Tbilisi Grand Prix, Round 3: Tomashevsky Beats Grischuk, And Leads
Evgeny Tomashevsky is a very strong Russian grandmaster, but as there is no shortage of elite players from that country he has generally gone unnoticed in the West, except perhaps during the 2013 World Cup when he made it to the semi-finals, defeating Alejandro Ramirez, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Alexander Morozevich and Gata Kamsky before losing (a match he could have won) to Dmitry Andreikin. Today he reminded the chess world of what he could do, dispatching co-leader and world #2 Alexander Grischuk pretty convincingly with White in a King's Indian. He now leads alone with 2.5/3, but with plenty of chess yet to be played. (It's an 11-round tournament.)
There were two other decisive results. One featured the aforementioned Andreikin, who lost with White to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The other was an instructive game for amateurs, a speedy loss by Baadur Jobava to Dmitry Jakovenko. (Incidentally, both Mamedyarov and Jakovenko are tied for second with 2/3, along with Anish Giri.) In an isolated d-pawn (IQP) position Jobava tried to whip up a quick attack with h4-h5. That's a common idea in IQP middlegames where Black has a pawn on g6, or is likely to put one there in the near future, but when the pawn is on g7 and is staying there, and White doesn't have a queen and bishop battery on the b1-h7 diagonal it's very rare. Some of us might be rather frightened by such an attacking idea, especially when it comes from a player of Jobava's stature, and that's what makes Jakovenko's play so instructive. He reacted very healthily, putting his pieces where they belonged, making appropriately active moves, and taking material as appropriate without fearing any ghosts.
I've annotated that game, and included the other games as well (without notes) here. For more on the tournament, here's its webpage.
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