Tbilisi Grand Prix, Round 7: Jakovenko Closes on Tomashevsky
Evgeny Tomashevsky continues to lead the Tbilisi Grand Prix after his third straight draw, and Dmitry Jakovenko has cut the lead to half a point. Tomashevsky had the white pieces against Peter Svidler and perhaps tried to catch the Gruenfeld specialist by surprise with a sideline. Perhaps he did, as Svidler used about an hour from move 13 to move 16, but it wasn't enough for an advantage. Svidler worked everything out, and soon Tomashevsky headed for a draw by repetition.
Meanwhile, Jakovenko was building an advantage against Anish Giri's Dutch. Jakovenko's line is conceptually interesting, taking on a weak queenside structure in return for activity and the chance to swap off the right pieces. White was better throughout, though his advantage only grew decisive in the second time control.
Giri had already joined Hikaru Nakamura as a charter member of the ex-2800s club before this game, but this solidified his membership. Another new member is Alexander Grischuk, whose loss to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is a bit hard to explain. Grischuk seemed to be doing just fine, but 17.Ra5 was a serious error that was soon compounded by 19.Bf4. As a result of these errors Black was up two pawns with a monster passer on d3, and while work remained to be done there was little doubt about the result from then on.
The third victor of the day was Baadur Jobava, who outplayed Leinier Dominguez in one of the former's pet lines, the reversed Philidor.
Four rounds remain. Behind Tomashevsky (5 points) and Jakovenko (4.5) there's Teimour Radjabov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov (4 points apiece), followed by Giri, Mamedyarov and Dominguez with 3.5.