4th FIDE GP 2015 - Round 9

Opening: B90: Sicilian: Najdorf

Player(s): Jakovenko, Gelfand

IM Christof Sielecki recaps Round 9. Story of the day: TWO stalemates in a round, at this level! Probably this round will be remembered more for this almost incredible occurrence than for the results it brought. Gelfand, the oldest - but still so fresh and in a good fighting mode - player of the lot, created a little masterpiece over the board today. He took advantage of a blunder, of course, but the stalemate he got Jakovenko caught into was a piece of cake. Caruana and Karjakin went into a same-color bishop ending. Caruana saw the splendid deflection move 71 Bb4+! and seemed to be on the verge of a relatively easy win, which would have given him the ticket for the Candidates with two rounds to go. But whereas the computer (tablebase) gave mate in 50-something moves, Fabiano showed his being human, and played a totally natural move, which led to the second stalemate of the day. Nakamura and Grischuk drew in 30 moves; Giri beat Jobava in a game that does not count for the tournament nor for the overall GP standings, and Tomashevsky kept alive his hope by beating Svilder, who with this loss gets pushed back in the standings. After 9 rounds, and with two rounds to go, the standings are: 1-3 with 5.5 points Nakamura, Caruana and Dominguez; 4-6 with 5 points: Gelfand, Jakovenko and Karjakin; 7-8 with 4.5 points Grischuk and Giri; 9-10 with 4 points Svidler and Tomashevsky; 11 with 3 points Jobava and 12 with 2.5 Vachier-Lagrave.