FIDE GRAND PRIX – PALMA DE MALLORCA 2017 - ROUND 9

Although Aronian leads, he has black against Nakamura in the final round as well as nine players just a half a point back waiting to pounce.

Additionally, both Rajabov and Vachier-Lagrave have critical games with white. For both players, anything less than a win will exclude them from the Candidates tournament 2018.

The pairings for round 9 are as follows, with tournament points in brackets:

Hikaru Nakamura (4.5) vs Levon Aronian (5)

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (4.5) vs Dmitri Jakovenko (4.5)

Evgeny Tomashevsky (4.5) vs Ding Liren (4.5)

Pentala Harikrishna (4.5) vs Peter Svidler (4.5)

Teimour Radjabov (4.5) vs Richard Rapport (4.5)

Pavel Elanjanov (4) vs Boris Gelfand (2.5)

Jon Ludvig Hammer (2.5) vs Emesto Inarkiev (4)

Anish Giri (3.5) vs Francisco Vallejo Pons (3.5)

Alexander Riazantsev (3) vs Li Chao (3.5)

In the end it was only Jakovenko who managed to beat Vachier-Lagrave with black and pull level with Aronian for a share of first place. The remaining games were all draws. So, both Rajabov and Vachier-Lagrave miss out on a spot in the 2018 Candidates tournament.

Now we move on to the super strong London Chess Classic that starts on 1 December. Till then I’ll leave you with the only decisive game of round 9. Enjoy:

Vachier-Lagrave,Maxime (2796) - Jakovenko,Dmitry (2721)

FIDE Grand Prix Palma 2017 Palma de Mallorca (9), 25.11.2017

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 a6 6.0–0 d6 7.a4 C54: Giuoco Piano: 4 c3 Nf6, main lines with 5 d4 and 5 d3 

7...Ba7 [7...h6 8.Re1 0–0 9.h3 a5 10.Nbd2 Be6 11.Bb5 Na7 12.d4 exd4 13.cxd4 Bb4 14.Bd3 d5 15.e5 Nd7 1/2–1/2 Vachier Lagrave,M (2804) -Svidler,P (2751) Tbilisi 2017] 

8.Re1 0–0 9.h3 h6 10.Nbd2 Re8 11.b4 Ne7 12.Qb3 Rf8 13.d4 exd4 14.cxd4 d5 15.exd5N [15.Bd3 dxe4 16.Nxe4 Nxe4 17.Bxe4 1–0 (40) Urbanik,L (1993) -Zsitva,N (1838) Namestovo 2017] 

15...Nexd5 16.b5 Be6 [16...axb5= 17.axb5 Be6] 

17.bxa6² bxa6 18.Ba3ƒ Black is under pressure. 

18...Re8 19.Ne5! Nf4 20.Ndf3 Bxc4 [20...Bxd4 21.Bxe6 Nxe6 22.Rad1±] 

21.Qxc4 Qd5 22.Qxd5 N6xd5 23.Nc6 Rxe1+ 24.Rxe1 a5 25.g3! Ng6 26.Nxa7 Rxa7 27.Re8+ Kh7 28.h4 Rb7 29.Nd2 [Better is 29.Bc5!± ] 

29...Nc3 30.h5 Nh8 31.Nc4 Nxa4 32.Ne5 [32.Nxa5² Rb5 33.Re5] 

32...Nb6= 33.Bc5 a4 34.d5 f6 35.Nc6 [35.Bxb6!= remains equal. 35...cxb6 36.Nc6] 

35...Nd7 [35...Nxd5µ 36.Nd4 Rb1+ 37.Kg2 Nf7] 

36.Bd4 aiming for Re7. 

36...Rb5 37.Nd8? [37.Ra8³] 

37...Rb8–+ [Less strong is 37...Rxd5 38.Ne6µ] 

38.Bb2? [38.Kf1] 

38...Rxb2 39.Ne6 a3 40.Re7 Nf7! Strongly threatening ...a2. 

41.Rxf7 a2 Black mates. 

42.Rxg7+ Kh8 43.Rxd7 a1Q+ 44.Kg2 Qe1 0–1