The eyes of the chess world are planted on Thessaloniki, Greece, where twelve of the planet’s finest chess players are competing in the fourth stage of the FIDE Grand Prix round robin tournament. The Grand Prix series consists of six tournaments to be held over two years with eighteen top players, each participating in four of the six tournaments.
The winner and second-placed player overall of the Grand Prix series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament to be held in March 2014.
Joint leaders of the tournament at the halfway mark are Lenier Dominguez Perez of Cuba, Fabiano Caruana of Italy and Gata Kamsky of the US.
Dominguez lost his first game to Kamsky but rebounded to defeat Svidler, Kazimdzhanov and Ivanchuk. The tournament ends June 3rd and eleven rounds would have been completed during that period. Dominguez drew with the US former national champion Hikaru Nakamura in his sixth game. Kamsky is the new US champion, after Nakamura did not play in the 2013 national championship. He demonstrated a preference for the Norway Super Grandmaster 2013 tournament and placed third behind Karjakin and Carlsen. The spoiler at the Norway tournament was the Chinese grandmaster Wang Hao, who beat Carlsen in the penultimate round, and Anand in the last round.
The city of Thessaloniki was founded around 300 bc and is named after a half sister of Alexander the Great. Chess has been played in the picturesque city for centuries.
Dominguez’s seventh game is against France’s child prodigy, superstar Etienne Bacrot, who has so far scored four draws (no wins) from the six games that he has contested. On the local chess scene, the Guyana Chess Federation continues to invite applications for new membership. Contact can be made with the President of the Federation Shiv Nandalall on 225 8270 or 623 7723.
Dominguez Perez, Leinier (Cuba) 2723–Svidler, Peter (Russia) 2769
Makedonia Palace, Thessaloniki, Greece. 25.05.2013
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.Nc3 d6 9.a3 Be6
10.Nd5 Nd4 11. Nxd4 exd4 12. Nxf6+ Bxf6 13. Bxe6 fxe6 14.a4 Qd7 15.b3 c5 16.Qg4 Qf7
17. Bd2 c4 18. Bb4 Be7 19.axb5 axb5 20.Rxa8 Rxa8 21.f4 Ra2 22.e5 h5 23.Qh3 d5
24.Bxe7 Qxe7 25.Qxh5 Rxc2 26.Ra1 Qb7 27.Qe8+ Kh7 28.Qh5+ Kg8 29.f5 cxb3 30.Qe8+Kh7
31.Qh5+ Kg8 32.Qe8+ Kh7 33.Qg6+ Kh8 34.f6 Rc7 35.Rf1 Rf7 36.Rf3 Black resigns .
1-0 .
