Radjabov leads Gashimov Memorial at half way stage

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Vugar Gashimov Memorial 2014 (5)

Radjabov leads Gashimov Memorial at half way stage

Mark Crowther - Thursday 24th April 2014

Teimour Radjabov leads at the half way stage. Photo ©

Teimour Radjabov leads at the half way stage. Photo © | http://shamkirchess.az

Teimour Radjabov is the shock leader of the Gashimov Memorial after five of the ten rounds. Radjabov's rating took a huge plunge after a disastrous Candidates tournament in 2013 and he took six months off classical chess to reassess his game. Radjabov started the event solidly and in the fifth round defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen. Four players share second on 50% and half a point further back is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who beat the other joint leader Fabiano Caruana. Five rounds without a break seemed too many for a lot of the players today. All to play for in the second half.

Magnus Carlsen admitted to being totally out of sorts for the last two rounds and his lengthy analysis of his loss to Radjabov showed he was hardly seeing anything correctly today. Carlsen chose the Hungarian (5.Nge2 Variation) against Radjabov's King's Indian, was forced to part with his light squared bishop after 12...Ng4 which meant Radjabov was at least equal and then completely mis-assessed the compensation he had for an exchange he gave up. Radjabov on the other hand seemed to have a much clearer idea and went on to a fine win in spite of bad time pressure on the run up to move 40.

The other joint leader Fabiano Caruana was ground down in a lengthy 6.Bg5 Gruenfeld by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who took an offered pawn and then wasn't much better but could press for hours, seven as it turned out before Caruana blundered on move 67 within sight of the draw. Mamedyarov himself wasn't all that impressed with his own play but he's finally back in contention a point off the lead even though he's also in last place.

The first game to finish saw Sergey Karjakin bash out at least 25 moves of English preparation against Hikaru Nakamura which should have led to complete equality. As it was 29....Qxf2+ wasn't the most accurate way to the draw and he had to be careful for another 20 moves before the draw was agreed.

Rest day Friday.

Round 5 Standings: Radjabov 3pts, Caruana, Karjakin, Nakamura, Carlsen 2.5pts, Mamedyarov 2pts

Round 6 Saturday: Mamedyarov-Carlsen, Caruana-Nakamura, Radjabov-Karjakin.

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen during round 5. Photo © http://www.shamkirchess.az.

All the talk at the start of the Gashimov Memorial was how soon Magnus Carlsen would pass the 2900 barrier. Carlsen has been playing at about 2918 for the last eighteen months and a score of 8.5/10 (he has a point and a half to come from the Norwegian League) would have taken him over the mark. This was a pretty tall order but seemed at least possible after he started with 2/2.

Magnus Carlsen during round 5. Photo © http://www.shamkirchess.az.

Instead Carlsen drew against Sergey Karjakin in round 3 in a position he would be expected to win most of the time then lost to Fabiano Caruana in a Berlin that he got all wrong and then lost today to Teimour Radjabov. Carlsen has seemed out of sorts saying that he had a feeling things would go wrong yesterday and today saying he lacked energy. Carlsen in truth has had patches in tournaments over the last few years where his level has dropped, usually he's managed to survive those rounds and recover. The last terrible run Carlsen had was three classical losses in a row. Carlsen played a bad Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2010 (I call it his "I'm a model you know" Olympiad as it was just after his big G-Star Raw event in New York and his mind seemed elsewhere) where he lost to Baadur Jobava, Michael Adams and in the final round to Sanan Sjugirov. He followed this with 0/2 against Kramnik and Anand a couple of weeks later at the start of the Bilbao tournament before return quickly to normal form. Carlsen has had nothing as bad as this until this event but has had patches where he's been out of sorts before. Can he turn things around?

Carlsen quotes

Stage during round 5. Photo © http://www.shamkirchess.az.

"Most of all it was just a misjudgement here. I really thought without the exchange I was doing well since I thought there was no obvious way for him to improve his position but then this b5 stuff came and c5 stuff came and I couldn't find a way to keep control. In the time trouble I was missing some stuff but probably it was objectively winning for black already so probably it didn't matter too much." Magnus Carlsen

What went wrong?

"I don't know, right now I just don't have any energy and my opponents are playing well, they're fighting better than I am and I really need a rest day now and to somehow try and regroup because right now it's not working." " Magnus Carlsen

Nakamura and Karjakin at their press conference

Vugar Gashimov Mem 2014 Shamkir AZE (AZE), 19-30 iv 2014											cat. XXII (2780)
					1		2		3		4		5		6
1.	Radjabov, Teimour	g	AZE	2713	*	*	½	.	½	.	½	.	1	.	½	.	3	2865
2.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2783	½	.	*	*	½	.	½	.	1	.	0	.	2½	2779
3.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2772	½	.	½	.	*	*	½	.	½	.	½	.	2½	2781
4.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2772	½	.	½	.	½	.	*	*	0	.	1	.	2½	2781
5.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2881	0	.	0	.	½	.	1	.	*	*	1	.	2½	2760
6.	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2760	½	.	1	.	½	.	0	.	0	.	*	*	2	2712

Round 5 (April 24, 2014)
Nakamura, Hikaru	- Karjakin, Sergey	½-½	49	A15	English counter King's Fianchetto
Carlsen, Magnus	- Radjabov, Teimour	0-1	51	E70	King's Indian Fianchetto
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	- Caruana, Fabiano	1-0	84	D90	Gruenfeld Flohr

Vugar Gashimov Mem B 2014 Shamkir AZE (AZE), 19-30 iv 2014															cat. XVII (2663)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Bacrot, Etienne	g	FRA	2722	*	.	.	1	.	½	½	1	1	.	4	2863
2.	Eljanov, Pavel	g	UKR	2732	.	*	1	.	½	.	.	½	½	1	3½	2809
3.	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	g	POL	2716	.	0	*	.	1	½	.	.	½	1	3	2750
4.	Guseinov, Gadir	g	AZE	2621	0	.	.	*	.	½	1	.	1	½	3	2714
5.	Motylev, Alexander	g	RUS	2685	.	½	0	.	*	.	½	1	½	.	2½	2641
6.	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2734	½	.	½	½	.	*	½	0	.	.	2	2575
7.	Abasov, Nijat	g	AZE	2516	½	.	.	0	½	½	*	.	.	½	2	2611
8.	Mamedov, Rauf	g	AZE	2660	0	½	.	.	0	1	.	*	.	½	2	2633
9.	Durarbayli, Vasif	g	AZE	2584	0	½	½	0	½	.	.	.	*	.	1½	2546
10.	Safarli, Eltaj	g	AZE	2656	.	0	0	½	.	.	½	½	.	*	1½	2500

Round 5 (April 24, 2014)
Bacrot, Etienne	- Mamedov, Rauf	1-0	26	A89	Dutch Leningrad
Guseinov, Gadir	- Abasov, Nijat	1-0	63	C69	Ruy Lopez Exchange
Motylev, Alexander	- Durarbayli, Vasif	½-½	33	C88	Ruy Lopez Closed
Wang, Hao	- Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	½-½	66	B51	Sicilian Rossolimo
Safarli, Eltaj	- Eljanov, Pavel	0-1	85	C84	Ruy Lopez Centre Attack

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