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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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The fourth leg of the FIDE Grand Prix series will take place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from May 13 to May 27, 2015. It is the final stage of the 2014-15 Grand Prix series, a qualifying event for the 2016 Candidates Tournament, which will decide the challenger for Magnus Carlsen in the 2016 World Championship Match. It is a 12-player, 11-round all-play-all event.
The participants are:
Fabiano Caruana – Italy
Hikaru Nakamura – U.S.A.
Alexander Grischuk – Russia
Anish Giri – Netherlands
Sergey Karjakin – Russia
Evgeny Tomashevsky - Russia
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - France
Leinier Dominguez - Cuba
Boris Gelfand – Israel
Peter Svidler – Russia
Dmitry Jakovenko - Russia
Baadur Jobava – Georgia
_________
With eight days to go, there is still no official website up yet. The best FIDE can do is this:
Those unaccounted for are Caruana and Giri, who presumably are hitting the books at home.
Actually this is being a bit facetious. Anish Giri is doing an on-line fundraiser simul with all proceeds toward the UNICEF fund for the Nepal earthquake disaster.
Anish’s father Sanjay is from Nepal, his mother from Russia.
One of the tweets on chess.org.kz for the coming K-M Grand Prix says this:
An all-star lineup. All the best to Leisure Suit Peter.
The reference might be puzzling to some.
Leisure Suit Larry was an adult-themed video game, which followed Larry Laffer, a balding, double-entendre-speaking, leisure suit-wearing man in his 40s. The game revolves around him attempting, unsuccessfully to meet attractive women.
Peter Svidler has said a number of years ago that he attributes his good knowledge of English to having played a lot of Leisure Suit Larry as a child!
When commenting on the London Chess Classic 2014 he repeated the claim.
Last edited by Wayne Komer; Monday, 11th May, 2015, 12:42 PM.
Reason: changed blading to balding
All the usual suspects have shown up to play. The first to finish is the game Grischuk-Svidler. It is a draw and both players are eager to talk at the Press Conference, which they do in English and the interviewer interprets loudly in Russian. After the PC, Peter joins the commentator to help with the games. He gestures with his left hand and the right arm is just hanging – so it looks like he has not quite recovered from breaking that arm in football in April.
Nakamura has a heavy beard, as does Grischuk. Peter’s is not quite so luxuriant and Jobava just looks fashionably unshaven. Peter says that he is really out of qualifying for the Candidates and Grischuk has a better chance than he, but the places open will probably go to Tomashevsky, Nakamura and Caruana. No player not competing in Khanty can qualify, not even 2nd-placed Mamedyarov since a last-place finish for Caruana would still see him earn 10 points and move above Mamedyarov.
Peter quotes the above from an article at chess24.com. That piece by Colin McGourty concludes with this:
The 2016 Candidates Tournament will feature eight players:
1 Vishy Anand - the previous challenger, and the only player already confirmed
2 The Top 2 from the World Cup - except in the unlikely event Anand both plays and makes the final, in which case the 3rd placed player would qualify
3 The Top 2 from the Grand Prix - unless one or both players make the final of the World Cup, in which case they would be replaced by the next player below them in the Grand Prix
4 The Top 2 by rating - unless one or both already qualified through the World Cup or Grand Prix, in which case the qualifiers would be the next players by rating. Note that to qualify by rating you must also play in either the Grand Prix or the World Cup – so Veselin Topalov may need to play the World Cup, although he dislikes the rapid chess element
5 One player nominated by the organiser - so far we have no venue, but Russia, Azerbaijan or a Rex Sinquefield-backed US look like possible contenders, all of whom would no doubt nominate a local player
After Round One, the unlikely leaders are Jakovenko and Tomashevsky. A mathematician (?) Martin Bennedik tweets: "Race to FIDE Candidates after KM Round 1: Jakovenko in, Nakamura out.” Wow, talk about a rush to judgement.
Khanty-Mansiysk 2015
Round One, May 14, 2015
Vachier Lagrave, Maxime – Gelfand, Boris
B30 Sicilian, Nimzowitsch-Rossolimo Attack (3..e6)
If Tomashevsky fails to qualify for the Candidates I'm sure he's going to have nightmares about today's draw with Grischuk. He missed a forced mate (i.e. plus 1,000) at move 39 as well as 2nd (plus 50.87) and 3rd (plus 23.08) best continuations ):
(ChessBase) - Svidler definitely had a much comfortable position at some point. His bind on the queenside was very strong and it was uncomfortable to deal with - even though it is true that making progress was far from easy. It does feel that his trading into a drawn endgame was premature, and he could have made Caruana suffer a little more. Peter won the post-game analysis hands down.
Khanty-Mansiysk 2015
Round Two, May 15, 2015
Svidler, Peter – Caruana, Fabiano
D57 QGD, Lasker Defence, Main Line
(ChessBase) - Nakamura's second black in a row and his second aggressive opening choice. He decided to employ his trusty King's Indian Defense, and he obtained a great position from it. A nice transition into the endgame made it seem as if Black was simply up a pawn, but there were some very real technical difficulties in converting the pawn. Gelfand found some miraculous counterplay and was able to hold the draw in an opposite colored bishop situation.
Khanty-Mansiysk 2015
Round Two, May 15, 2015
Gelfand, Boris – Nakamura, Hikaru
E97 King’s Indian, Orthodox, Aronin-Taimanov (4.e4)
(ChessBase) MVL was outplayed. Jobava even refused a repetition at some point, going for a win and he was justified in doing so. They eventually reached a complicated rook endgame that was obviously better for Black, but it is unclear if it is winning. The position after 55.Kg2 might be the key one, as Jobava advanced too hastily with h4 and MVL managed a draw.
Khanty-Mansiysk 2015
Round Two, May 15, 2015
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime – Jovaba, Baadur
B12 Caro-Kann, Advance Variation
In 19 moves after 37…Qd3+
In 12 moves after 37…Qd1+
In 11 moves after 37..Ke8 or Rxd5
40.Be3?? and there you are. 40.Rg8+ was the move.
________
(chess-news.ru) - The last few moves up to the time control were played in great mutual time-trouble, thanks to the fact that the tournament is using a time control without increments, something which will be abolished starting from the next cycle.
39.Qxf7+ (Even "stronger" is 39.Qxd6) 39...Rxf7
Tomashevsky "Here I had four seconds and played the first move I thought of: 40.Be3?
After 40.Rg8+ Kd7 41.Rxa6 the game would probably have ended at once.
40...Nc5 41.Rg8+ Kd7 42.Ra8 Rb7 43.Bxc5 A practical decision. Even long thought was not enough for Evgeny to assess the variation 43.Bg5!? Rf1+ 44.Kc2 Rf2+ 45.Kd1 Ne6 46.dxe6+ Kxc6 47.e7 Rxe7 48.Bxe7 Rxb2 49.Rxa5.
43...dxc5 44.Rxc5? But this is the decisive slip. He keeps good winning chances with 44.b3! For example, 44...Rf1+ 45.Kc2 Rf2+ 46.Kd3 Rh2 47.Rxa5 etc.
44...Rf1+ 45.Rc1 Rxc1+ 46.Kxc1 b3 47.a3 Rc7+ 48.Kd2 Rc2+, and on move 74, with only kings left on the board, the players shook hands. 1/2-1/2
"It is hard to explain rationally why I didn't win, - smiled Tomashevsky. - But such things happen in sport: Yesterday I played terribly, but got the whole point, whilst today i played what may have been one of my best games, but could not convert it".
________
Standing after Round Two
Dominguez 1.5
Tomashevsky 1.5
Jakovenko, Karjakin, Svidler, Caruana, Nakamura, Gelfand, MVL and Grischuk all have 1.0
'Chess By The Numbers' hasn't updated their odds to take into account R3 results, but clearly Caruana again becomes the favourite to secure a Grand Prix Candidates spot with Naka and Toma likely a coin flip for the 2nd spot. All others are long odds.
Four draws and then two decisive games. Caruana wins his first game and Tomashevsky loses his first game in three Grand Prix events!
I thought we were to have the delicious spectacle of Svidler wearing a blue leisure suit but it turned out to be only a light blue sports jacket and jeans.
Some interesting comments from the PC with Nakamura and Giri:
Nakamura:– I looked at this line for someone else who is obviously much weaker, and then I decided to try the idea here. I thought maybe it is not easy to find all the right moves over the board, but Anish played it very correctly.
Giri:– There are three reasons why I know this line. First of all, I saw some article by, I think, Smerdon. Usually I read his articles because they are funny. This one probably wasn’t funny, but at least I learned something. Another reason is that once I had this line in an online blitz game. And the third reason is that a friend of mine recently recorded video series on sidelines in the Italian, so I was up to date even in insane lines like this. I guess I was even more educated than Hikaru.
Nakamura:– It’s clear I should have tried this against a weaker player!
Giri:– That article that I read was written from White’s prospective, so it stated that if Black finds all the right moves, White still has some kind of pressure. I thought it cannot be any pressure, as Black is a pawn up, but during the game I understood what he meant: if somewhere White will regain the pawn, and he’ll be centralized, he might get some slight pressure.
– It’s not a secret that these days chess grandmasters have to store many variations in their memory. My question is how much of it is always in your brain, and how much do you have to “upload” prior to a game?
Nakamura:– I don’t know about percentage, but in general positional lines are easier to remember, and in sharp tactical positions you have to be 100% sure – one wrong move, and you basically lose the game. You have to review something like that every couple of weeks. In general I probably can remember the end of the line and its basic idea, but it’s more matter of how to get to that point, I think.
But for the most part modern day chess is all about preparation. Very high percentage!
Giri:– I remember almost all the evaluations, know which lines are good for Black, and which are good for White. However, there are so many details in analysis, so if you ask me about the percentage of moves I remember, it would be extremely low. Probably below 10 percent. But it’s hard to speak in such terms because some moves are irrelevant, other moves you can find over the board. Generally the top players keep quite a lot of it in their memory.
– Are you able to follow all the opening information that appears in chess media?
Nakamura:– Some people can do it, but I am not one of them. I will read articles here and there, but for games you normally go to a database. Maybe if I were more crazy about chess, like Ivanchuk, I would probably know every single game.
Giri:– I read all more or less important publications to make sure I am not behind, and I am not behind, so that’s fine.
________
Khanty-Mansiysk 2015
Round 3, May 16, 2015
Jobava, Baadur – Gelfand, Boris
D90 Grunfeld, Flohr Variation
I'm bemused that the 2 lowest betting odds (White to win) for those R4 pairings belong to Tomashevsky (12/5) and Jobava (59/20). Tomashevsky has never beaten Jakovenko, losing their first 3 encounters and drawing the last 8 while Jobava has only beaten Grischuk once in 7 opportunities, losing 3 and drawing 3. Svidler at 13/4 also seems a remarkably bad bet given his plus 2, minus 4, equal 19 record against Karjakin.
There is a classic Hancock’s Half Hour radio show episode called “Sunday Afternoon at Home”. It deals with the boredom that comes at 2 p.m. on a rainy Sunday after a large dinner. Of course, who would expect excitement at 23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam anyway?
That show came to mind with Round Four on a Sunday, at 3 p.m. and with the Rest Day tomorrow. One would expect six quick draws and then everyone off to watch Canada play Russia in the World Championship final.
But, it seems that Tomashevsky and Caruana have come to play. The games:
Khanty-Mansiysk 2015
Round 4, May 17, 2015
Gelfand, Boris – Giri, Anish
D38 QGD, Ragozin, Marshall Variation
When asked at the post-game interview if he was surprised that the most viewers watching the broadcast were from the USA, Fabiano very straight-facedly said that he would have thought most of the viewers would be from India!
He did do a double-take when he missed a possible Qxh2 mate in the post-game analysis. The position did not occur in the actual game.
Khanty-Mansiysk 2015
Round 4, May 17, 2015
Tomashevsky, Evgeny – Jakovenko, Dmitry
E00 Queen’s Pawn Game
Karjakin seemed to think the games were hard fought. But then he was in a good mood because it is his first anniversary and he is dining with his wife.
(Karjakin tweet) – Very fighting games, despite all the draws. Funny to have nf3+g3 three times in a row. Now in the beautiful restaurant, waiting for the bear.
________
Standing After Round Four
Caruana 3
Dominguez, Svidler 2.5
Karjakin, Nakamura, Grischuk, Tomashevsky, Gelfand all have 2.0
Giri, MVL, Jobava, Jakovenko all have 1.5
Leinier Dominguez and Sergey Karjakin finished their game in a draw and came to the press-center to meet the press.
Q: Leinier, you are representing sunny Cuba here. Would you expect such a warm, even hot weather in Siberia in spring?
Leinier Dominguez replied that he left Cuba a month ago, as he played in the World Team Championship in Armenia first, and then participated in the Russian Club Championship in Sochi. Naturally, he expected colder weather, so this came as a nice surprise. He added that he really likes it when it’s warm outside, it feels much more comfortable for him.
Q: Leinier, you have played in the Russian League for several years now. Did you like the new venue?
GM Dominguez said he has played in the Russian League for the fourth time and enjoys it because it is such a strong event where he can meet some really strong opponents and gain experience. He likes the new venue – Grand Hotel Zhemchuzhina – even better.
Q: Sergey, why you did not play in the League this year?
Sergey Karjakin said he really wanted to, but he participated in the World Team Championship prior to the League and then had this tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk scheduled. Playing three important and strong events in a row would certainly be ill-advised. Sergey revealed that he was invited to the Siberia club, which ended up winning the championship. He also mentioned that his previous club – Malachite – still owes him the prize money from the last year, so he had no intention of playing for them this year.
Q: Leinier, you come to Russia quite often. Did you learn any Russian yet?
Dominguez: No, unfortunately. I think Russian is a very difficult language. Nevertheless, if I had little more free time, I would start learning it.
The odds of Caruana getting his Candidates spot in Khanty-Mansiysk are now up to 93%. Toma still has the edge over Naka for the other Candidates spot at 55% to 40%.
The round after the Rest Day. Nakamura said he would watch some sports on his time off:
There’re the finals in Rome, of course, between Djokovic and Federer and, besides, there is also NHL hockey.
As far as hockey goes, I personally find Conference finals more interesting because I root for “New York Rangers”. As for the victory of Russia in the semifinal of World Championship, I think this is mostly because all best Russian players are not in play-off anymore. So I think this is one of the reasons why Russia beat the US as many best American players are still in the play-off.
Many people like to make fun of FIDE for conflicts between tournaments, but when you look at something like hockey, which is called more professional by many people; World Championships finals are taking place at the same time as the Stanley Cup finals. Because of that you don’t have absolutely best players and I think it is a shame that there is such a conflict in hockey.
_______
My general impression of the games so far is that Tomashevsky wants to play out every game, that Caruana has a quiet confidence that he will be in the top two and that Nakamura is sure that he will get a trip through to the Candidates. The kibitzers on chessbomb.com make a few of these points:
Archpawn: Naka turned himself in a few months from Morphy to Leko
CheshireDad: Drawing makes sense for Naka, as I mentioned. His eye is on qualifying for the Candidates. He can do that without finishing in a top place here, as long as he keeps his rating up.
Ernie: Yes Svidler should have pressed on
Vladacval: Only our true player is Evgeny, he's taken an anti-draw vaccine, others really disappoint
Moropo: Caruana will qualify through Grand Prix, so that means that Topalov and Naka are the qualifers by rating
Moropo: thats why Naka is not sweating it
DrHazziman: this is just unfinished business
Horse: what is wrong with Naka, no desire to win left?
CheshireDad: As for Svidler, even were he to win the tournament, his chances to qualify are essentially nil
Archpawn: Naka can't get motivated unless he's playing bullet
CheshireDad: No, Naka is playing very cautiously on purpose. He has to keep his rating above Kramnik's.
______
The games:
Khanty-Mansiysk 2015
Round Five, May 19, 2015
Grischuk, Alexander – Gelfand, Boris
B53 Sicilian, Chekhover Variation
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