Nalchik R7: Karjakin and Eljanov score

Fourth FIDE Grand Prix
in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria

The fourth FIDE Grand Prix Series Tournament is being held in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, during 14th -29th April 2009 at the Intour Hotel "Sindica". The games start at 3 p.m. local time = 15:00h CEST. After five rounds there is a free day (on Monday, April 20) and another after round nine (on Saturday, April 25).

Results of today's round

Round seven review by GM Sergey Shipov

The following game notes were provided by FIDE and are translated (by Misha Savinov) from the comments of Sergey Shipov. We are grateful for permission to reproduce his commentary here. All photos by courtesy of FIDE.

The seventh round brought only minor changes to the overall picture. The leader remained the same. The main drama of the round occurred in Kamsky’s game – the American missed an easy win against Karjakin and did not manage to make the first time control.

Sergey Karjakin-Gata Kamsky
Chess is brutal. It punishes you for every slight mistake you make. You can play most of the game brilliantly, and then lose concentration for a move or two – and it’s over. You are knocked out, like in boxing. I feel sorry for Kamsky. As a chess player, I understand very well how hard a blow it was for him. Gata handled the Winawer Variation of the French excellently, employed an interesting scheme with the knight on d5 (previously Black always put the knight on f5). Probably this is one of the lines prepared for the match against Topalov. After White captured the f7-pawn, Black’s pieces occupied excellent squares and began to bother the White king. Karjakin’s counterplay started with 21.a4 was probably the best practical chance in a difficult situation. The only thing he could do was to put the pressure on the opponent and force him to calculate a lot. I will not list here all the winning moves for Black. It is enough to point out the simple 27…Qxc2!, which could decide the game in a few moves. In the mutual time trouble Sergey acted quicker and more accurate – and Gata miscalculated, ended up in a lost position, and lost on time.

Sergey Karjakin and Gata Kamsky (right) analyse after the game

Karjakin,Sergey (2721) - Kamsky,G (2720) [C19]
4th FIDE GP Nalchik RUS (7), 22.04.2009
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4 cxd4 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 Qc7 10.Ne2 Nbc6 11.f4 dxc3 12.Qd3 d4 13.Ng3 Bd7 14.Be2 0-0-0 15.0-0 Qb6 16.Ne4 Nd5 17.Nd6+ Kb8 18.Nxf7 Rdf8 19.Nd6 Nce7 20.Bf3 Bc6 21.a4 Nb4 22.a5 Qc5 23.Qh7 d3+ 24.Kh1 d2 25.Bxd2 cxd2 26.Qxe7 Rxf4 27.Rab1

27...Rgf8? [27...Qxc2 28.Qxe6 (28.Bxc6 Qxc6 29.Rg1 a6 30.h3 Rfg4–+) 28...Rh8 29.Bxc6 Rxf1+ 30.Rxf1 d1Q 31.Qf6 Qxf1+ 32.Qxf1 Nxc6–+] 28.c4 a6 29.h3 Ka8 30.Qg7 Qe3 31.Kh2

31...d1Q? [31...Rb8 was necessary] 32.Rbxd1 [or intantly decisive: 32.Bxc6] 1-0.

Gata Kamsky makes a point during the press conference after the game...

Boris Gelfand-Pavel Eljanov
Boris played a bit too creatively today. His opening was extremely non-standard: White completely gave up the center to the opponent. The notorious two bishop advantage was unimportant. Moreover, after Pavel stabilized the pawn structure (16…Bxc6!, 18…c4!) it turned out that Black’s knights are simply stronger than White’s bishops. The dark-squared bishop was in a particularly poor shape. Gelfand could free it only by sacrificing a pawn, which he did, and immediately traded the poor bishop. It proved to be the decisive error! Instead of 30.Bxe5? much stronger was 30.Bxe4!, and after 30…Rxd4 (30…dxe4? 31.Bxe5!) 31.Bg2 Nc6 32.e3 White gets certain compensation for a pawn. Having exchanged the wrong bishop, Boris soon took a remote and unneeded pawn on a7, missing the opponent’s winning strike – 31…Nxf2! Black carried out a nice and simple combination and won the game.

Gelfand,B (2733) - Eljanov,P (2693) [A13]
4th FIDE GP Nalchik RUS (7), 22.04.2009
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.b3 c5 5.Bg2 Nc6 6.cxd5 exd5 7.0-0 Bg4 8.h3 Bxf3 9.Bxf3 Bd6 10.Nc3 Be5 11.Ba3 Qa5 12.Bb2 0-0 13.Bg2 Rac8 14.Rc1 Qa6 15.a4 Rfe8 16.Ba3 Bxc3 17.dxc3 Na5 18.Re1 c4 19.bxc4 Nxc4 20.Ra1 Qe6 21.Bc1 b6 22.Qd4 Na5 23.Qd3 Ne4 24.Bb2 Nc4 25.Bc1 Ne5 26.Qa6 h5 27.Be3 h4 28.g4 Rxc3 29.Bd4 Rc4

30.Bxe5? [30.Bxe4! Rxd4 (30...dxe4? 31.Bxe5!) 31.Bg2 Nc6 32.e3] 30...Qxe5 31.Qxa7 Nxf2 32.Kxf2 Qg3+ 33.Kf1 Rf4+ 34.Bf3 Qxh3+ 35.Kg1 Qg3+ 36.Kh1 Rxf3 0-1.

Where did I go wrong? Pavel Eljanov and Boris Gelfand in the press conference

Evgeny Alekseev-Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Evgeny’s strategy for today’s game was quite tricky. In the Pirc Defense he abstained from the sharpest lines, forcing his creative and aggressive opponent to play a slow, maneuvering game. After Black somewhat weakened his position, Alekseev began to play on the light squares (18.Nb2!, 19.a4, 26.Bf1!) and got a significant advantage. However, he didn’t play his best at the technical stage. Prior to the control he missed the best continuation 39.Kc4! (instead of 39.Kd2), and Black replied with 39…e4!, which forced exchanges and allowed Black to survive.

Shakh 'n Ev. Azerbaijani GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Evgeny Alekseev

Etienne Bacrot (happily married) and his second Jannick Pelletier (permanent girlfriend)

Etienne Bacrot-Levon Aronian
This was another dull Marshall draw with White having an extra pawn against Black’s powerful bishop pair. One can notice Black’s novelty 23…h5 – the idea of advancing the h-pawn is very popular these days. I even thought that Black could play for a win by sacrificing an exchange: 26…Rxe3!? The exchanges that followed gave White some advantage, but Bacrot did not search for small edges and accepted the move repetition.

Stylish: Saint Petersburg GM Peter Svidler

Former FIDE world champion and recent Anand second Rustam Kasimdzhanov

Peter Svidler-Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Even short draws of the Russian champion are stylish. Mere mortals would never consider sacrificing a pawn on the 14th move, preferring to improve the position and wait for better spots. Svidler’s sacrifice destroyed the center, secured an excellent d4-square for White’s pieces and eventually gave White a draw from the position of strength. The final position of the game is indeed completely even.

Vassily Ivanchuk-Peter Leko
None of the players can be proud of this game. Leko wrongly provoked the opponent’s activity on the queenside by 15…Bb4. Ivanchuk happily accepted the invitation, rolled his pawns forward and won a pawn. Converting it wasn’t easy, but White could certainly play much better. He could try trading rooks by 35.Ra8, then bring the queen to c6 and the knight to d5, and start moving pawns. However, Vassily missed 38…Bb3!, and although he kept the material advantage, he could no longer create any real problems for the opponent. Logical simplifications led to a draw.

Alexander Grischuk-Vladimir Akopian
In this game both players for many moves followed a relatively unknown game, repeating even the less obvious moves. I thought that after 20.Rxh4 Rhd8 21.Qb4 White has a clear and comfortable advantage, although the move in the game is not bad either. Grischuk’s novelty 22.Bh3 was good – I was unable to find a clear-cut way to equalize for Black. Akopian rushed to trade queens in order to release tension around his king, which cost him a pawn. However, the Armenian saved this endgame with tenacious and very accurate defense. White’s last chance to play for a win was 33.h5!, while the rook invasion to the 7th rank gave Black time to create the saving counterplay.

Standings

FIDE Grand Prix Nalchik 2009 – Schedule and results

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