Super-Strong Chess Game: London GP Grischuk - Gelfand 1-0
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Did you follow the London Chess Grand Prix that concluded recently. There was a really powerful gamed played between Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand. Gelfand had led for much of the tournament and Grischuk went for a closed Sicilian to down the World Chess Championship challenger. Click on the diagram to view the game in the Chess King applet. The game's real super-strong!
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
Labels: alexander grischuk, Boris gelfand, london chess grand prix
London Chess Grand Prix: Topalov, Gelfand, Mamedyarov Joint Winners
London Chess Grand Prix R10: Mamedyarov Leads, But Last Round to Decide Champion!
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012Hi everyone,
The London Chess Grand Prix draws to a close but not without plenty of excitement. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has a half-point lead over the others after the end of Round 10. Anything can happen in the last round which is being played on Wednesday.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took the lead yesterday for the first time and he keeps on leading after the tenth round as five out of sixth games were drawn. In the tenth round the rating number one in the tournament Hikaru Nakamura managed to win against Anish Giri after four defeats in a row! The last tweet of the American player spoke for itself: “While I do my absolute best to commit harakiri, (chess) at least her calming presence from afar puts it all in perspective. So far, Hikaru was losing 26 rating points and was falling down to the 11th place in the World ranking but improved his situation. One round to go Topalov, Gelfand and Grischuk share the 2nd place with six points each, just half-a-point behind the leader.
Wang Hao – Mamedyarov:
Mamedyarov appeared very relaxed when he arrived at Simpson`s with his manager. Shakhriyar decided to play the Caro Kann defence – his opening of choice for this tournament. Wang Hao prepared a surprise for his opponent 5.Nc5 trying to defuse any preparation. “Shak” paused for thought, and then replied 5…e5!? which caught Wang Hao unprepared, as he had not expected Mamedyarov to know this line deeply. The forced line that followed saw a quick exchange of queens which led to the endgame with a slightly better pawn structure for white. “Hao”-ever it was not enough and a draw was the result.
Leko – Gelfand:
The main question is how Gelfand will recover from the Round 9 loss. Boris seemed in a good mood and was smiling before the game. Peter Leko went for a quiet line based on Nc3-Bc4 in close Sicilian. Nothing much happened until move 20 after which some pieces were exchanged. White started to take the initiative by opening the “f” file, and putting a strong bishop on d5. White started to control the black squares, and the knight on e3 defended the whole white pawn centre.
Kasimdzhanov – Grischuk:
Almost all the players of the tournament want to avoid the Marshall Gambit. In this game there was no exception, as Rustam chose the exchange variation of the Spanish opening. White decided to open the centre and found a very interesting plan, putting the queen on “b1” in order to push c3-d4. Sasha took a long time to play the first 15 moves and had just 14 minutes left for 22 moves. The two times World Blitz champion is quite used to time trouble…Taking initiative on the king’s side and centre, Grischuk increased his advantage, pressuring on the f2 pawn.
Kasimdzhanov survived from the attack when Grischuk offered the exchange of queens with 38…Qf3? The rook endgame, which appeared, was finally drawn. A disappointment for Grischuk who could have taken the lead.
Nakamura – Giri:
Giri didn’t change his main weapon against 1.e4 and the Petrov appeared once again on the board. Hikaru exchanged the queens after 5 moves and decided to play a long endgame. White pieces had more space but black pieces found good placing. The bishop on b6 protected by the a5 pawn was controlling the queen side. Hikaru settled his other bishop on a second strong square e6.
The position of Anish was very solid with the bishops on c6 and d6 but Hikaru managed to break through and finally won the game!
Topalov – Adams:
The only chance for Veselin to catch the leader was to win today with the white pieces against Michael Adams. We saw one of the first Queen’s Gambit of the tournament, which looked pretty safe for black. Veselin managed to double black’s pawns on the “b” file and took a small advantage in the endgame but it was not enough to implement it into more.
Dominguez – Ivanchuk:
Vasily was in a good mood before the start of the game, looking at the pictures of Staunton on the wall of the Simpson’s in the Strand. The famous Immortal Game was played in the same building between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky on 21 June 1851. The Ukrainian player decided today to play a rare line of the Spanish opening (4…d6). Leinier replied with a safe line, putting all his pieces in the centre and obtained a slight advantage, due to the doubled black pawns on c7 and c6.
Labels: alexander grischuk, Anish Giri, Boris gelfand, Hikaru nakamura, london chess grand prix, michael adams, peter leko, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, shakhriyar mamedyarov, veselin topalov, wang hao
London Chess Grand Prix R5: Dominguez Misses Win vs Nakamura
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Tuesday was the last round before the first free day at the London Chess Grand Prix. Boris Gelfand of Israel is in sole lead after five rounds. Due to Yom Kippur, Boris and Shakhriyar had to start the game at 1pm. Ivanchuk, who arrived a bit earlier to watch the game, was surprised by the pawn sacrifice of Boris from the very beginning of the game.
Read more »Labels: london chess grand prix
London Chess Grand Prix R4: Grischuk, Gelfand Win
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
It was heavy rain in London, but as Ivanchuk said, it's a great weather to play chess! Very fighting games in Round 4 at the London Chess Grand Prix with no short draws and the players were happy slogging it out after three hours of play. One of the leaders of the tournament, Peter Leko, decided to play a closed Spanish opening against Michael Adams, who is well known to be the specialist of the Marshall gambit. Avoiding the main weapon of the English player, Peter went for a peaceful line, very technical and positional. Adams equalized, took the control of the only open file of the position and was already aiming to be better. Not enough however to break down Peter’s defence and the draw was signed.
Read more »Labels: alexander grischuk, Boris gelfand, london chess grand prix, michael adams, peter leko
London Chess Grand Prix 2012/13 Begins Tomorrow at Simpson's-in-the-Strand
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012Hi everyone,
The first edition in the Fide Grand Prix Series 2012/13 begins in London on September 20 with the games from September 21. The tournament runs until October 4. The venue for this event is the historic site of Simpson’s on the Strand which was originally one of the leading chess clubs in the 19th century. Twelve players will compete in the round robin tournament, which is concluding on 3rd October.
A total of 18 players participate in the Grand Prix series (6 tournaments), qualifying from the previous World Championship, the World Chess Cup, by the highest average ratings of July 2011 and January 2012, as FIDE President and AGON nominees. The organisers have had to effect a last minute replacement as GM Peter Svidler has had to withdraw from this leg due to family reasons. He has been replaced by UK number one player GM Michael Adams. Access the official website at this link.
London GP participants:
Hikaru Nakamura USA 2783
Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2769
Alexander Grischuk RUS 2754
Veselin Topalov BUL 2752
Wang Hao CHN 2742
Boris Gelfand ISR 2738
Peter Leko HUN 2737
Anish Giri NLD 2730
Shakriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2729
Leinier Dominguez Perez CUB 2725
Michael Adams ENG 2722
Rustam Kasimdzhanov UZB 2684
The remaining players who are in the cycle and will participate in latere events are: Sergey Karjakin (RUS), Teimour Radjabov (AZE), Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR), Fabiano Caruana (ITA), Alexander Morozevich (RUS) and Vugar Gashimov (AZE).
The Chief Arbiter for the London event will be International Arbiter Ms. Carol Jarecki who will be assisted by International Arbiter Mr. Stewart Reuben. Chairman of Appeals Committee will be Mr Lakhdar Mazouz, who is also President of African Chess Union. FIDE Press officer and Representative is Mr Geoffrey Borg, FIDE Chief Executive Officer.
The first Grand Prix was originally set to take place in Chelyabinsk. London is set to see three highly prestigious tournaments within only seven months – FIDE Grand Prix, London Chess Classic (in December) and FIDE Candidates Tournament (in March 2013).
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Labels: fide grand prix, london chess grand prix
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