Petrosian Memorial, Rd. 5: Grischuk Wins Again and Needs Only One More Point for Overall Victory

Время публикации: 10.11.2014 07:28 | Последнее обновление: 10.11.2014 07:31

Alexander Grischuk continues to astonish chess fans in the super-strong Petrosian Memorial, which is taking place in Moscow these days, remaining somewhat in the shadows of the World Championship match. In round 5, Grischuk took Peter Leko by surprise already on move 8, opting for an unusual sacrifice in the well-known Queen's Gambit Decline position: 8.g2-g4!?


Black is by no means obliged to accept the gift. The range of replies is really wide (8...c5, 8...Bb7, etc.); one could expect from Leko the simplifying 8...Ne4!?. However, the Hungarian decided to go the most ambitious way and accepted the challenge. For a dozen of moves, Black was doing fine, but then his mistakes started to come one by one.

Black has a good positional compensation (and a pawn) for the exchange.
19...Ne4?! (probably a miscalculation; 19...Qf5!) 20.f4! Nxd2 21.fxe5 Nf3+ 22.Kf2 Nxe5 23.Rag1! Bh5. The endgame after 23...Rd8!? 24.Rxg4 Rd2+ 25.Kf1 Nxg4 26.Rxg4 Rxb2 27.Rg2 Rb4 is slightly better for White.
24.Rxg7+ Kh8 25.R7g2! Rd8 26.e4 c4?! (a prelude to the decisive mistake) 27.Nd5! (White is already seriously better) 27...Bf3?

28.Rg7! (the winning move) 28...Bh5 (White's main idea was the typical mate after 28...Bxe4 29.Nf6 Bg6 30.R1xg6 fxg6 31.Rh7#). 29.Nf6 Rd2+ (regrettably for Leko, the white king escapes while his own doesn't) 30.Ke3 Rd3+ (or 30...Re2+ 31.Kd4!) 31.Kf4 Ng6+ 32.R1xg6 Rf3+ 33.Ke5 1–0

Boris Gelfand has scored his first victory in the tournament. Probably the 12th move by his opponent Alexander Morozevich was a mistake allowing a nice positional piece sacrifice.


(The position after 15.Bxb5).
In compensation for a knight, White has got a pair of powerful connected passed pawns, which is more than enough given the extreme awkwardness of Black's queenside pieces. Gelfand went on to win in 41 moves; Black's counter-attacking resources on the kind side have proved to be unsufficient.

Vladimir Kramnik has saved an unpleasant position again Levon Aronian who's move 37 was a mistake allowing Black to solve his problems quickly. The game Inarkiev - Ding Liren was a calm draw; the Russian GM deviated from main lines in the Caro-Kann Defence and derived nothing special from the opening.

Thus, Alexander Grischuk has 4.5 points out of 5 and is one point and a half (!) ahead of his nearest rival Vladimir Kramnik, which means he needs to get only a point in the last two rounds to secure clear first place. The key pairings of the 6th round are Aronian - Grischuk and Kramnik - Morozevich.

The sole leader is being supported by his family (photo:

[Event "Petrosian Memorial 2014"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "2014.11.09"] [Round "5"] [White "Grischuk, Alexander"] [Black "Leko, Peter"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2795"] [BlackElo "2731"] [ECO "D58"] [Opening "QGD"] [Variation "Tartakower (Makagonov-Bondarevsky) system"] [EventDate "2014.11.04"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 e6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. e3 b6 8. g4 Nxg4 9. Bxe7 Qxe7 10. cxd5 exd5 11. Nxd5 Qd6 12. Nc3 c5 13. Rg1 Nf6 14. Bg2 Bg4 15. Qd2 Nbd7 16. Ne5 Nxe5 17. dxe5 Qxe5 18. Bxa8 Rxa8 19. Rg3 Ne4 20. f4 Nxd2 21. fxe5 Nf3+ 22. Kf2 Nxe5 23. Rag1 Bh5 24. Rxg7+ Kh8 25. R7g2 Rd8 26. e4 c4 27. Nd5 Bf3 28. Rg7 Bh5 29. Nf6 Rd2+ 30. Ke3 Rd3+ 31. Kf4 Ng6+ 32. R1xg6 Rf3+ 33. Ke5 1-0 [Event "Petrosian Memorial 2014"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "2014.11.09"] [Round "5"] [White "Gelfand, Boris"] [Black "Morozevich, Alexander"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2759"] [BlackElo "2724"] [ECO "D11"] [Opening "QGD Slav"] [Variation "4.e3"] [EventDate "2014.11.04"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 c6 4. e3 a6 5. Nc3 b5 6. c5 g6 7. Ne5 Nfd7 8. Nd3 e5 9. a4 Bb7 10. axb5 axb5 11. Rxa8 Bxa8 12. b4 e4 13. Nf4 Be7 14. Nfxd5 cxd5 15. Bxb5 O-O 16. O-O Nf6 17. Be2 Bb7 18. b5 Bc8 19. Qa4 h5 20. Bd2 Be6 21. Qa7 Nbd7 22. Rc1 Ng4 23. Nd1 Kg7 24. Ra1 Bh4 25. c6 Nb6 26. c7 Qf6 27. Be1 Bc8 28. h3 Nh6 29. Bb4 Rh8 30. Rc1 Nc4 31. Bxc4 dxc4 32. d5 Qg5 33. Qd4+ Kh7 34. Qxe4 Bb7 35. Nc3 Nf5 36. Qe5 Ra8 37. Ne4 Qh6 38. Rxc4 Nxe3 39. fxe3 Bxd5 40. c8=Q Rxc8 41. Rxc8 1-0 [Event "Petrosian Memorial 2014"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "2014.11.09"] [Round "5"] [White "Aronian, Levon"] [Black "Kramnik, Vladimir"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [WhiteElo "2797"] [BlackElo "2760"] [ECO "D37"] [Opening "QGD"] [Variation "classical variation (5.Bf4)"] [EventDate "2014.11.04"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. c5 Nh5 8. Bd3 Nxf4 9. exf4 b6 10. b4 a5 11. a3 c6 12. O-O Ba6 13. Na4 Bf6 14. Ne5 Bxe5 15. fxe5 Bxd3 16. Qxd3 axb4 17. axb4 bxc5 18. Nxc5 Nxc5 19. bxc5 Rxa1 20. Rxa1 f6 21. Qe3 fxe5 22. Qxe5 Qf6 23. Qe3 Re8 24. Re1 Rb8 25. g3 Kf7 26. Qa3 Kg8 27. Re5 h6 28. Qe3 Rb1+ 29. Kg2 Rb2 30. h4 Kf7 31. h5 Kg8 32. Kg1 Rb1+ 33. Kh2 Rb2 34. Kg2 Ra2 35. Qe1 Rb2 36. Kg1 Kh7 37. Rxe6 Qf5 38. Qe3 Rxf2 39. Rxh6+ gxh6 40. Qxf2 Qxh5 41. Qe1 1/2-1/2 [Event "Petrosian Memorial 2014"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "2014.11.09"] [Round "5"] [White "Inarkiev, Ernesto"] [Black "Ding Liren"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [WhiteElo "2688"] [BlackElo "2730"] [ECO "B17"] [Opening "Caro-Kann"] [Variation "Steinitz variation"] [EventDate "2014.11.04"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Nf3 Ngf6 6. Nc3 Nb6 7. h3 Bf5 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 e6 10. O-O Be7 11. Ne2 O-O 12. c4 Nbd7 13. Bf4 a5 14. a4 Nc5 15. Qe3 Na6 16. Rfd1 Nb4 17. Rd2 b5 18. b3 bxc4 19. bxc4 Qb6 20. Nc3 Rad8 21. Rad1 Nd7 22. Qe2 Rfe8 23. Bg5 Bxg5 24. Nxg5 h6 25. Nf3 Qc7 26. Ne4 Rb8 27. Qe3 Nb6 28. Rc1 Nd7 29. Rcd1 Nb6 30. Qb3 Nd7 31. Qe3 1/2-1/2 


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