FIDE Grand Prix Jerusalem: All draws on the first day
The fourth leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series organized by World Chess started in the Notre Dame Center Jerusalem on December, 11. Since all eight games ended in a draw all sixteen players keep chances to advance in the next round. After three major tournaments in Moscow, Riga, and Hamburg earlier this year, the grandmasters arrived in Jerusalem to compete in the final leg of FIDE Grand Prix. This part of the series will draw the line under the season 2019 and designate two participants for the following Candidates Tournament 2020. The prize fund in each leg of the Grand Prix amounts to €130,000, with an additional €280,000 for the top 10 finishers in the overall standings. Thus, the total prize fund of the FIDE Grand Prix amounts to a total of €800,000. The major goal for the 21 participants, however, is to finish in the top two at the end of the Series and earn a spot in the Candidates Tournament. This event will then determine the challenger of Magnus Carlsen in the World Championship match. The official Opening Ceremony was held at the Notre Dame Center Jerusalem. State officials, FIDE representatives, key members of the local community and, of course, and all participants assembled in a hall together with other chess devotees to share the moment of the start. Chief Arbiter Almog Burstein drew lots at the technical meeting. The games Nepomniachtchi – Gelfand and Harikrishna – Karjakin finished after less than one hour of play with Karjakin and Gelfand, who had Black pieces expressing their satisfaction with the outcome. Ian Nepomniachtchi went for a well-known theoretical line in Sicilian Anti-Sveshnikov but according to Gelfand, his opponent misplayed it, so the final position was very dry and none of the sides had real chances to play for a win. “First of all, I’m happy to play in Jerusalem Grand Prix tournament as Grand Prix events are one of my favorite tournaments. I had so many memorable games there. It’s also especially nice to play in Jerusalem in front of the local public” said Boris Gelfand after the game. Pentala Harikrishna opted for a solid Ruy Lopez Berlin against Sergey Karjakin, and after grandmasters traded most of the pieces, the draw was agreed on move 21. Veselin Topalov chose to open with 1.c4 against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave after he had unsuccessfully tried 1.e4 and 1.d4 in their previous mini-matches. “It was a good choice, as at least I managed not to lose the game. It’s a good start, compared to my usual first matches” Veselin noted in the postgame interview. A symmetrical English was played and, in fact, the former FIDE World Champion got an advantage right after the opening. He put a lot of pressure on his opponent today and the French Grandmaster, who came directly from the Grand Chess Tour finals in London, had to defend “a very suspicious position”. However, Veselin missed his opponent’s counterplay with a piece sacrifice, which turned out to be good enough to maintain balance in the game. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov recalled the last stage of Grand Prix in 2017 when he was watching the last game between Jakovenko and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at home. In case of victory, MVL would have qualified for the Candidates 2018 instead of Shakhriyar. Jakovenko won that game and helped Mamedyarov to advance to the Candidates 2018. Ironically, Shakhriyar was paired against Dmitry Jakovenko in the first match of the fourth leg of Grand Prix and needs to win the match to keep his chances to play in the Candidates 2020 alive. Shakhriyar had quite deep preparation in the opening today and remembered the line in the Nimzo-Indian till the endgame. In the post-game interview, he pointed out that 22.Kf1 was a bad move and he had to play Re1, Nf1-Ne3 instead, keeping good wining chances. Dmitry Jakovenko agreed that his position was quite unpleasant and was happy with the outcome. The Catalan Opening appeared in the game Yu Yangyi vs. Wesley So. The American grandmaster went for a pawn sacrifice and suddenly the position became very complex and tactical. According to Wesley Black had sufficient compensation for equality but he was not sure about pressing for more. Wang Hao misplayed the opening and let his opponent David Navara to obtain an advantage. David had more active pieces and was trying to use the weakness of the b7-pawn but Wang Hao was defending quite well and managed to hold a draw. Anish Giri mixed up the move order in the opening and decided to give up an exchange by analogy with the same idea in a different line. Although Anish thought his position was lost after 20.c3 he nevertheless managed to hold it after a long and resilient defense. As Anish Giri and Wei Yi were the last to finish their encounter, the Dutchman was asked if he thought it would be unfair to lose since all other games were drawn. “That was the only thing that kept me going. I saw that everybody else made a draw. I thought maybe it`s today’s magic so I have to try to use it,” Anish confessed. The participants of the Jerusalem Grand Prix passed on their warm wishes to the former World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who turned 50 on December 11. Official website and LIVE broadcast: https://worldchess.com FIDE Press officer for the event: Anastasiya Karlovich Official Photographer: Niki Riga World Chess contact: media@worldchess.com Photos are available for the press from the following link to Dropbox. Leading partners supporting the FIDE World Chess Grand Prix Series 2019 include: Algorand as the Exclusive Blockchain PartnerPhosAgro as the Official Strategic PartnerKaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity PartnerUsetech as the partner of the Jerusalem Grand PrixPrytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
Goryachkina emerges as the sole leader in Monaco
Two victories by Alexandra Goryachkina and Alexandra Kosteniuk punctuate the eighth round of the Women’s Grand Prix in Monaco. Goryachkina overtakes Koneru in the standings. The eighth round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Monaco began under the cameras of Monaco TV Channel. The event held at the Yacht Club has an important status for the Principality and is duly covered by the local media. As a leading member of the women’s team of Monte-Carlo at the European Cup, Humpy Koneru was kind enough to agree to a short TV interview before the start of the round. The leader of the Grand Prix Series is used to concentrating deeply before her games, and this small interruption luckily did not disturb her. The Indian Koneru – Dronavalli remained very balanced. Humpy played solidly with black and made a draw in 31 moves. This allowed Aleksandra Goryachkina to grab the sole lead, as she earned the whole point against her compatriot Valentina Gunina thanks to a good preparation in the Catalan. Gunina finds herself in a terrible downward spiral in Monaco. This time she overlooked a trap right after the opening and found herself in a difficult position straight away. The World Championship challenger converted the advantage once again demonstrating her impeccable technique. Alexandra Kosteniuk won a very inspiring game against Nana Dzagnidze. She sacrificed a pawn early on with Black with the aim to obtain long-term chances against the enemy King. Being under serious pressure, the Georgian found nothing better than giving back the pawn back in order to exchange queens. However, the endgame was no safe haven for her as the Russian managed to win two pawns and later the game. Pia Cramling and Mariya Muzychuk drew their game after more than five hours. The Ukrainian tried hard to convert her two-pawn advantage in the endgame, but the task was very difficult. The Swedish legend was holding ground with her usual stamina and reached a draw 85 moves. Zhao Xue and Kateryna Lagno played a very balanced game, in which the Chinese exerted a slight pressure throughout. But Lagno defended confidently and the game sealed a draw. Elisabeth Paehtz did not challenge Anna Muzychuk in the Marshall Variation of the Ruy Lopez and quickly repeated moves to split the point. Thanks to her victory, Aleksandra Goryachkina is now leading the field alone. She has made an amazing comeback after her slow start, scoring 5,5 in the last 6 rounds. But her task in the last 3 rounds can be considered complicated, as she will face both Muzychuk sisters in the coming days. Humpy Koneru has a nominally easier home stretch and will also have the white pieces against Goryachkina herself in the last round. In short, the final sprint promises to be very exciting. Results of Round 8:Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) – Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus): 0-1Zhao Xue (China) – Kateryna Lagno (Rus): ½-½Harika Dronavalli (Ind) – Humpy Koneru (Ind): ½-½Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger) – Anna Muzychuk (Ukr): ½-½Pia Cramling (Swe) – Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr): ½-½Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus) – Valentina Gunina (Rus): 1-0 Standings after Round 8:1. Aleksandra Goryachkina – 6 points2. Humpy Koneru – 5½3. Harika Dronavalli – 54-7. Anna Muzychuk, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Kateryna Lagno, and Pia Cramling – 4½ 8. Mariya Muzychuk – 49-10. Nana Dzagnidze and Zhao Xue – 3½11. Elisabeth Paehtz – 2½12. Valentina Gunina – 1 Round 9, 12 December at 3 pm:Valentina Gunina (Rus) – Nana Dzagnidze (Geo)Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus) – Zhao Xue (China)Kateryna Lagno (Rus) – Harika Dronavalli (Ind)Humpy Koneru (Ind) – Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger)Anna Muzychuk (Ukr) – Pia Cramling (Swe)Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr) – Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus) Official website with live games and commentary by WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili, IM Almira Skripchenko and GM Josif Dorfman: https://wgp2019.fide.com Pictures are available on our official Flickr account. Text: Yannick PelletierPictures: Karol Bartnik