The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen drew in 100 moves against Teimour Radjabov in the nineth round of the Gashimov Memorial and this allowed his final round opponent Fabiano Caruana to catch him on 5.5/9 after he defeated Shakhriyar Mamedayarov. The regulations (read the PDF) say Magnus Carlsen is first because he has the most wins and there won't be a play-off if the two leaders draw their final round clash (I had earlier been given the impression that head to head was the tie-break). Hikaru Nakamura got the better of the opening against Sergey Karjakin but the interesting game was eventually drawn.

I had a very interesting and tiring day commentating with GM Larry Christiansen for ICC at http://www.twitch.tv/internetchessclub and were fortunate to have three interesting games to look at, even ones that went on a bit long.

Carlsen was under some pressure on the black side of a Ruy Lopez against Radjabov. Carlsen seemed quite happy to see the queens disappear but it was only after 31.c4 and 32.Ne3 Bxe3! that Carlsen started to press. The position is so locked that there are no real winning chances if white is careful and after 101 moves the game was drawn.

Caruana beat a struggling Mamedyarov after taking him on in a very sharp queenless middle game struggle. After 15...Qa6 Mamedyarov as black must have pretty much equalised, 23...Bf7 was very interesting but gave white winning chances too. 34...Rg3+ eventually forces black to give up the exchange, it's hard to believe there's a win after 34...Rxa4+. After first time control Caruana slowly made his material advantage count for a win.

Sergey Karjakin, who is without a second in this event drew a very interesting King's Indian against Hikaru Nakamura. He was somewhat surprised by the choice of opening as he saw Nakamura had mostly played the Slav but he seemed to at least equalise although it was probably Nakamura who was pressing in reality as he was more comfortable in the postiion there may have been some hidden chances for white. The game eventually traded to a draw.

Pavel Eljanov took clear first in the B-tournament that finished today with 6/9.

B tournament Final Round 9 Standings: Eljanov 6pts, Motylev, 5.5pts, Wang Hao, Bacrot 5pts, Wojtaszek 4.5pts, Abasov, Mamedov, Durarbayli, Guseinov 4pts, Safarli 3pts

A tournament Round 9 Standings: Carlsen, Caruana 5.5pts, Karjakin, Radjabov, Nakamura 4.5pts, Mamedyarov 2.5pts

Final round 10 Wednesday 9:30am 90 minutes earlier than the other rounds: Mamedyarov-Karjakin, Nakamura-Radjabov and Carlsen-Caruana. Only Mamedyarov doesn't have anything but pride to play for as big changes in the standings are possible.