Beijing Rd3: Three black wins

The fifth stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Series is taking place between the 3rd and 17th of July 2013 on the premises of the Chinese Chess Association in Beijing. The time controls are 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move 61 onwards. The games start at 3 p.m. local time, except the last round. The Grand Prix Series consists of six tournaments to be held over two years (2012-2013). 18 top players participate in four of these 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.

After two rounds of meager pickings, chess fans were served three decisive games and remarkably all by Black. In fact this trend of black wins, bucking the age-old wisdom of ‘win with white, hold with black’ seems to be a reflection of opening preparation overall. It isn’t that Black is suddenly finding new resources to win more often that it used to, but rather that with Black equalizing so often nowadays, both colors come out with equivalent chances to bring the point. The biggest barrier is probably psychological for most older generation players. The new ones ‘just play chess’.

Wang Hao tries to see what the others are playing

In round three, the two Chinese players got into trouble, and both managed to stave off disaster. In a Gruenfeld Exchange against Alexander Grischuk, Wang Hao had a poor opening as White and found himself prevented from castling whilst facing a powerful pair of bishops. Things got worse since although he succeeded in entering an opposite-colored endgame, it was one where he faced two connected passers on the queenside. Whether or not the Russian misplayed it, or whether it was objectively drawn only analysis will tell, but Hao must have mentally wiped his brow in relief as they shook hands.

"Oh no! Not 1...Nf6!"

Wang Yue also got the worse of the opening against Peter Leko, as his Semi-Tarrasch never quite equalized. Instead a weak pawn on b6 fell and he found himself defending an endgame with four pawns against three on the kingside, as the pieces and some pawns were eliminated, the chances of conversion dropped and a draw was agreed on move 59

Even the third draw of the round was not without danger. Gata Kamsky chose the Open Catalan against Vesselin Topalov and despite considerable tension throughout the opening and middlegame, the balance was not broken. An unexpected 32.d6! shot changed this as White took the upperhand, but although Kamsky did manage to win a pawn for his efforts, it was at the cost of a fractured pawn structure, which was unwinnable in the rook endgame that ensued.

With both Morozevich and Ivanchuk losing due to distractions, perhaps there is a
lesson to be learned here: 'win first, look later'.

The game between Vassily Ivanchuk and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was a tragedy on the board. The brilliant Ukrainian built an opening advantage into a winning position, and after desperado tactics by the Azeri as black, Ivanchuk emerged with three pieces for the queen and a monster bishop pair to boot.  Instead he completely misplayed the imbalanced position and fell into a tactic that lost his rook and the game.

Here is the game with comments by GM Alexander Ipatov:

The young Dutch player was true to his nation's namesake and played the Dutch

Boris Gelfand has been experiencing a second wind this year after great victories at the Alekhine and Tal Memorials, but the Beijing Grand Prix has not been going his way so far. Anish Giri chose to face 1.d4 with his country’s namesake, the Dutch opening, Leningrad variation. It was a good struggle by both players and Black equalized after a tense opening and middlegame. The endgame promised to be no less fascinating with with Black holding four connected passed pawns on the kingside, against White’s two connected on both the kingside and queenside when the Israeli player lost control of his clock and fell on move 37.

Considering his approach to chess, Morozevich is the one who should be wearing
the t-shirt 'Born to Be Wild'.

Alexander Morozevich and Sergey Karjakin played a Queen’s Indian with 4.g3 that led to fascinating complications. Morozevich’s firebrand chess fell short this time as he saw his younger compatriot be the one to build up attacking chances against his king rather than the other way around. He reacted badly and after blundering a pawn, the game went downhill quickly. He tried to complicate things but Karjakin was up to the task and brought home his third straight win.

Another sizzling start by Sergey Karjakin who is on 3.0/3

Information and pictures by FIDE press chief WGM Anastasiya Karlovich

Games of round three. Click on the dropdown menu to change games:

Current Standings after three rounds

Schedule and pairings

The games start at 9:00h European time, 11:00h Moscow, 3 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. Time listed is the local round time in Beijing.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be 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.