Four matches of the fifth round of the World Chess Cup 2013 have started today.
Tomashevsky Evgeny – Kamsky Gata
The American Champion defended with the Slav and Tomashevsky didn’t show much of ambition with white, probably being exhausted after the yesterday’s tie-breaks.
The resulting pawn structure without the light-squared bishops offered nothing to white and a relatively quick draw was signed on move 16. Kamsky shared with Susan Polgar that he is happy to draw as black.
Andreikin Dmitry – Svidler Peter
Torre Attack brought him success in the rapid game with Sergey Karjakin and Russian Champion Dmitry Andreikin tried to achieve same effect in today’s match against defending World Cup Champion Peter Svidler.
But Svidler was well prepared and he quickly equalized the play by setting the structure similar to the Caro-Kann Exchange variation.
Despite the queens being exchanged, white tried to cause some trouble on the kingside but black countered in the center. The game was drawn by repetition on move 30.
Kramnik Vladimir – Korobov Anton
The hero of the previous round opened with the Queen’s Gambit Accepted but this might not have been the best idea given the vast experience that former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik has in these structures.
Kramnik enjoys playing for the space and this was a good opportunity to perform his trade-marked positional squeeze.
White won the bishops pair and used his a-pawn to open up the queenside. After some exchanges, white emerged with a passed c-pawn and clear advantage.
A careless move by Kramnik allowed his opponent to obtain some counterplay, but Korobov rushed to sacrifice an exchange to get rid of the passed pawn.
Despite the material disadvantage, black pieces were well posted to defend the narrow front. After the huge effort Kramnik finally converted into the full point.
Vachier-Lagrave Maxime – Caruana Fabiano
Once again the French player faced the Gruenfeld Indian defence, which is also his favourite opening with black pieces. He played actively with white, sacrificing a pawn for the advantage in development.
Fabiano Caruana went into long thought trying to figure out what to do with the light-squared bishop. He transfered the piece to b7 and rushed to bring the forces into play, giving away two pawns in the process.
A couple of pieces were exchanged and white held onto his extra pawn, but black was already mobilized and ready to seek counter-play.
Vachier-Lagrave tried to achieve something in the endgame, but Caruana defended well and draw was signed on move 62.
Replay the games with computer analysis
Round 5 game 1 results:
Andreikin Dmitry 2727 – Svidler Peter 2746 ½-½
Kramnik Vladimir 2784 – Korobov Anton 2720 1-0
Tomashevsky Evgeny 2709 – Kamsky Gata 2763 ½-½
Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2719 – Caruana Fabiano 2796 ½-½
