The Sixth Grand Prix is taking place from May 10th to 25th in the new State
Drama Theatre of the city of Astrakhan. The stakes are extremely high, not only
due to high prestige of winning the event, but also because one can win here
a ticket to the candidates matches.
Round seven – May 17, 2010
Gashimov Vugar |
½-½ |
Svidler Peter |
Wang Yue |
½-½ |
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar |
Alekseev Evgeny |
1-0 |
Akopian Vladimir |
Inarkiev Ernesto |
0-1 |
Eljanov Pavel |
Ponomariov Ruslan |
½-½ |
Gelfand Boris |
Radjabov Teimour |
½-½ |
Jakovenko Dmitry |
Leko Peter |
½-½ |
Ivanchuk Vassily |
The surprise leader after round six was Ernesto Inarkiev, and in this round
he had white against the previous leader pavel Eljanov from Ukraine. Pavel needed
to win, and against the trendy Advance Caro Kan he chose a very tactical line.
Black emerged with an extra pawn and a better position after a brief skirmish
and tied up the game on move 50.
Eljanov vs Inarkiev in round seven brought a change in the lead
Alekseev-Akopian ended with a win for White, and with that Evgeny Alexeev moved
into joint second place. The other games were drawn. Full
report here...
Evgeny Alexeev in pursuit, after seven rounds half a point behind the leaders
Round eight – May 18, 2010
Svidler Peter |
½-½ |
Ivanchuk Vassily |
Jakovenko Dmitry |
½-½ |
Leko Peter |
Gelfand Boris |
½-½ |
Radjabov Teimour |
Eljanov Pavel |
0-1 |
Ponomariov Ruslan |
Akopian Vladimir |
1-0 |
Inarkiev Ernesto |
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar |
1-0 |
Alekseev Evgeny |
Gashimov Vugar |
½-½ |
Wang Yue |
Round eight in the State Drama Theatre in Astrakhan
This round saw an all Ukrainian derby. Unfortunately for Pavel Elajnov it seems
he has been jinxed in the second part of the tournament. He was beaten by his
compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov In a Catalan/Bogo Indian and thus gave up the sole
lead he had enjoyed after the previous round.
Former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov with his world-class glare
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who won his first game in round eight
The second game in this round with the Catalan/Bogo was Mamedyarov vs Alekseev,
in which the Azeri played in his normal express style and gave his opponent
little chance to breathe. Alekseev went wrong with 18…Ng4 which Shaki
nicely exploited thanks to the bad queen position on a6. The result was the
loss of two pieces for a rook and negligible compensation. The game was over
in 33 moves.
Vladimir Akopian managed to redeem himself somewhat, but remained in bottom
position, with a hard worked win against Ernesto Inarkiev, who played the middle
game extremely well and gave up his queen to get a dynamically equal position.
Black seemed to have got his pieces co-ordinated around move 30 but Vladimir
kept on pressing. Kudos to Akopian for not accepting the repetition and continuing
to probe until Inarkiev drifted. White won a pawn on the king side and this
turned out eventually to be decisive.
Peter Leko (Black) vs Dmitry Jakovenko was a Nimzo-Indian Rubinstein.
It appeared that White had winning chances after 29…f4 30.Bc1!? but it
appears that Peter had calculated the king and pawn endgame exactly and it will
be difficult to pinpoint where Jakovenko could have possibly won.
Peter Svidler and Vassily Ivanchuk drew in a Petroff in which both players
showed excellent technique, with the game at times looking like a fencing game.
Once both king positions were compromised it was only a matter of time before
a player was forced to take a perpetual.
Information, images and games by courtesy of FIDE
Standings after eight rounds
Statistics
Of the 56 games played so far:
- 70% (30 games) have ended in draws
- White won eight games = 14%
- Black has won nine = 16%.
|
|
Links
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 the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009! |
|
