London Rd2: Leko beats Ivanchuk, Nakamura bounces right back

London Rd2: Leko beats Ivanchuk, Nakamura bounces right back
22.09.2012 ? The games for the most part continue to be very exciting. Leko shows Hungarian precision and positional mastery, while Nakamura punishes his opponent with sheer willpower and tenacity. Gelfand and Giri were easily neutralized by Topalov and Wang Hao respectively, and although Dominguez also drew against Grischuk it was not exactly easy. Annotated report by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

The First FIDE Grand Prix is taking place from September 21 to October 3rd in Simpson?s-in-the-Strand, London. The games start at 14:00h local time (= 15:00h CEST, 17:00h Moscow, 09:00 a.m. New York). The tournament has a prize fund of 240,000 Euros.

Round two report

By GM Alejandro Ramirez

The games for the most part continue to be very exciting.? Leko shows Hungarian precision and positional mastery, while Nakamura punishes his opponent with sheer willpower and tenacity.? Gelfand and Giri were easily neutralized by Topalov and Wang Hao respectively, and although Dominguez also drew against Grischuk it would be a stretch to say that he did it easily.

Round 2 on 2012/09/22 at 14:00
Leko Peter	2737	1-0	Ivanchuk Vassily	2769
Adams Michael	2722	?-?	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729
Giri Anish	2730	?-?	Wang Hao	2742
Grischuk Alexander	2754	?-?	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725
Gelfand Boris	2738	?-?	Topalov Veselin	2752
Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684	0-1	Nakamura Hikaru	2783

Hikaru Nakamura: "You win, you lose. Life."

Kasimdzhanov - Nakamura: In a strange Kings Indian, the game was probably level all the way throughout. Eventually, in time pressure, Kasimdzhanov made a mistake that allowed the American to seize the initiative in what otherwise seemed a mindless endgame. With his king on the ropes and playing on the few seconds he had left, Kasim blundered checkmate in two.? You just can?t get in time pressure against Hikaru.? Nakamura wins.

Gelfand - Topalov: Nothing to see here.? Draw

Another example of Leko's mastery

Leko - Ivanchuk: After Ivanchuk seemingly transposes into an equal endgame, he commits a series of imprecisions that allow Leko to put on pressure.? A blunder soon follows, the Hungarian pounces, and it is all over. The French defense suffers another defeat.? Leko wins.

Giri - Wang Hao: Not as dull as the Gelfand game, but it comes close.? Draw.

So far the Cuban player has done very well

Grischuk - Dominguez: Grischuk sacrifices a pawn early on to put on a lot of pressure on Dominguez? queenside, which is also underdeveloped.? The Cuban is suffering the entire game but manages to wiggle out into an uncomfortable endgame, where Grischuk?s passed d-pawn is causing him a lot of headaches.? Unfortunately by this point, that is his one and only trump card, and once it has been blockaded there is little left. He eventually transposes into a pawn up rook endgame, but the material is too simplified. Dominguez hols on to his life and draw.

Adams - Mamedyarov

[Event "FIDE Grand Prix - London 2012"] [Site "London"] [Date "2012.09.22"] [Round "2"] [White "Adams, Michael"] [Black "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "B19"] [WhiteElo "2722"] [BlackElo "2729"] [Annotator "Ramirez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "97"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] [EventCountry "ENG"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nf6 { Already a very unusual and provocative move. The main idea for black is to prevent Ne5 by playing Nd7, and only then developing the knight to f6. White doesn't hesitate in taking advantage of this situation, but this is not the first time Mamedyarov employs this mover order. He beat Harikrishna at the Olympiad with it.} 8. Ne5 Bh7 9. Bd3 (9. Bc4 e6 10. Qe2 Nd5 11. Qh5 Qc7 {was the Harikrishna game, and Black ended up being very solid.}) 9... Nbd7 10. f4 ( 10. Bxh7 Nxe5 11. dxe5 Qa5+ 12. Kf1 Nxh7 {has been tested by Dreev who scored a draw against Istratescu.}) 10... e6 11. Bxh7 Nxh7 12. Be3 Be7 {We're out of theory and it's not hard to guess what is going on. Black has a solid position but White is pushing his pawns trying to 'storm the barricades' and on top of that has a nice spatial plus. A standard strategical battle.} 13. Qf3 Qa5+ 14. c3 Nhf6 15. h5 {Black has a difficult choice in castiling. If he chooses the kingside, he will quickly be under fire with a move such as f5. If he chooses the queenside, it is unclear how he is going to defend his f7 pawn. For now, he decides it is best to put some pressure on the White position before making any rash decisions.} Qb5 16. O-O-O Nd5 $5 {White has the option of keeping Black's king in the center, but with Black's strong queen on b5 and knight on d7 he can be sure the center will be kept closed.} 17. Bd2 Nxe5 18. dxe5 { Adams played this move, so it must have a reason for existing, but more natural to me seemed to open the f-file. Of course this would allow a potential c5 break, but now I don't see how White will make much progress.} O-O-O 19. b3 Nb6 20. Qe2 {The endgame is slightly unpleasant for Black because of White's space advantage. Pushing the g-pawn forward will net him weaknesses and eventually an edge. Also, white is playing Mamedyarov. Whoever heard of Mamedyarov willingly defending a worse endgame (except for yesterday's game!)} Rd3 $5 {If I could put more !!!s and ???s I would. This move is wild, crazy and unnecessary to a point. Black sacrifices a full rook for what seems like a fleeting attack, but Mamedyarov has this under control.} 21. c4 {If White doesn't accept, the doubling on the d-file will actually give black an edge.} Qa6 22. Qxd3 Qxa2 {White is being threatened with Ba3 checkmate. There are two ways to protect against this, blocking with b4 (before or after c5) and moving the rook on d1.} 23. c5 (23. b4 $2 Rd8 24. Qc2 Qa1+ 25. Qb1 Qa3+ 26. Qb2 Qxg3 $17 {This knight hanging is the point of Black's attack. Once the knight is regained Black is not down that much material, and he still retains strong pressure.}) (23. Rde1 Rd8 24. Qc3 a5 $1 25. Ne4 (25. Nf1 Bb4 26. Qc2 Qa1+ 27. Qb1 Qxb1+ 28. Kxb1 Bxd2 29. Re4 $14 {Black has a lot of positional plus, but White is up the exchange after all.}) 25... Ba3+ 26. Kd1 $13) (23. Rdg1 $5 $13) 23... Bxc5 24. b4 Nc4 {forced.} (24... Rd8 25. Qc2 Qa1+ 26. Qb1 Qa3+ 27. Qb2 Qxg3 28. bxc5 {simply does not work.}) 25. Qb1 {Forced} (25. Qc3 $2 Rd8 $1 26. bxc5 Rd3 $19 {White can't defend b2 and the attack crashes through.}) 25... Qa3+ 26. Kc2 Qxg3 27. Qb3 Qxb3+ 28. Kxb3 Nxd2+ 29. Rxd2 {After a wild wild sequence we have this endgame in which Black must be slightly worse. Although normally having two pawns for an exchange is a good thing, here those pawns are far behind and the rooks have a lot of targets. However, Shakhriyar is able to easily hold this endgame after some explosive fireworks.} Be3 30. Rd3 Bb6 (30... Bxf4 31. Rf1 Bxe5 32. Rxf7 {Gives White too much activity.}) 31. Rg3 Rg8 32. Rd1 Bd8 33. b5 {This pawn sacrifice really seems more threatening than it is. After this Black has little to worry about.} cxb5 34. Rc3+ Kb8 35. Rd7 Rf8 36. Rg3 {Mickeys brilliant plan has only one flaw. White is threatening to win by taking on g7, and it seems unstoppable, unfortunately the rook on d7 has no space on the 7th rank.} Kc8 37. Rd1 Rg8 38. Rc3+ Kb8 39. Rd7 Rf8 {An intermediate move before a funny repetition.} 40. Kb4 a6 41. Rg3 Kc8 42. Rd1 Rg8 43. Rc3+ Kb8 44. Rd7 Rf8 45. Rg3 Kc8 46. Rd1 Rg8 47. Rc3+ Kb8 48. Rd7 Rf8 49. Rg3 {The Computers like trying on with g4, but it seems like that wouldn't win either. A very hard fought game where both players played very precisely after deciding that they wanted to play some rough chess. Bravo!} 1/2-1/2

All photos by Ray Morris-Hill

Daniel King: Round 2 Play of the Day: Leko vs Ivanchuk

Schedule and results

Round 1 on 2012/09/21 at 14:00
Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684	?-?	Leko Peter	2737
Nakamura Hikaru	2783	0-1	Gelfand Boris	2738
Topalov Veselin	2752	?-?	Grischuk Alexander	2754
Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725	?-?	Giri Anish	2730
Wang Hao	2742	?-?	Adams Michael	2722
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729	?-?	Ivanchuk Vassily	2769
Round 2 on 2012/09/22 at 14:00
Leko Peter	2737	1-0	Ivanchuk Vassily	2769
Adams Michael	2722	?-?	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729
Giri Anish	2730	?-?	Wang Hao	2742
Grischuk Alexander	2754	?-?	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725
Gelfand Boris	2738	?-?	Topalov Veselin	2752
Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684	0-1	Nakamura Hikaru	2783
Round 3 on 2012/09/23 at 14:00
Nakamura Hikaru	2783	-	Leko Peter	2737
Topalov Veselin	2752	-	Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684
Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725	-	Gelfand Boris	2738
Wang Hao	2742	-	Grischuk Alexander	2754
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729	-	Giri Anish	2730
Ivanchuk Vassily	2769	-	Adams Michael	2722
Round 4 on 2012/09/24 at 14:00
Leko Peter	2737	-	Adams Michael	2722
Giri Anish	2730	-	Ivanchuk Vassily	2769
Grischuk Alexander	2754	-	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729
Gelfand Boris	2738	-	Wang Hao	2742
Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684	-	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725
Nakamura Hikaru	2783	-	Topalov Veselin	2752
Round 5 on 2012/09/25 at 14:00
Topalov Veselin	2752	-	Leko Peter	2737
Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725	-	Nakamura Hikaru	2783
Wang Hao	2742	-	Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729	-	Gelfand Boris	2738
Ivanchuk Vassily	2769	-	Grischuk Alexander	2754
Adams Michael	2722	-	Giri Anish	2730
Round 6 on 2012/09/27 at 14:00
Leko Peter	2737	-	Giri Anish	2730
Grischuk Alexander	2754	-	Adams Michael	2722
Gelfand Boris	2738	-	Ivanchuk Vassily	2769
Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684	-	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729
Nakamura Hikaru	2783	-	Wang Hao	2742
Topalov Veselin	2752	-	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725
Round 7 on 2012/09/28 at 14:00
Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725	-	Leko Peter	2737
Wang Hao	2742	-	Topalov Veselin	2752
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729	-	Nakamura Hikaru	2783
Ivanchuk Vassily	2769	-	Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684
Adams Michael	2722	-	Gelfand Boris	2738
Giri Anish	2730	-	Grischuk Alexander	2754
Round 8 on 2012/09/29 at 14:00
Leko Peter	2737	-	Grischuk Alexander	2754
Gelfand Boris	2738	-	Giri Anish	2730
Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684	-	Adams Michael	2722
Nakamura Hikaru	2783	-	Ivanchuk Vassily	2769
Topalov Veselin	2752	-	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729
Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725	-	Wang Hao	2742
Round 9 on 2012/10/01 at 14:00
Wang Hao	2742	-	Leko Peter	2737
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729	-	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725
Ivanchuk Vassily	2769	-	Topalov Veselin	2752
Adams Michael	2722	-	Nakamura Hikaru	2783
Giri Anish	2730	-	Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684
Grischuk Alexander	2754	-	Gelfand Boris	2738
Round 10 on 2012/10/02 at 14:00
Leko Peter	2737	-	Gelfand Boris	2738
Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684	-	Grischuk Alexander	2754
Nakamura Hikaru	2783	-	Giri Anish	2730
Topalov Veselin	2752	-	Adams Michael	2722
Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725	-	Ivanchuk Vassily	2769
Wang Hao	2742	-	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729
Round 11 on 2012/10/03 at 11:00
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2729	-	Leko Peter	2737
Ivanchuk Vassily	2769	-	Wang Hao	2742
Adams Michael	2722	-	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2725
Giri Anish	2730	-	Topalov Veselin	2752
Grischuk Alexander	2754	-	Nakamura Hikaru	2783
Gelfand Boris	2738	-	Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2684

Video Reports

• Round 1 Video Reports: Macauley Peterson has produced a number of short video reports based on quick interviews held immediately after each games with the players.

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