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Tbilisi Grand Prix R8: Jobava wins again, Tomashevsky extends lead |
Georgian Grandmaster Baadur Jobava scored a second consecutive and third overall victory in the Tbilisi Grand Prix to reverse the negative trend from the start of the event.
Evgeny Tomashevsky defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in an extremely rare ending of 2 bishops + knight vs rook + 4 pawns.
On 6/8 points Tomashevsky is once again a full point ahead of the field, with Dmitry Jakovenko keeping the second place on 5 points.
Results and pairings are online, visit also the photo gallery and replay the games.
Press conferences will be available in the video gallery. Tuesday is a rest day, the tournament continues on 25th.
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Radjabov - Mamedyarov 1/2
Mamedyarov repeated the opening from yesterday - Queen's Gambit Cambridge Springs - that brough him success against Grischuk.
With this experience in mind, Radjabov wanted a quiet line. The opening had its normal course until black's pawn moves 15...g6 and 17...f6 forced white to sacrifice a piece and go for perpetual check.
Retreating the knight was a poor option, because 18.Nf3 f5 19.Bd3 c4 hands initiative to black. Radjabov believes that he should have played f2-f4 earlier.
The players then spoke about the upcoming tournaments in Azerbaijan, the 2nd Gashimov Memorial and World Chess Cup.
Mamedyarov said that his schedule is full, he will play Reykjavik Open, then a blitz event in Moscow and next Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir.
Radjabov said it is a great pleasure to have tournaments like Shamkir and World Cup organized in Azerbaijan. Shamkir with 10 participants will probably be the strongest tournament this year. Radjabov said that "some organizers can cut budgets and have 4 players with higher average elo", but it is greater achievement to have ten top players.
Kasimdzhanov - Andreikin 1/2
In the Chebanenko Slav defence white was inspired by the game Gelfand-Andreikin from one of the earlier Grand Prix events.
Kasimdzhanov tried to find a more clever move order that would allow him to quickly pile up the heavy pieces on the c-file. He complained that he moved 14.Rc1 too fast, instead of considering 14.Qe2 0-0 15.Rfc1 Rb8 16.Rc2.
Andreikin played very well and after 16...Nb6 white felt "that all of his pieces are wrongly placed".
Black succeeded in trading all the queenside pawns and rooks and draw was inevitable.
Giri - Grischuk 1/2
It was a Gruenfeld Indian defence, Russian System, and our game followed the encounter Tomashevsky-Grischuk from earlier Grand Prix in Baku.
Only on move 28 Giri played different than Tomashevsky, but it was already too late as the position simplified completely. Draw was signed shortly before the time control.
Grischuk commented "I don't understand the younger generation, it was well known this line leads directly into a draw". He expected Giri to press harder for a win.
Giri briefly said that something went wrong about his preparation and that he never intended to follow Tomashevsky's play.
Dominguez - Jakovenko 1/2
The game started as Anti-Berlin Ruy Lopez, but the structure soon took the shape of the major Spanish lines.
Black shifted his knight to the queenside and white responded with 14.a4, trying to break the formation.
Jakovenko was not shy to win the bishops pair, but his a6-pawn appeared to be target. Nevertheless, despite losing the pawn black had strong bishops and better pieces coordination.
White pieces were somehow drifting and he couldn't get them to work together. Black won the pawn back and Dominguez was forced to concede a draw.
Svidler - Jobava 0-1
Jobava once again entered the Caro-Kann Advance variation, only this time with a twist - he played 6...f6 fairly early. White countered with the aggressive 7.c4.
Svidler commented that he was more worried about 10...exd5 11.Nd4 Bxd4 12.Qxd4 Ne7 13.g4 c5 which looked totally wild. Jobava answered that he didn't like to allow white dangerous passer on e-file.
11...Ne7 was looked at during the press conference, but the players agreed that white emerges slightly better.
13.g4!? bxg4 14.Nd4 was very interesting, but Svidler certainly didn't expect 13...Qb8 which "looks odd". His reply 14.Qa3 was strong, preventing black from castling and forcing his hand.
Svidler originally planned 15.e4 with wild complications, but then changed his mind and opted for different move.
Immediately on the next move white committed a mistake which probably cost him the game. Taking the bishop on f5 allowed black to consolidate, castle long (which Svidler completely missed) and stabilise the extra pawn.
Svidler wanted to play 16.g4 Nxd4 17.exd4 Bg6 18.Rae1 with strong attack, but he couldn't make the line 16.g4 Bg6 17.Nxe6 Qe5 work. Only later he realised that he had the crushing 18.Nb5! there.
Given the chance, Jobava took only a dozen of moves to bring the victory home.
Vachier-Lagrave - Tomashevsky 0-1
The game had the normal course of the Anti-Marshall Ruy Lopez until white decided to reject the preferred 23.f3 and sharpen the play with 23.Qc2.
Black had to be careful about the tactics involving checkmate on h7, but he found all the best moves, including 25...Nd7. Vachier-Lagrave realised too late that 27.e5 is met with the powerful 27...Nf8!
After 29...Ne5 black is just winning, both players agreed.
But the position was far from simple because of the unusual material distribution where white had a rook and 4 pawns against 2 bishops and a knight.
Acting cautious enough, Tomashevsky converted the advantage after six and a half hours of play.
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