Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand were victorious in the 10th round of the final FIDE Grand Prix to emerge joint leaders with one game to go.
Caruana, who is seeking to win the last GP stage to earn a ticket to Candidates Tournament, took advantage of Evgeny Tomashevsky’s careless reaction in the time trouble to break through the defences by a means of temporary piece sacrifice.
Former World Championship challenger Gelfand defeated the overnight leader Hikaru Nakamura after an instructive attack from the black side of Sicilian Naidorf. Nakamura resisted persistently and nearly escaped the danger, but an oversight on move 33 cost him the game.
Etienne Bacrot was simply collecting the pawns offered by his compatriot Laurent Fressinet and this was sufficient to force white’s resignation almost immediately after the opening.
Caruana and Gelfand are leading in the standings with 6,5 points each, half a point ahead of Nakamura and Bacrot. In order to qualify for the Candidates, Caruana has to finish clear first to collect sufficient GP points. This won’t be an easy task though as in the last round he is playing black against the ultra-solid Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez, while Gelfand will be white opposite Ruslan Ponomariov.
Fabiano Caruana
Round 10 results:
GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2756 – GM Wang Hao 2736 ½ – ½
GM Fressinet Laurent 2708 – GM Bacrot Etienne 2723 0 – 1
GM Grischuk Alexander 2785 – GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2757 ½ – ½
GM Caruana Fabiano 2779 – GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2703 1 – 0
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2731 – GM Giri Anish 2737 ½ – ½
GM Nakamura Hikaru 2772 – GM Gelfand Boris 2764 0 – 1
Round 10 standings:
1-2. GM Caruana Fabiano 2779 ITA and GM Gelfand Boris 2764 ISR – 6½
3-4. GM Nakamura Hikaru 2772 USA and GM Bacrot Etienne 2723 FRA – 6,0
5-6. GM Grischuk Alexander 2785 RUS and GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2757 CUB – 5,0
7-10. GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2731 UKR, GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2756 UKR, GM Wang Hao 2736 CHN and GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2703 RUS – 4½
11. GM Fressinet Laurent 2708 FRA – 4,0
12. GM Giri Anish 2737 NED – 3,0
Round 11 pairings:
GM Wang Hao 2736 – GM Fressinet Laurent 2708
GM Bacrot Etienne 2723 – GM Grischuk Alexander 2785
GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2757 – GM Caruana Fabiano 2779
GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2703 – GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2731
GM Giri Anish 2737 – GM Nakamura Hikaru 2772
GM Gelfand Boris 2764 – GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2756
