5 June 2016
Float and Sting
Ultimate Round of the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in the review of Eteri Kublashvili.
The third tournament held in memory of the great Azeri grandmaster Vugar Gashimov has ended by victory of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. This phrase might sound a bit dry, but should readers mentally project themselves into Azerbaijan, they would never fail to see its real value: Shakhriyar's victory is treated as if it were a feast, a huge achievement and a step forward. During the tie-break against Fabiano Caruana it seemed as though the entire Shamkir came to life to cheer fervently for their countryman. Waiters, security guards and service personnel moved upstairs into the playhall to cheer for Shah. Indeed, in a difficult match (following a lengthy game against Anish Giri) Shakhriyar showed wonders of resourcefulness, saving lost positions and defeating his formidable opponent in blitz games. The most famous quote of Muhammad Ali (17.01.1942 - 04.06.2016) is best geared towards describing the finishing spurt of Mamedyarov's with three wins in a row over Safarli, Caruana and Giri, coupled with further victory in the tie-break match.
But first things first.
The first of the ultimate round games to finish was Karjakin – Caruana.
Even though the drawing of lots has once again paired Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana in the ultimate round, no repetition of the "Moscow drama" has happened this time around. The tournament leader would venture into taking no risks this time, as was the case in the Candidates Tournament, and opted for the open Ruy Lopez. Although the game saw no fireworks, Black still needed to come up with a certain amount of precise play in the endgame, so that a draw agreed in the rook ending summed up the logic of the preceding events.
Sergey Karjakin recapped the tournament results by saying that his performance in Shamkir could not be qualified as the most outstanding one of his career. "If not for my blunder and loss to Anish Giri, I would have had chances to contest higher places. When you compete against a strong field, you are always trying to demonstrate good results, but this is not always possible."
Sergey's nearest plan is to participate in the Bilbao tournament.
Fabiano Caruana, "There were decent games, but nothing outstanding, therefore I can single out no game in particular. The encounter with Eljanov happened to be rather interesting. I could have perhaps rated my duel with Giri as the best game, if I had not passed by a winning continuation. However, my overall performance in it is not to blame."
The American intends to take part in the Grand Chess Tour series in Paris and in Brussels. Then Caruana left for the hotel, where he was probably keeping a close watch on the Mamedyarov - Giri encounter. In the case of a draw he was to be faced off with Anish in the tie-break, whereas in the case of Shakhriyar's victory he was to cross swords with the latter.
The second pair to draw their game were Pavel Eljanov and Teimour Radjabov - the Ukrainian chess player got a promising position as White, but a couple of imprecise moves was enough to turn the battle to peace.
After that he games started finishing one by one, beginning with Eltaj Safarli defeating Pentala Harikrishna, followed by Rauf Mamedov "offending" the Women's World Champion.
Pentala Harikrishna emerged advantageous out of the Queen's Indian defense, but committed an error while in time trouble, and the edge went over to belong to his opponent. Eltaj won a piece and brought his advantage home.
Hou Yifan, facing Rauf Mamedov, gave a rough treating to the Reti Opening, which weakened her position quite seriously. The Azeri grandmaster was ingenious in exploiting positional disadvantages of his opponent's position.
The Mamedyarov - Giri encounter lasted longest. Shakhriyar managed to outplay his opponent in the "four versus three pawns" rook ending with the passed c-pawn and thus qualified into the tie-break, which began immediately following the end of the press conference.
Tie-Breaks are always exciting, especially with such virtuoso players. In the first two games with the "10 + 3" time control Shakhriyar's positions were very dubious, if not lost, frankly speaking. However, there was always something in Caruana's way to choose the right continuations and thus both games ended in draws.
The first blitz battle was won by the Azeri grandmaster, and, as was the case in his game against Giri, it happened in a rook ending with an extra pawn, whereas blitz game two ended in a draw. Thus, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov triumphed in the tie-break with a 2.5:1.5 score. Well done!
Final tournament standings:
1-2. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Fabiano Caruana - 6, 3. Anish Giri - 5.5, 4. Sergey Karjakin - 5; 5. Rauf Mamedov - 4,5, 6-8. Pentala Harikrishna, Eltaj Safarli, Teimour Radjabov - 4, 9. Paul Eljanov - 3.5, 10. Hou Yifan - 2.5.
The closing ceremony took place in a very warm and friendly atmosphere. It all began with a song My Way, while being displayed on the screen behind the singer were the pictures and video clips about Vugar Gashimov. It turned out to be very touching indeed.
After that Vugar's brother, Sarkhan Gashimov, awarded beautiful carpets for fair play to Hou Yifan and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and presented a gift to the tournament organizers - Synergy Group.
Also delivering speeches at the closing ceremony were Deputy Chief Executive of the Shamkir region Gudrat Aliyev, Tournament Director and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Synergy Group Farid Huseynov, and Vice-President of the Chess Federation of Azerbaijan and Chief Arbiter of the tournament Faiq Hasanov, who also voiced the final standings for the audience.
Farid Huseynov awarded Shakhriyar with the Cup, followed by taking group pictures and relocating to the premises of the hospitable hotel Excelsior, in which the participants spent time in informal socializing.
Wrapping up the review, I would like to congratulate Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and all prize winners on their success, to thank organizers for superb organization of the event and to wish them good luck in the year to come!
