Thessaloniki R04: Dominguez strikes again

From May 22 to June 03, 2013, the fourth stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2012-2013 is taking place in Thessaloniki, Greece. Twelve players are competing in a round robin tournament with time controls of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes and an increment of 30 seconds per move for each player. The Grand Prix Series consists of six tournaments to be held over two years, with 18 top players, each participating in four of the six tournaments. The winner and second placed player overall of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament to be held in March 2014.

Round four report

Topalov, Veselin - Ivanchuk, Vassily 1-0
Topalov again showed that he values piece activity far more than pawn structure. His kingside was shattered early in the game, exposing his king, but his superior development prevented Black from being able to take advantage of this. Ivanchuk kept finding ways to activate his own position, but at a crucial tactical juncture he failed to eliminate the menacing pawn on e6, and he paid dearly for it. Interestingly a few yeas ago a 2300 player reached the same juncture and was able to find the correct continuation to equalize.

A prelude.

Morozevich, Alexander - Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½
An unbelievably wild game was not a disappointment! Morozevich went for a quick pawn-storm on the kingside, which was quickly met with a break on the center: a typical Sicilian situation. Every move played was razor sharp, and even the computers had time fully understanding the position. Morozevich sacrificed a piece, but Black's king ended up exposed on e7. The Russian gave up even more material, a queen for a rook and a piece, to bring his opponent's king further up the board to e5! Nakamura saw his position was become too dangerous, so he gave back some material and forced a perpetual. Thrilling game.

"The Sicilian? Sure the Sicilian will do." Hikaru Nakamura in round four.

Grischuk, Alexander - Bacrot, Etienne ½-½
A positional struggle in which Grischuk always had some slight pressure, but certainly never enough to really inconvenience Bacrot. The game ended in its natural peaceful result.

Kamsky, Gata - Ponomariov, Ruslan ½-½
Kamsky's handling of the Spanish was not optimal, and Ponomariov was even able to get a slight edge out of the opening, without it being anything special. However shortly after time control Kamsky decided to simplify the position with the use of some tactics... which simply didn't work! Luckily for him Ponomariov missed the elegant refutation: 43...Qe7 which would have forced Kamsky to resign.

Dominguez in his striking pose before the round, with the Cuban flag in the background.

Dominguez Perez, Leinier - Svidler, Peter 1-0
A tense Spanish gave both sides interesting chances. Svidler penetrated through the queenside but allowed Dominguez to create threats against his king. His decisive mistake was to allow Dominguez to also control the eight rank, which simply gave too many access points against Svidler's already weakened king. After 34.f6! it was lights out and there was no saving for Black's monarch.

Caruana, Fabiano - Kasimdzhanov, Rustam ½-½
The Marshall Gambit is an excellent way of dealing with 1.e4. At the GM level, it means that either Black takes the initiative or White goes into an endgame with little to no advantage. Caruana chose the latter in this game, and despite having a bishop against a knight he was never able to do anything with it. The game closed in a draw that could have been sealed many moves before it happened.

"Sorry I'm late, tough day at work" - Rustam Kasimdzhanov with his wife, Firuza

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All pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule and results

The games start at 14:00h Eastern European Summer time, 15:00h Moscow, 7 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.