez. The Cuban went for 1 c4 instead of his usual 1 e4 and Caruana, after some thought on move 1 (!) went for the symmetrical 1…c5, followed up with a line I analysed extensively some years ago.

Grischuk won his second black game in a row against Kasimdzhanov. He played a bit extravagantly in the opening, especially the move 5…Nh6 in this position (also a novelty – the idea is to play …f5 and cover the pawn on f5 so as to be able to take on d5 with the e-pawn).

5…Nh6, covering f5 in advance before putting a pawn there

And then it was interesting to observe how after the normal moves that led to a compex middlegame the players started doing two different things: Kasimdzhanov just sat and did nothing, while Grischuk showed great energy and incisiveness with his kingside advance. Kasimdzhanov was pretty disappointed with his play and it’s strange to see him lose two games in a row in such bleak fashion – yesterday with a 2-move blunder and today with insipid play. And good news for Grischuk, coming back to 50% and increasing his chances of a successful Grand Prix series.

Tomashevsky won his first game against Andreikin. His extremely solid play finally bore fruit as Andreiking “jumped” too much – the game was dynamically balanced in the middlegame, but Andreikin’s weaker king proved decisive just because it is easier to play with a safer king in time-trouble. Andreikin’s last chance was on move 31 when he could have simplified to a rook endgame a pawn down, with good drawing chances.

Nakamura and Mamedyarov played an Exchange Slav where black got to sacrifice the pawn on b7 in return for kingside counterplay. Black could have continued instead of giving the perpetual, but probably both players feel that this is not their tournament and try to finish it with as little damage as possible.

Karjakin was lost but didn’t lose to Svidler. Svidler’s problem was that he had too many tempting options and eventually he couldn’t calculate his way through them.

This missed win was also a missed opportunity to join the leaders before the last round. But the modern-day Lasker, as I like to call Karjakin, is a difficult man to beat and I wouldn’t be surprised if he maximises his chances by beating Andreikin tomorrow with black and ending up shared 1st (and probably winning on tie-breaks).

Andreikin proved what I said above – he played aggressive and risky chess and was 
a piece down with a losing position, but he kept the pressure on Dominguez and the latter cracked – three bad moves in a row is too much for any position.





So we’re in for very exciting two final rounds – with so many players with chances to win it’s best just to sit and enjoy the fight. Or put money on Karjakin.

Today I got that inner feeling that Caruana is actually on a new level now. The way he’s dominating the opposition reminds me of how Carlsen was dominating the opposition when he rose through the ranks and shot to his stratospheric level. Exciting times in the elite chess for the fans, new rivarly on the horizon, something not seen since the 80s and the Karpov-Kasparov era, when two players were clearly superior to the rest.

Caruana decided that the Grunfeld gave him better chances to score against Svidler than the Spanish in case of 1 e4. He had problems when facing the 3 f3 line himself with black, so he went for it. Svidler tried to surprise him with the very rare 10…a6, but it’s very probable that the move is of a low quality. Surprises for surprises’ sake are not good at this level and Caruana proved it – he reacted very precisely and got a big advantage. From a human perspective, he did everything correct winning a piece on move 18, but objectively it wasn’t the best way – black did obtain counterplay. But again, from a human perspective, it was difficult to expect black to play extremely precisely to keep that counterplay going, so it was not a surprise when he made a mistake and lost quickly. Just like Carlsen, Caruana dominates because he calculates better than the rest, but unlike Carlsen, he’s more dynamic and less technical in style.

A lousy tournament for Grischuk so far. His missed chance in the second round against Karjakin plus the loss on time against Gelfand in the next round are haunting him and led to more misery today as he lost a completely safe position against Radjabov. The Fianchetto Grunfeld led to static position and maneuvering play. It’s difficult to imagine a player of their calibre to lose a position as safe as this one:

Grischuk-Radjabov after 15 moves

Black planted the knight on e4 and started pushing f5, g5 and coupled with Grischuk’s horrendous time-trouble he won. Good for Radjabov, winning his first game and bad for Grischuk, who’s now languishing on -2.

Karjakin-Gelfand was an interesting Najdorf. The topical 6 h3 led to positions similar to the English Attack when white pushes f4. Black quickly obtained a great position, so it’s unclear what Karjakin intended with this line.

Andreikin tried to surprise Kasimdzhanov with the Philidor Defence and he succeeded, but I suspect it was a pleasant surprise. His 11 d5 is a new move, but quite a typical move in these structures and white was better after it.

A funny thing occurred in the game Dominguez-Mamedyarov. After 10 moves in the Spanish black was a tempo down compared to the normal line when white pushes 9 d4 without playing 9 h3 first. And he voluntarily went for it as in the position below black’s last move was 10…Bd7-g4.

Here usually the pawn is still on a2!

Even funnier was that black didn’t really suffer for it! The game was balanced throughout and eventually drawn (the comp gives an advantage for white after 33 Re8, but somehow I don’t believe it).

Nakamura probably decided not to tempt fate against Tomashevsky and instead of something fighting like the KID he went for the Lasker Defence in the QGD. It’s a mature decision not to force matters when not in particularly good form (Grischuk should take notice). The Lasker is a wonderful drawing weapon and Nakamura got what he wanted without too much trouble (although 34 Nb3 looks to offer a bit of something to white).

Caruana leads alone with 4.5/6 and if he continues like today he’s certain to win this tournament convincingly.

Svidler deviated from a recent Adams game against Andreikin’s French and the queens were exchanged as early as move 13. The endgame was OK for black and the draw was agreed on move 31 (a reminder that no draws can be agreed before move 30).

So all 6 games were drawn today, but these GP events have always been tight affairs with a relatively small number of decisive games and this one is no exception. But I think part of the reason for today’s draws is the meeting of players who have worked before together (or still are) as this usually leads to draws. But it’s not a big deal anyway as the tournaments moves on.

You never know what to think when Grischuk says things like that. Unless you know the guy personally, which I don’t. “A friend” recommended the line to him, the forgotten 8 Be3 against Nakamura’s Mar del Plata. That “friend” also recommended the “killer-novelty” 15 Rc1, but 3 moves later Grischuk spent almost one hour (!) on one move, realising he was not where he wanted to be. Great players are great because even when they abhor their positions, they still continue to find the best moves under the circumstances and fight until the end. This game is a good example.

Dominguez lost with white a Sveshnikov Sicilian to Grischuk at the recently finished European Club Cup, a game where black improved on an earlier Dominguez game. So Gelfand also went for a Sveshnikov Sicilian today against the Cuban, instead of the Najdorf, which is the Cuban’s main weapon against 1 e4. There you have practical chess psychology in action. Dominguez was of course prepared and deviated from the Grischuk game on move 14, but Gelfand was even better prepared! White seemed to be surprised by black’s 17…Bb7 since he spent 46 minutes on his next move. In fact they were following a correspondence game until move 26.

26 g3, draw, correspondence game. 26 R5d3, Dominguez-Gelfand

Black’s pressure provoked some inaccuracies by white, but Gelfand couldn’t find a way to increase it and held a perpetual. There was a way, a quiet move, 30…Kg7 – not what you usually look for when trying to cash in.

Kasimdzhanov successfully implemented the principle of the worst piece in the opening of his game against Svidler, an Exchange Spanish.

8 Nb1!

His comments that he wasn’t expecting the Spanish from Svidler sound ridiculous, but may in fact be true – very often you have a hunch what your opponent will play, and today his hunch was whispering “a Sicilian”. However, sometimes this hunch can be wrong. But in spite of this he was a clear pawn up by move 20. The critical position in the endgame was on move 38.

White must try to break through with g5

He went 38 h5 instead and black drew. Quite a typical endgame in fact, I remember some classical games like Tal-Vasiukov, 1964, Korchnoi-Diez del Corral, 1979 and Fischer-Forintos, 1967, where white successfully exploted the extra pawn in similar positions.

Tomashevsky and Karjakin drew rather uneventfully. I’d be curious to know what Tomashevsky’s ambitions are in these tournaments as he’s playing solid chess, but that won’t get him anywhere.

Andreikin got a Maroczy Bind against Radjabov’s KID with the extra move h3, which is usually avoided in the normal Bind as it weakens the black squares. The quick 15 c5 eliminated the importance of the black squares and white kept the pressure. But the advantage was not very big and extremely precise play was required to increase it, something Andreikin didn’t produce; hence a draw.

Caruana beat Mamedyarov after the latter went back to the style that made him popular back in the day. Today he learned that he cannot do the same anymore, sacrificing pieces left and right, at least not against the best calculators in the world. A rather weak game by the Azeri, burdened by the extra pressure of playing at home turf.

Tomorrow’s is a free day and the tournament is led by the oldest and the youngest player, Gelfand and Caruana. I wonder whether by the next free day we’ll have the same situation. I’d bet not.

At the press conference Caruana said his first three games were of “very low quality” and then I undestood what it means when they say “higher expectations” after his latest results. Caruana and the chess world expect higher quality of moves of him and while he was playing a lot of high-quality moves in these 3 games, the difference were the moves that were letting the wins slip, yesterday against Gelfand and today against Nakamura. Only one move can make a difference between a high-quality and low-quality game. But who said chess was fair?

In yet another QGD (perhaps the new Grunfeld? Caruana switched from Grunfeld to QGD in Saint Louis) Caruana didn’t have problems in the opening as they were following the game Nakamura-Aronian, Tal Memorial 2011. In fact, Caruana castled short instead of Aronian’s long castle.