Hikaru Nakamura scored his second consecutive victory to emerge sole leader after the 8th round of the final FIDE Grand Prix that is taking place at the Chapelle de la Villedieu in Paris, France.
Nakamura played black against Vassily Ivanchuk but his position was inferior in the middlegame. However, Ivanchuk first forfeited the advantage and then forgot about the clock to lose the game on time.
Fabiano Caruana recovered after yesterday’s setback and won a nice positional game against the overnight leader Boris Gelfand.
Alexander Grischuk, who is also looking to win the event in order to qualify for the Candidates Tournament, duly outplayed the out-of-form Anish Giri. The game started with English opening and the queens were exchanged as early as on move 9. At the same time black got doubled f-pawns. It turned out that poor structure led black into defeat.
Ruslan Ponomariov and Etienne Bacrot played a long theoretical line in the Benoni Fianchetto where black sacrifices a pawn and offers queens’ exchange like in the Benko Gambit. A couple of imprecise moves by white were all that Bacrot needed to assume the advantage. He went on to win the game.
Hikaru Nakamura
Round 8 results:
GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2756 – GM Bacrot Etienne 2723 0 – 1
GM Wang Hao 2736 – GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2757 ½ – ½
GM Fressinet Laurent 2708 – GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2703 ½ – ½
GM Grischuk Alexander 2785 – GM Giri Anish 2737 1 – 0
GM Caruana Fabiano 2779 – GM Gelfand Boris 2764 1 – 0
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2731 – GM Nakamura Hikaru 2772 0 – 1
Round 8 standings:
1. GM Nakamura Hikaru 2772 USA – 5½
2-3. GM Caruana Fabiano 2779 ITA and GM Gelfand Boris 2764 ISR – 5,0
4. GM Bacrot Etienne 2723 FRA – 4½
5-7. GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2757 CUB, GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2703 RUS and GM Grischuk Alexander 2785 RUS – 4,0
8-11. GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2731 UKR, GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2756 UKR, GM Fressinet Laurent 2708 FRA and GM Wang Hao 2736 CHN – 3½
12. GM Giri Anish 2737 NED – 2,0
Round 9 pairings:
GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2757 – GM Fressinet Laurent 2708
GM Bacrot Etienne 2723 – GM Wang Hao 2736
GM Nakamura Hikaru 2772 – GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2756
GM Gelfand Boris 2764 – GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2731
GM Giri Anish 2737 – GM Caruana Fabiano 2779
GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2703 – GM Grischuk Alexander 2785
Photos by Alina l’Ami – Official website / Opening ceremony
