Thessaloniki 09: Dominguez wins, ties for first

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 nine report

Kasimdzhanov, Rustam - Ivanchuk, Vassily ½-½
Black was able to obtain near-equality from the opening. Kasimdzhanov tried to play on for quite a few moves but there was simply no way to make progress in this rook endgame.

Ivanchuk has not had his best tournament in Thessaloniki, but he held a comfortable draw today.

Bacrot, Etienne - Kamsky, Gata ½-½
Kamsky's a6 Slav remains extremely solid. Bacrot seemed at a loss for a plan, and was unable to create anything. Soon after the opening it was Black that had some minor pressure, but it was never anything serious and Bacrot held the half point without getting into hot water.

Kamsky makes the a6 Slav look unbeatable.

Nakamura, Hikaru - Ponomariov, Ruslan ½-½
The Veresov attack is a rare guest in top grandmaster chess, but Nakamura was able to at least obtain a slight pull from the opening in virtue of his better pawn structure. The Ukrainian defended well and was able to set up a perpetual check immediately after Hikaru capitalized on his structural advantage and won a pawn.

Morozevich, Alexander - Topalov, Veselin 0-1
This Caro-Kann turned into an ugly situation for Morozevich straight from the opening. Black's pieces on the queenside were active and putting consistent pressure on White's center, while not being hindered by any 'bad bishop' in this structure. Topalov soon won a pawn and, to avoid losing without a fight, Morozevich sacrificed a piece for three pawns. Topalov's play after that was spot on and he used his extra material to create a mating attack.

Morozevich has now lost three in a row and will face Kamsky tomorrow.

Svidler, Peter - Grischuk, Alexander ½-½
In this Kings Indian Defense that transposed into a Benoni structure, White found himself with initiative and opportunities on the queenside. However with every trade, and he had to massively trade to obtain his extra pawn, Svidler found his position more and more exposed. White's bishop was terrible, his king unsafe and Black's rook was active which allowed him to retain at least equality. The game went on for many moves but it could have stopped much earlier without any regrets.

Caruana fought to catch up with Kamsky, but now finds himself in third place a point behind the American and the Cuban with two rounds to go.

Caruana, Fabiano - Dominguez Perez, Leinier 0-1
The 8...h5 English Attack Najdorf has been a common guest at the highest level of chess, but there are always new ideas to be found in this variation. Dominguez's position out of the opening was not ideal but he did have strong counterplay and due to the early queen trade he didn't have to worry about Caruana launching an all-out attack against his king. After reaching the endgame Domingueuz took the courageous decision to sacrifice an exchange, which crippled White's pawns but more importantly gave the Cuban control of the only open file and of many key dark squares. White remained up the exchange for a long time but there was too much compensation as Black's central pawns kept rolling down the board. A series of mistakes by both sides in a complicated position kept the result of the game unclear, until Caruana erred with 56.Rd7+? and with Black's king penetration the mating nets and the rolling pawns were too much for White to handle.

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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.

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