Hikaru Nakamura played enterprisingly against Leinier Dominguez Perez but most of the pieces were traded and an ending that at first seemed to be heading for a draw was reached. Dominguez had this prepared an knew a way to draw but forgot the details. 22...Rf7 was probably a better try. But he banked on 23...Ra1 being a draw until he realised 24.Rxg7+ just wins for white. After 23...Bd4 Dominguez into trouble but Nakamura returned the favour with 30.Re1 (30.Rf1! seems to be winning) overlooking 31...Re5. After this Dominguez could mount a defence. Nakamura continued to press but he had to settle for a draw. Boris Gelfand drew one of the more interesting struggles of the day against Evgeny Tomashevsky who chose a Stonewall structure as black. Gelfand looked like he must be pressing but in the press conference it was clear black also had tactical defensive resources which forced Gelfand to steer the game to a draw. Teimour Radjabov surprised Fabiano Caruana on the white side of a Lasker Variation by playing 13.0-0 which is actually the main line. Radjabov was a little better but couldnt find a precise way to convert this edge into something tangible. Peter Svidler was surprised by the choice of the French Variation by Dmitry Andreikin even though hed played it against him before. Svidlers choice of variation could have even led him into trouble and eventually he just decided to allow a sterile position and draw. Alexander Grischuk surprised Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with his choice of the Dutch Defence and produced a massively forcing line which just led to a draw. Sergey Karjakin is being coached by Rustam Kasimdzhanov and in his attempt to surprise 11.Be3 him he himself was surprised 12...Ne4! and after that he had to be extremely careful not to be worse. With 20.Bd1 the danger was more or less over and the game drifted to a draw. This was a round that never really got going. It happens sometimes even in Wijk aan Zee such as round 2 of 2013 or round 13 of 2011 and indeed two rounds of all draws in the last Grand Prix in Paris Sept-Oct 2013. I really expect the round tomorrow to be much more exciting because it cannot be less exciting. Sutovsky. Round 5 Standings: 1-2 Caruana, Gelfand 3.5pts 3-4 Nakamura, Svidler 3pts 5-8 Kasimdzhanov, Tomashevsky, Radjabov, Karjakin 2.5pts 9-10 Dominguez Perez, Grischuk 2pts 11-12 Andreikin, Mamedyarov 1.5pts Round 6 Pairings Wednesday 8th 11am BST: Kasimdzhanov-Andreikin, Caruana-Svidler, Grischuk-Radjabov, Dominguez-Mamedyarov, Tomashevsky-Nakamura, Karjakin-Gelfand.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 23:03:06 +0000
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