Gelfand and Aronian on shared 2nd, Leko slips down
“Genius from Lviv” almost routinely beat the local representative Vladimir Akopian in the final round of the Jermuk FIDE Grand Prix and wins the tournament with 8.5 points from 13 rounds. Vassily Ivanchuk and Peter Leko woke on the final day with same points, but the Hungarian Grandmaster stumbled against Boris Gelfand, this being Israeli’s third win in the closing four rounds. Ivanchuk also won Bazna Kings earlier this summer and is gaining back a bulk of rating points.
Leko bravely run into the topical variation of the Queen’s Indian defence where White sacrifices a pawn for strong initiative. Gelfand even offered another pawn to break through the enemy lines (replay bellow). With his first loss in the tournament, Leko was relegated down to shared 4th place, while Gelfand climbed to shared second.
The pre-game encouragement by the Armenian President must have raised Levon Aronian’s spirits and he achieved a nice victory against the Russian Ernesto Inarkiev. With two first places in the earlier stages, combined with results in Jermuk, Aronian takes the lead in the overall Grand Prix standings.
Vassily Ivanchuk
The tournament was held on 9-23rd August in Jermuk, Armenia. The event was hosted by the Armenian Chess Federation and dedicated to the memory of the 9th World Chess Champion Tigran Petrosian, who was born 80 years ago. Official website.
Round 13 results:
GM Gelfand Boris 2755 1 – 0 GM Leko Peter 2756
GM Eljanov Pavel 2716 ½ – ½ GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2672
GM Karjakin Sergey 2717 ½ – ½ GM Kamsky Gata 2717
GM Bacrot Etienne 2721 ½ – ½ GM Cheparinov Ivan 2678
GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2760 ½ – ½ GM Alekseev Evgeny 2714
GM Akopian Vladimir 2712 0 – 1 GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2703
GM Aronian Levon 2768 1 – 0 GM Inarkiev Ernesto 2675
Final standings:
1. Ivanchuk Vassily (2703 UKR) – 8.5
2-3. Aronian Levon (2768 ARM) and Gelfand Boris (2755 ISR) – 8.0
4-6. Leko Peter (2756 HUN), Alekseev Evgeny (2714 RUS) and Kasimdzhanov Rustam (2672 UZB) – 7.5
7. Karjakin Sergey (2717 UKR) – 7.0
8. Eljanov Pavel (2716 UKR) – 6.5
9-10. Bacrot Etienne (2721 FRA) and Kamsky Gata (2717 USA) – 6.0
11-12. Akopian Vladimir (2712 ARM) and Jakovenko Dmitry (2760 RUS) – 5.0
13. Inarkiev Ernesto (2675 RUS) – 4.5
14. Cheparinov Ivan (2678 BUL) – 4.0
