The fourth leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series organized by World Chess is ongoing at the Notre Dame Center Jerusalem. Yossi Gilad, Head of Engineering at Algorand, opened the round with the first symbolic move. All the return games of the first round at the Jerusalem Grand Prix were drawn with just one exception – Wesley So beat Yu Yangyi. The American became the first player to advance to the quarterfinals and was very happy to win his first match in the Grand Prix Series 2019 without playing a tiebreak.
Yu Yangyi got into an unpleasant situation after sticking his bishop to e4. In order to relieve the pressure, Black temporarily sacrificed a central pawn, but then White’s pair of bishops became a dominant force. According to Yu Yangyi, he made a crucial mistake with 31…Qc4. The point is that the Chinese GM missed 35.e6 when choosing this line. Wesley managed to break through, won the game and secured his place in the second round.
Ian Nepomniachtchi was on a verge of losing against Boris Gelfand, but the Israeli player did not find the precise way to convert his advantage in the middle game. Black’s 10…Bd7 was an inaccuracy, taking away an important square for the knight, which eventually retreated to g8. The correct way was 10…a5, as played long ago by the former FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman. Being under the time pressure Boris Gelfand missed his last chance to play for a win with 34.c6. Nepomniachtchi was clearly relieved after the game, admitting that he had to defend a really bad position.
Wang Hao also was in a very dubious situation against David Navara but got out unscathed. This game went on for more than 80 moves and was the last to end. Wang Hao said afterward that he could not concentrate well and simply blundered a pawn. The Chinese grandmaster was even thinking about resigning in the endgame but after Navara’s king left the safe corner, he got some hopes to save the game. These hopes eventually materialized into a half-point.
Dmitry Andreikin and Radek Wojtaszek took quite some time in the opening despite all the moves being well-known theory. Black’s 15…c5 was the key move to equalize but Andreikin believed White could still try to play for a win. A few inaccurate moves by Wojtaszek gave the Russian an advantage that he was unable to convert into a full point. Ironically, the second game of their match ended up with the same drawish endgame – two kings and a pawn.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov also felt fortunate to have avoided elimination. The Sicilian Four Knights, which is the Azeri’s specialty, developed into a normal position until Mamedyarov fell into temptation and snatched the g2-pawn. Dmitry Jakovenko missed a great opportunity to play 23.Rh2! holding onto the h4-pawn, with the idea of Rg1 coming in next. 24…g5 also seemed a bit too much but Dmitry probably was not precise enough and the game ended with repetition.
Anish Giri and Wei Yi drew after only 10 moves and delayed their showdown until the tiebreak. Their first game was the longest of the first day though. “My biggest chess hero is Magnus Carlsen and I’m slowly learning his tricks. This time I borrowed his tricks from the world championship match and just decided to go for tie-break” Anish Giri commented after the game.
The encounter between Sergey Karjakin and Pentala Harikrishna featured the line of the Italian game, which has been always favored by Sveshnikov and also came into fashion lately. After massive exchanges, the position became roughly equal and the game ended in a draw by repetition.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave did not find a way to crack Veselin Topalov’s Berlin Ruy Lopez. With an exchange sacrifice, Black created some sort of a fortress, which turned out to be unassailable.
All that means that there will be a record amount of tiebreaks (7!) on December 13:
Topalov vs Vachier-Lagrave
Wojtaszek vs Andreikin
Nepomniachtchi vs Gelfand
Wei vs Giri
Harikrishna vs Karjakin
Navara vs Wang
Mamedyarov vs Jakovenko
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 Partner
PhosAgro as the Official Strategic Partner
Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner
Usetech as the partner of the Jerusalem Grand Prix
Prytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
