Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

**Wayne Komer** · Tuesday, 28th May, 2013, 04:08 PM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Second Round

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Matches today:

Bacrot vs Kasimdzhan
Grischuk vs Nakamura
Morozevich vs Svidler
Caruana vs Ivanchuk
Dominguez vs Ponomariov
Topalov vs Kamsky

Commentators: Adonis Kanioros, Stelios Halkias and Sotiris Logothetis

The guys talk about who might win the tournament and settle upon Peter Svidler. He disappeared from chess until March, only playing in Tashkent. In London Candidates, he finished in third place, played in the Bundesliga, the Russian Team Championship, Alekhine Memorial, Norway Super Tournament and now here. He actually said that after Thessaloniki he will rest not play until the World Cup in August in Tromsoe. He is still playing aggressively. This requires a lot of energy – playing and preparation. This requires a lot of exercise.

(Adonis) – Perhaps Peter has some personal training. Kasparov was in excellent physical shape. I train daily. I run so I am in good physical shape. It requires a lot of time to train every day. It gives me more energy when I am in a tournament. Lately I ran in the marathon. It is not every day that a chessplayer runs the marathon. I was training for half an hour to an hour a day. My goal was to finish the marathon. I did it in four and a half hours. When you do it with friends and listening to music it is not boring. 42.2 kilometres.

The Greek transmission is very casual compared to that which came from France in the Alekhine Memorial. People walk in front of the cameras all the time, cables are draped everywhere. The guys are always kibitzing. They sometimes go off on a break for extended periods of time…

The first game to finish is Dominguez Perez vs Ponomariov. How many moves in the Closed Ruy Lopez are known in theory? A triple repetition of moves was started on the 15th and the draw agreed to on the nineteenth. One for the books, I guess.

This account has been given of Morozevich-Svidler:

This was a startling blowout, won by White in just 22 moves. Morozevich played the Spanish Four Knights, and Svidler played Rubinstein's well-known pawn sacrifice. Morozevich returned the pawn for queenside play, and it seems that Svidler was a bit too interested in making something happen on the kingside rather than neutralizing his opponent's queenside play. The plan with 16...e4 and 17...Rh6 was a bit too optimistic, and 18...Nh4 was far too optimistic. Moro calculated and captured his way to what was by the end an overwhelming victory.

Topalov-Kamsky and Bacrot-Kasimdzhan were draws.

Kamsky is wearing a blue baseball cap. Is he wearing it as defiance against the new dress code, is it a fashion statement? A comment on line says that he is using it to hide a bald spot!

Fabiano Caruana wins against Ivanchuk. He was not surprised with the opening (Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Def). Ivanchuk had equalized by the 40th move but then went downhill after his 41…Kf6.

Vassily comes to the press conference but more or less sits depressed like a lump.

Question from the audience – Why did you resign?

Vassily – Because my position is completely losing.

Man in audience – It was in the opinion of most that the position is still playable.
++++++++++

Nakamura lost his first game and now plays on as if trying to improve his form. On chessbomb.com the viewers are debating whether it is a draw or not. In Greece dinner is served late, they say, so Nakamura can just play and play and ask to be shown the win.

It is rook and bishop, 3 pawns vs rook and bishop and one pawn (both bishops are dark-squared). Finally on move 85 Grischuk allows the rooks to be exchanged. This means that if there is a win, it is going to take a long time to produce. The spectators start talking about the 50-move rule and a hypothetical 150-move rule!

At move 87 the players have been going for 6.5 hours. Some say it will be a win for white, others a draw.

Finally, Nakamura resigns on the 121st move.

I would have liked to see Sasha give the mate but what are you going to do?

**Wayne Komer** · Tuesday, 28th May, 2013, 11:20 PM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Third Round

Friday, May 24, 2013

GM Stelios Halkias and FM Sotiris Logothetis are providing live English commentary.

The matchups today are:

Kamsky-Grischuk
Ponomariov-Topalov
Ivanchuk-Dominguez
Svidler-Caruana
Kasimdzhanov-Morozevich
Nakamura-Bacrot

The guys talk about Caruana saying that he is very stable; he doesn’t always play fantastic games like yesterday but he always plays decent chess. He wins a few games, draws the rest, rarely loses and so always finishes near the top – just like Magnus Carlsen. Every day he plays better.

Caruana won a very nice positional game against Ioannis Papaioannou, in the Olympiad. It seems like the Greek team always meets the Italian team in the Olympiads in the last round.

The Greek team doesn’t do very well in the morning. Everybody can beat us then.

Let’s take two average grandmasters, the grandmaster that you meet every day on the street. I don’t mean Magnus Carlsen or these guys. Now the average guys are on the same level – 2600. They are of the same chess strength, understanding and chess education.

If they have to play in the morning – one performs reasonably stably and the other plays much below his actual strength. This has to do with biorhythms. Some are morning-type guys and some just can’t get up from bed in the morning.

Kramnik and Carlsen have said in Italy that they never wake up in the morning. It shows that they can still perform if they have to with a morning round. Chess players generally are night owls and can’t really perform in the morning. As you get older though, you are more able to get up earlier.
++++++++++

Svidler-Caruana is a draw as are the rest of the games. There is a Greek tragedy in Ivanchuk’s game.

One commentary said this:

As for the one decisive game, it was a catastrophe for Ivanchuk. He had a colossal advantage against Dominguez, missing an easy outright win on move 26 with 26.Be5 (he had time, too, but it's one of those moves you either "see" quickly or you don't; more time is unlikely to help), and then a more subtle win on move 31 (31.Nxg7 Rxd6 32.Qe8+ Kh7 33.Nh5! - not too difficult either, if one has time on the clock) and yet a third win the next move (32.Nxg7 followed by 33.Ne8). Even after these errors he was still better, and would have had good winning chances after 37.Nf6+ or especially 37.Nc7. Instead, he uncorked the ridiculous 37.f4??, hanging his knight.

The finish was if anything even more amazing. Back in 2009 the same players had another time scramble. Ivanchuk knocked over some pieces then, and although he was winning at the time control he felt bad about the toppled pieces and offered a draw. In act of remarkable sportsmanship, Dominguez didn't take the knight but went for a perpetual check, to pay Ivanchuk back for the 2009 game, but Ivanchuk's flag fell on the last move of the time control and the arbiters declared the forfeit - even as Dominguez tried to declare the game drawn! Alas...

After three rounds Vassily has a draw and two losses.
+++++++++++

Nakamura-Bacrot seems to go on forever. It is a queen and pawns endgame and is finally drawn in 73 moves. Nakamura has two losses and a draw and his first three games have gone 69, 121 and 73 moves, respectively.

When this was in the endgame, the Head of the Appeals Committee, Zurab Azmaiparashvili, stopped by and made a few comments to the commentators.

The name seemed familiar to me. Is it to you?

He is a grandmaster from Georgia, a big bluff guy – sort of like your Greek uncle Nicholas.

Unfortunately, he is a magnet for controversy.

This from Wikipedia:

Azmaiparashvili made chess news in 2004 when, at the closing ceremony of the 36th Chess Olympiad in Calvià, he was arrested by local police and subsequently held in custody for several days. The attitude of the event's organizers towards Azmaiparashvili had apparently been soured when, upon his arrival in Spain, he had attempted to secure himself two hotel rooms, claiming he was entitled to one in his capacity as a FIDE vice-president, and another as a player at the event.

This sour mood seems to have brought him extra attention at the closing ceremony when he approached the stage, apparently in an attempt to inform FIDE officials that the organizers had neglected to award a prize named in honour of Georgian former Women's World Champion Nona Gaprindashvili. He came into conflict with security officials, and a scuffle broke out resulting in injuries both to Azmaiparashvili and a security agent.

There is a Chessbase article with photos showing Zurab with bruises on his forehead and a blackened right eye at

http://en.chessbase.com/home/TabId/211/PostId/4002004

I was inclined to blame FIDE at the time I read the article but now I am not sure; two hotel rooms, really? Form your own opinion.

End of Round Three

**Wayne Komer** · Wednesday, 29th May, 2013, 12:50 AM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Fourth Round

Saturday, May 25, 2013

The matchups today are:

Dominguez(1.5)-Svidler(1.5)
Morozevich(2)-Nakamura(0.5)
Caruana(2)-Kasimdzhan(2)
Grischuk(2)-Bacrot(1)
Topalov(1.5)-Ivanchuk(0.5)
Kamsky(2)-Ponomariov(1.5)

Ivanchuk resigns to Topalov in 21 moves.

(Topalov) – My opponent missed e7. He can’t castle and he can’t take the pawn. Ivanchuk is totally out of shape and the game yesterday affected him greatly. It is like he blunders, then loses control and gets disappointed because of it.

(Readers may recall the 54th Reggio Emilia tourney last year when Ivanchuk in round seven, visibly haunted by his loss to Giri, dropped a piece against Vitiugov in such a way that spectators were left gaping. In round eight, against Caruana, he just flipped and literally tried to give away all his pieces! (Chessbase).)

http://en.chessbase.com/home/TabId/211/PostId/4007815

(Anastasiya) Are there some players that you have or had trouble with?

(Topalov) I was losing to both Shirov and Leko ten years ago. I lost many games to them both. They were playing much stronger then. I was able to change these negative results.

(Anastasiya) Do you have any difficulties playing against women?

(Topalov) Only with Judit. She has beaten me many times.

(Audience) Whom do you favor in the WCC – Carlsen or Anand?

(Topalov) Carlsen plays much better. In the past few years Carlsen’s results have been better than Anand’s. Carlsen is more motivated and much younger. Match experience will not be compensated by the difference in ages.
+++++++++++++

Ivanchuk has lost three games in a row and at the London Candidates, lost five games on time.
The guys give advice to people who get into time trouble. Don’t search for perfection. Decide that you will play faster.

Ah, if it were only that easy to do.
+++++++++++++

Chessvibes commented on the Kamsky game:

Gata Kamsky and Ruslan Ponomariov played an interesting Zaitsev Ruy Lopez. The American went for 12.Ng5 just like he had done in his Candidates final match against Veselin Topalov in 2009, something that his opponent wasn't aware of. Ponomariov improved upon that game anyway, and a few moves later he was already a bit better when Kamsky miscalculated something. With the plan g2-g4-g5 Kamsky somehow managed to hold the balance, and after the time control the game quickly ended in a draw.
The players were probably quite surprised when they checked their game with the computer, as Houdini actually points out a win for Black at move 43! (This line wasn't mentioned in the press conference.) And indeed, Ponomariov tweeted the following: 43...Qe7 was winning in one move and I had lots of time to think before playing 43...Qf3! Now I have such a "good mood" before rest day...
++++++

Chessbase on the drawn Morozevich-Nakamura game:

An unbelievably wild game was not a disappointment! Morozevich went for a quick pawn-storm on the kingside, which was quickly met with a break on the center: a typical Sicilian situation. Every move played was razor sharp, and even the computers had a problem fully understanding the position. Morozevich sacrificed a piece, but Black's king ended up exposed on e7. The Russian gave up even more material, a queen for a rook and a piece, to bring his opponent's king further up the board to e5!

Nakamura saw his position had become too dangerous, so he gave back some material and forced a perpetual. A thrilling game.
+++++++

Showing that yesterday wasn't just a fluke, Dominguez played an enterprising game against Svidler, got a slight advantage and severely punished his opponent's mistakes.

Caruana-Kasimdzhan and Grischuk-Bacrot were draws.

**Wayne Komer** · Wednesday, 29th May, 2013, 03:14 PM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Fifth Round

Monday, May 27, 2013

Pairings and scores:

Nakamura(1)-Caruana(2.5)
Ivanchuk(0.5)-Kamsky(2.5)
Svidler(1.5)-Topalov(2.5)
Kasimdzhan(2.5)-Dominguez(2.5)
Ponomariov(2)-Grischuk(2.5)
Bacrot(1.5)-Morozevich(2.5)

Yesterday was a rest day and some of the players took a sight-seeing tour. Thessaloniki is the second-largest city in Greece. Supposedly you can look from the city across the Mediterranean and see Mount Olympus, which is 80km away, as the crow flies.

The earliest known letter by the Apostle Paul was written to the early Christian church in Thessaloniki and identified in the Bible as First Thessalonians.
+++++++

There was a quick draw between Ivanchuk and Kamsky and thus Vassily stopped his losing streak. Kamsky was satisfied with an early draw as black and gained a rest day.

Ruslan Ponomariov and Alexander Grischuk also split the point, in a Berlin Ending. “The most interesting position in the game is the final position”, said Grischuk, who thought his opponent could have continued a bit longer in the opposite-coloured bishop ending. There was one more plan left for White, who could try to activate his king further (all the way to e7), but that's stuff for endgame aficionados. (Chessvibes)

Dominguez beat Kasimdzhan for his third win in a row and the lead in the tournament.

Bacrot-Morezevich was a draw after 81 moves. The final diagram shows a black king and knight with the white king in the middle of the board.

Nakamura-Caruana had black with the advantage throughout most of the game. But after Caruana won a pawn, he started to play some inaccuracies, rooks were exchanged and the ending was pawns and light-squared bishops.

On chessbomb.com at this point someone commented:

Two pawns down, same colour bishops and naked king = 0-1

Another commented: I played a kid recently who played on till checkmate..in the end, I had two light-squared bishops thanks to underpromotion.

Finally, the players split the point on the 84th move.
++++++++

The guys discuss whether you should pronounce the “t” in “often” in good spoken English. They decide that both ways are correct. Since there is no Britisher in the audience, they think the next best thing is to ask Svidler because he speaks English like a native.

Ioannis Papaioannou speaking of Peter Svidler. I lost to him in the world Under-16 in Duisburg, Germany in 1992. Even then his English was very good. I lost a Grunfeld to him.

His chess ability is great and he has won all these Russian Championships. It sounds very strange for someone born and raised in Russia but he is very fond of cricket. People from the old British Empire are acquainted with cricket and like cricket. It is very unusual to find someone like this in Russia.

Maybe we should get him to explain cricket at the next press conference.

Maybe not.
+++++++

For those worrying about the “t” in “often” - from the Random House Dictionary:

'Often' was pronounced with a t-sound until the 17th century, when a pronunciation without the [t] came to predominate in the speech of the educated, in both North America and Great Britain, and the earlier pronunciation fell into disfavor. Common use of a spelling pronunciation has since restored the [t] for many speakers, and today /ˈɔfən/[aw-fuh and /ˈɔf[awf-tuhn] or /ˈɒfən/[of-uhn] and [of-tuhn] exist side by side. Although it is still sometimes criticized, 'often' with a /t/[t] is now so widely heard from educated speakers that it has become fully standard once again.

**Wayne Komer** · Wednesday, 29th May, 2013, 04:57 PM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Sixth Round

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Matchups and Scores:

Ponomariov(2.5)-Ivanchuk(1)
Caruana(3)-Bacrot(2)
Dominguez(3.5)-Nakamura(1.5)
Topalov(3)-Kasimdzhanov(2.5)
Kamsky(3)-Svidler(2)
Grischuk(3)-Morozevich(3)

Stelios Halkias is commenting in English today. Ioannis is doing the Greek commentary.
+++++++++

A sad beginning. Chessvibes:

At the start of the round it became clear that Vassily Ivanchuk is really suffering in Thessaloniki. The Ukrainian lost his game with Ruslan Ponomariov in just 19 moves and the whole thing lasted one hour and twenty minutes.
“Truly speaking I don't think it has something to do with chess. I don't know why he isn't concentrated. In knockout tournaments if you play badly you can go home after two rounds, but here you have to suffer till the end”, said Ponomariov afterwards. He added: After the game he said to me "I'm sorry for such a bad game."
+++++++++

Comment: That round 2 in the Candidates Matches jinxed two players. I hope they open their parachutes soon. (Ivanchuk and Radjabov?)
++++++++++

Dominguez has the advantage over Nakamura. If Dominguez scores four consecutive wins in a row in a Grand Prix that would be some sort of record.

Of course, Topalov did win six out of his first seven games in San Luis (Argentina) 2005, which is unbelievable.

In Norway, Karjakin started with four out of four.

(Note from Wikipedia: Topalov scored an extraordinary 6½/7 in the first cycle, one of the greatest streaks in the history of championship-level chess. He then drew every one of his games in the second cycle, clinching the victory with one round to spare. This made Topalov the FIDE World Chess Champion.)
+++++++++

There is a geomagnetic storm over Greece today. It means increased magnetic fields and it has occurred over other countries in the past. The point is that it is supposed to affect people’s behavior as well as telecommunications. Maybe their chess decisions too!

Anastasiya asks during the press conference of Grischuk and Morozevich (draw) if the geomagnetic storm affected them during the game. Morozevich says that he feels it every day the way that he is playing, “I’m obviously under some sort of magnetic storm influence”. Grischuk not at all.
+++++++++

Caruana beat Bacroft and Topalov drew with Kamdizhanov. Kamsky beat Svidler in a nice game.

Chessbase: Nakamura's strange handling of the opening landed him in a basically lost position by move 20. Dominguez played it somewhat too carefully and allowed Nakamura to position his pieces in such a way that a win would require precise technique. In the endgame, a pawn race ensued in which both players queened. Nakamura was still down a pawn, so he was on the defensive side. A mistake with 58...b5? was unpunished as 60.h5 was not correct. After that Nakamura displayed an amazing understanding of the queen vs. queen and pawn endgame and played every precise move to draw the game.

(Note: On March 13, 1989 a severe geomagnetic storm caused the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid in a matter of seconds as equipment protection relays tripped in a cascading sequence of events. Six million people were left without power for nine hours, with significant economic loss. It is not known what toll the storm had on chessplayers playing that day, a Saturday.)

**Wayne Komer** · Thursday, 30th May, 2013, 12:18 AM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Seventh Round

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Matchups and Scores:
Ivanchuk(1)-Grischuk(3.5)
Svidler(2)-Ponomariov(3.5)
Kasimdzhanov(3)-Kamsky(4)
Nakamura(2)-Topalov(3.5)
Bacrot(2)-Dominguez(4)
Morozevich(3.5)-Caruana(4)
+++++++++

Ivanchuk finished his game with Grischuk in less than an hour. It was a Symmetrical English with repetition of moves starting at move 10. Vassily evidently was in good spirits at the press conference after. I have felt so bad for Ivanchuk this week that I have been waiting for the tournament to have started for an hour before joining the broadcast. Thus I have missed his early losses.

After two hours Svidler and Ponomariov had drawn their game. It was a Queen’s Gambit Accepted and Ruslan spent an hour on his eleventh move.

(Svidler) In the end he settled on the safest alternative and it sort of fizzled out.

It’s a playable position with lots of pieces on the board. I couldn’t find any way to get anything tangible though. The way my tournament has been going I try to keep everything under control. I am missing one-move ideas.

The position is equal and the game ended in a three-fold.
++++++++++

Kamsky wins against Kasimdzhanov.

(Kamsky) I wanted to play something interesting so I went with the Dutch. At the beginning I was slightly worse but near equality. My knights had good outposts.

(On black’s 13th move, all the knights are bunched together in the centre, as if in conversation). In the last part of the game I am trying to play e5 and he is trying to prevent it.

I have played the Dutch occasionally but not against such strong opponents. In this tournament I got real lucky. I’ve never got so many points before in my life. Maybe it is the country and the friendly people.

GM Christian Chirila annotating this game concluded, “A wonderful performance by Kamsky. One can feel that he is in great shape and a serious candidate to win this tournament.”

Gata is wearing a suit whose colour I am totally unable to describe. It is not white, it is not brown but something in-between. You can’t have an ecru suit, can you? He has got rid of the blue baseball cap and looks quite sharp in that suit.

One description of him says, ”The white suit, in which Kamsky has played the seven previous rounds in the Grand Prix in Thessaloniki, brings him good luck so far. Moreover, today he managed to do something that he failed to do before – win with the pieces of the opposite color.”
+++++++++

Kamsky is not the sole leader because Fabiano Caruana won too, with the black pieces. Morozevich overreached himself and blundered on his 47th move.
++++++

Ioannis gets carried away with his analysis. He does not have any help from Houdini. He can talk for twenty minutes at a clip. He needs a bit of control from the other commentator. At one point earlier he declared that in the game they were looking at both players were lost!
+++++++

Nakamura-Topalov reaches a blocked position. The guys talk about how to break through for white. This position with bishop and pawns vs knight and pawns and how to deal with it reminds them of a famous game – the ninth Karpov-Kasparov game, WCC 1984.

Hundreds of pages of analysis have been devoted to this endgame. Mark Dvoretsky analyzed it in his manuals and Mikhail Marin also in Learn from the Legends.

The game with a couple of comments:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067121

A beautiful ending. A temporary pawn sac to allow the White King to invade, and then the Knight dominates the Bishop.

Some might believe that the bishop is OK here, with pawns on both sides of the board. But White maneuvers the Knight brilliantly.

Amazing ending. Things look dead even at move 45, and then Karpov's knight suddenly turns into a monster and clears the board.

Back to the Nakamura game. Hikaru played 50.f5 and could find no win for white after this but Topalov played 50…Nd6? and Nakamura finally got the win. At various points Houdini gave forced wins in 19, 18, 15 and 14 moves for white.

Nakamura’s first win (74 moves).

Bacrot-Dominguez is a draw after 80 moves.

So Kamsky and Caruana lead the tournament with 5 points each. Dominguez is alone in third with 4.5.
+++++++

Further notes on Karpov-Kasparov mentioned above:

When Kasparov was asked about 47 Ng2 he tried to diminish the merit of this outstanding move by saying it was played after the adjournment.

Whether or not adjournments are allowed can make a big difference. Here the game was adjourned after black's move 42...

How many players without an adjournment would agree a draw here? And how many could find a way for white to pile on the pressure from this position?

During the adjournment AK's seconds found a way to do just that and, having been taken out of the analysed lines, GK erred with 46... gxh4 when 46... Ke6 was necessary.

If you want super-detailed analysis of the endgame here, there's probably no better book than Learn From the Legends! But the analysis might be too cumbersome for, say, Elo 1500 players to wade through. Nonetheless, the extensive notes to this endgame will boggle your mind.

**Wayne Komer** · Thursday, 30th May, 2013, 11:15 AM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Eighth Round

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Matchups and Points:

Dominguez(4.5)-Morozevich(3.5)
Grischuk(4)-Caruana(5)
Topalov(3.5)-Bacrot(2.5)
Kamsky(5)-Nakamura(3)
Ponomariov(4)-Kasimdhanov(3)
Ivanchuk(1.5)-Svidler(2.5)

Ivanchuk went after Svidler hammer and tongs, tooth and nail, but had to resign on his 41st move.

After four hours Kamsky has beaten Nakamura, Bacrot has beaten Topalov and Dominguez is about to beat Morozevich. He has queen against Morozevich’s rook and bishop.

The matches are a seminar on the Ruy Lopez. Five of the six games started that way. They say that Naka dropped his pawn in the opening and put it on e6 instead of e5 otherwise there would have been six Ruys.

(more to follow)

**Wayne Komer** · Thursday, 30th May, 2013, 04:43 PM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Eighth Round (concluded)

The temperature in Thessaloniki today was 31°C. Svidler had an apple-green short sleeve shirt on but Kamsky still was wearing his lucky white suit.

Five of the six games opened with the Ruy Lopez – the exception being a French in the case of Kamsky-Nakamura.

Kamsky played 12.b4!, a tempting morsel, which Nakamura could take with either N, B or Q but did not. There was an inaccurate 15th move of Qa3 and it was downhill from there.

Asked at the press conference what the secret of his successful performance is, he replied with, ”No comment.” We all know that it is due to his lucky suit.
+++++++++

Press Conference for Ivanchuk-Svidler:

(Peter) – There is a Russian saying, which goes: Weeping uncontrollably and pricking themselves all over, the mice continue to eat the cactus.

Despite getting slaughtered in this line I continue to play it over and over again. Today it looked dangerous as well. I guess I am too lazy to learn anything else.

We have pages and pages of analysis on this line and I forgot what I should do after b4.
+++++++++

Ivanchuk pushed e5, with an attack but was not able to put Svidler away in spite of his exposed king and Ivanchuk resigned on his 42nd move.

Vassily showed more fight today but I am worried about the near future. At Gibraltar he said:

"I will play mini blitz, rapid and classical chess matches on June 5th, 6th and 7th against Giri in Leon. The matches need absolutely special preparation, so I will check some of my ideas on how should one prepare for such matches."

A sporting question for ChessTalk readers:

Ivanchuk in the last three rounds will play, Kasimdzhanov (who has w), Nakamura (b) and Bacrot (w). Will he win at least one of these games?
++++++++++++

Grischuk-Caruana was the only drawn game.

Kasimdzhanov beat Ponomariov and Bacrot beat Topalov.

Of Dominguez-Morozevich ChessBase says:

Morozevich quickly sacrificed a pawn for the pair of bishops and for pressure on a very weak c6 pawn, which was not supported by the rest of White's pieces. Dominguez instead of giving the c-pawn back, sacrifice his e-pawn to retain the advance position on c6 which cramped his opponent’s pieces. This worked well as despite the bishops, Morozevich had trouble coming up with a useful plan. A beautiful sequence allowed White to exploit weaknesses against Black's king, and the combined power of the centralized queen, rook and knight were too much for Morozevich.
++++++++

The standings after eight rounds are:

Kamsky 6/8; Caruana 5.5/8; Dominguez 5.5/8; Grischuk 4.5/8; Ponomariov 4.0/8; Kasimdzhanov 4.0/8; Bacrot 3.5/8; Topalov 3.5/8; Morozevich 3.5/8; Svidler 3.5/8; Nakamura 3.0/8; Ivanchuk 1.5/8.

Tomorrow is a free day

**Wayne Komer** · Thursday, 30th May, 2013, 09:45 PM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

What Vassily Ivanchuk is doing next weekend:

XXVI MAGISTRAL CIUDAD DE LEÓN

One tournament, two generations, three time-controls
LEONTXO GARCÍA (Press Officer)

After 25 consecutive years of full success, the 26th Magistral Ciudad de Leon opens up a “Total Chess” period: three different time-controls on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (June, 7-9th). And two geniuses will represent two generations: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), 44, more than a quarter of century at the top; and Anish Giri (The Netherlands), 18, number one U-20. The Leon Auditorium will be the venue of another interesting and great match.

The Ciudad de Leon has always been at the forefront of modern chess. It was one of the first to add the electronic boards, giant screens, GM commentary by headphones, live TV and Internet broadcasting, daily press conferences with the players (open to the spectators), parallel activities with priorities for children and also the cultural side of chess… Leon was the place where the “Advanced Chess” Kasparov’s idea (computers assistance during the games) was applied in 1998 (Kasparov-Topalov) and 1999 (Karpov-Anand).

Nowadays, when rapid chess is getting more and more important, and the tendency goes towards accelerated time-controls, the 26th Ciudad de Leon will have three different ones: 45 minutes + 15 seconds per move on Friday (two games); 20 min. + 10 sec. on Saturday (four games); and 5 + 3 on Sunday (ten games); if a tiebreak is needed after those 16 games, it will be played on Sunday as well.

Two top gladiators will play this thrilling duel. Ivanchuk has won the affection and admiration of millions of fans over the past 25 years due to his genius, sympathy and deep love of chess. Giri is called to great success during the coming 25 years. Both are polyglots: Ivanchuk speaks Ukranian, Russian, English, Spanish, Turkish, Polish and Portuguese; Giri speaks Russian, English, Dutch, Japanese, Nepalese and German. They will not need all those languages in Leon, because their main common tongue, chess, will be enough to fascinate the chess lovers.

More information: www.advancedchessleon.com

**Wayne Komer** · Sunday, 2nd June, 2013, 11:53 AM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Ninth Round

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Matchups and Standings:

Nakamura(3)-Ponomariov(4)
Kasimdzhanov(4)-Ivanchuk(1.5)
Svidler(3.5)-Grischuk(4.5)
Bacrot(3.5)-Kamsky(6)
Morozevich(3.5)-Topalov(3.5)
Caruana(5.5)-Dominguez(5.5)

Commentary is very analysis-heavy. There is not, therefore, any appreciable colour to report today.

From Chessdom:

Bacrot – Kamsky
The tournament leader started with the Chebanenko Slav but he quickly fianchettoed the dark-squared bishop to reach his favourite pawn structure of Slav-Grunfeld hybrid.
The resulting endgame was slightly better for black, however white succeeded in setting a theoretical draw and the game concluded shortly.

Kamsky revealed that he walked on the street and black cat crossed his road, so he decided to play solidly. Bacrot joked that despite the cat the black position was very good. Questioned about his own superstitions, Bacrot said – “Just in case, I decided not to walk today.”

Kasimdzhanov – Ivanchuk
Kasimdzhanov started with the Moscow variation in the Sicilian and Ivanchuk covered the check with his bishop, deviating from 3…Nc6, which he played in round 4 against Topalov.
When playing 45.Rxh7 Kasimdzhanov became excited because he thought he was winning, but “45…g5 was a great move that saves the game”.

Although expansive the day before at the press conference, Ivanchuk had little to say today.

Morozevich – Topalov
Topalov returned to Caro-Kan catching Morozevich by surprise and making him pause for a few minutes before continuing with the Advance variation.
After one error by white, black seized the advantage and never let it go. He didn’t play the objectively best moves, but he wanted to make sure to prevent any kind of counterplay.
One final mistake by Morozevich allowed Topalov to execute a cute checkmating combination.

Nakamura – Ponomariov
Already on the 2nd move the game became interesting because Nakamura decided to go for the Veresov Attack. 3…e6 4.e4 would transpose to the Classical French, which is not in Ponomariov’s repertoire.

Nakamura was able to at least obtain a slight pull from the opening in virtue of his better pawn structure.

The Ukrainian defended well and was able to set up a perpetual check immediately after Hikaru capitalized on his structural advantage and won a pawn.

Svidler – Grischuk
Svidler used the rare line in the King’s Indian Defence that he saw in game Aronian-Radjabov at London Candidates. In preparation he looked at the variations with his second GM Vassily Emelin.

Svidler and Grishuk discussed the middle game at length. Peter has a tendency to say that his positions are “almost winning”..
Grischuk didn’t want to interfere much in Svidler’s presentation, and instead “waited for his turn to explain what happened.”
“The game consisted of two parts,” Grischuk started, “In the first part white was badly outplayed, so bad that I don’t even want to make jokes about it.” Starting after 22…Qe5 he thought he was completely winning.
“And then we saw the 32nd episode of ‘lucky fish escaped from the whale’”, Grischuk teased his friend. Around 29.Qd4 white was playing very well. After 35…Nd7 black was hoping to play Ne5 and dominate the bad bishop but white was slowly improving and finally the game was drawn.

Caruana – Dominguez
Heading into the rest day, the two players were sharing the second place just half a point behind Gata Kamsky.
The fans were asking Dominguez to play the Najdorf Sicilian and the Cuban kindly fulfilled the wish.

Dominguez pointed that white missed his last chance at 45.Rf1+ Ke5 46.Rxf6 Rxf6 47.Rxe4, after which the game would be drawn.
Black then assumed the advantage and later converted it into full point.
++++++++

Peter Svidler always has interesting, literate press conferences. In the eighth round he quoted an old Russian saying. He said that during the round he was thinking of the English translation to use in the press conference. A friend has found the Russian for me:

Мыши кололись и плакали, но все равно продолжали есть кактус

Ivanchuk went for what currently seems to be the main line of the Ruy Lopez, with 6.d3, and Svidler just followed his repertoire, painful though it was, alternately thinking of his moves and the English translation!
++++++++++

With four rounds to go, a chap on the English Forum bet a pound that Nakamura would win the last four games. Well, Naka lost to Kamsky. So the chap went online to say that he would bet 50p that Naka would win the remaining three games. Today he drew with Ponomariov. Oh well..

Speaking of bets, I asked who would bet that Ivanchuk would win at least one game in the last three games. Nakamura plays Ivanchuk in Round Ten; perhaps one at least will recover his form.
+++++++++

On an American forum there was some speculation that Caruana, who holds dual American-Italian citizenship, could play for the Americans in the next Olympiad. With the June FIDE ratings just out, a possible team would be then:

1. Hikaru Nakamura 2784
2. Fabiano Caruana 2774
3. Gata Kamsky 2741
4. Timur Gareev 2676
5. Alexander Onischuk 2667
++++++++

Chess.com reports that Caruana will be playing a so-called Death Match against Ukrainian GM Valeriy Aveskulov on June 9 at noon Eastern. The players will play more than 30 games at lightning-fast speeds, and Aveskulov has proven himself quite adept as the clock ticks down (his Chess.com bullet rating is fewer than 50 points away from Caruana).

**Laurentiu Grigorescu** · Sunday, 2nd June, 2013, 11:00 PM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

This tournament is a disappointment in terms of chess quality. Probably the beaches and the sun of Greece make the players feel on vacation. The losses of Ivanchuk and Morozevich are ridiculous. As the outfit of Kamsky. The only person that fits into the surroundings is Kazim's wife :-)

**Wayne Komer** · Monday, 3rd June, 2013, 12:00 AM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Tenth Round

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Matchups and Standings:

Ponomariov(4.5)-Bacrot(4)
Topalov(4.5)-Caruana(5.5)
Kamsky(6.5)-Morozevich(3.5)
Grischuk(5)-Dominguez(6.5)
Ivanchuk(2)-Nakamura(3.5)
Svidler(4)-Kasimdzhanov(4.5)

Kamsky-Morozevich
Gata Kamsky beat Alexander Morozevich in a Closed Ruy Lopez in 25 moves to take the lead in the Grand Prix Tournament.
In the post-game interview he again said that he is lucky although he looked at this type of setup ten years ago. About Morozevich, who has lost four games in a row now, he said: I remember when I was playing so badly in tournaments, you try everything and nothing works. You try and try and want to make sure it ends and take a vacation. I remember, you can’t do anything, it’s like the whole world is against you and you have no luck and nothing works.
In the game black played 17….Nxb2 and white replied 18.Bb3 and won in 7 more moves. But 18.Nd5! would be killing. It is really worth playing through this variation.

http://www.chessvibes.com/on-his-bir...n-thessaloniki

The game is now being called Kamsky’s Miniature!

Today was Gata’s 39th birthday but he gave a “no comment” when asked how he would celebrate it and his victory.
++++++++++++

The oldest competitor is Vassily Ivanchuk at 44, with Kamsky and Topalov, 39 and 38, respectively.
Four were born in 1983 (30) – Dominguez, Bacrot, Grischuk and Ponomariov. The two youngest are Nakamura 26 and Caruana, 21.
Tomorrow, in the last round, Kamsky faces Caruana.

The standings at the top are:

Kamsky 7.5/10 (next opponent Caruana who has white)
Dominguez 7/10 (next opponent Topalov who has black)
Caruana 6.5/10

which makes for an interesting finish.
+++++++++++

Svidler-Kasimzdhanov was a draw, with a particularly sharp variation in the notes.

Ivanchuk-Nakamura showed that Ivanchuk is on a way to recovery. He was very interested in the computer suggestions at the press conference. There were said to be messages of support at chess-news.ru from all his fans but he said he didn’t see them.

Grischuk-Dominguez

(Chessvibes) - Leinier Dominguez couldn't keep pace with Kamsky and fell back half a point, but it was a good half point with Black against Alexander Grischuk. In the highly topical and sharp 3.f3 line of the Grünfeld about twenty moves of theory came on the board. Neither player had prepared it that deeply so both were on their own in the wild complications. First Grischuk thought he was winning, then he thought he would lose, but finally the game ended in a perpetual.

Ponomariov-Bacrot
Ponomariov beat Bacrot in a style reminiscent of Karpov.
I admit to being very interested in the two former FIDE World Champions Ruslan Ponomariov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov. They seem like nice young men with no way near the exposure of the other super grandmasters.

At the press conference:

(Anistasiya) You consider yourself a professional now?
(Ruslan) I am concentrating on chess but I am not fighting for the world title right now. Perhaps later if I improve. I played in Tashkent and was plus 1, played in Zug and was plus 1 and here I am at plus 1. It is nice you are not with a minus score. You should expend more energy training on chess if you want to be first.
(Anistasiya) Today the commentators were comparing this game you played with Etienne with the style of Karpov? What do you think?
(Ruslan) I am just trying not have the same disaster I had against Rustam, outplaying my opponent and then blundering in a few moves and destroying my position completely. It is not easy to play every game in such a way with concentration and preparation. If you think that I played like Karpov, that is very nice.
+++++++++++

Topalov-Caruana
(Chessvibes) The last game was just fascinating. Veselin Topalov and Fabiano Caruana also played an Archangelsk Ruy Lopez and here the Bulgarian's early Nb1-c3-d5 seemed to surprise his opponent, who spent some time in the opening. It didn't help and White got a big advantage. Caruana:
I had a very bad position. My only problem is my king on f8 but of course it's a very big problem.

Many more things happened in the game. Topalov got his knight trapped on e8, but don't miss Houdini's way of handling that problem (27.Ne8 Rc8 28.Re3 Kf8 29.c3 Rxe8 30.Re7 Qh5 31.Qe5 Rf6 32.h3 a5 33.bxa5 bxa5 34.Qe3 Rd6 35.Qe5 Rf6 36.Qe3)

In the game the Bulgarian decided to grab a pawn and indeed he created lots of counterplay. At the end black had to queens on the board to white’s one and Caruana won on the 60th move.
++++++

The remark about seeing how Houdini would handle the problem shows where chess is going these days.
They are checking with Houdini how we played in the past. I actually just bought a chess book, Das Schachturnier London 1851 by Dr. Mario Ziegler, with the games checked by chess engines in over 500 pages! It is fascinating to be able to have a contemporary view on how they played chess 150 years ago. I suppose New York 1924 and other tournaments are not far behind in being (re)analyzed!
+++++++

Tomorrow, June 3, Thessaloniki 2013 winds up. Play starts two hours early, which means a 5 a.m. beginning in the coverage viewed from Toronto/Montreal.
+++++++

Laurentiu's point on Kamsky's outfit is well-taken. Photographs posted from the free day show him with his white suit and a baseball cap. More on white suits tomorrow!

**Emil Smilovici** · Monday, 3rd June, 2013, 09:23 AM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Originally posted by Wayne Komer View Post

Tomorrow, June 3, Thessaloniki 2013 winds up. Play starts two hours early, which means a 5 a.m. beginning in the coverage viewed from Toronto/Montreal.
+++++++

Laurentiu's point on Kamsky's outfit is well-taken. Photographs posted from the free day show him with his white suit and a baseball cap. More on white suits tomorrow!

It looks like the last round is quite interesting.
Caruana beats Kamsky - did Gata change his lucky suit?
Also Ivanchuk gets his win (against Bacrot) - good for him!
Two games still ongoing - including Dominguez - Topalov.

**Wayne Komer** · Monday, 3rd June, 2013, 11:08 AM

Re: Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013

Eleventh and Last Round

June 3, 2013

Matchups and Standings:

Caruana(6.5)-Kamsky(7.5)
Nakamura(4)-Svidler(4.5)
Bacrot(4)-Ivanchuk(2.5)
Morozevich(3.5)-Ponomariov(5.5)
Kasimdzhanov(5)-Grischuk(5.5)
Dominguez(7)-Topalov(4.5)

Caruana has beaten Kamsky.

Dominguez is ahead of Topalov in a rook and pawn vs rook ending. Houdini gives him a win in 30+ moves with perfect play – the road to victory being littered with theoretical draws.

If Dominguez wins, he will be clear first. If he draws, then the tie-breaks will be enacted to sort out joint first with Caruana and Kamsky.

Prize giving to be televised in about an hour (noon Toronto/Montreal time)

http://thessaloniki2013.fide.com/

(more to follow)