Ding Liren Wins Moscow Grand Prix

With a win in the final round on Sunday, Ding Liren of China clinched the Moscow Grand Prix. Ding finished with 6 points, a half point ahead of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan. Ding and Mamedyarov had led the tournament since Round 4.

Ding beat Boris Gelfand of Israel and he did it with the Black pieces. The game was more or less even – though Ding had some pressure – when Gelfand decided to sacrifice a piece for a couple of pawns on his 20th move. The sacrifice was not sound and Gelfand followed up several moves later by desperately sacrificing an exchange in an effort to advance his c-pawn. The second sacrifice was no better than the first and Ding gradually consolidated his position until Gelfand resigned.

Mamedyarov’s game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France was much quieter and the players drew in a symmetrical position after 26 moves.

The only other decisive win of the round was Ding’s compatriot, Hou Yifan, who beat Ernesto Inarkiev of Russia after Inarkiev a complicated but equal game in time pressure. It was Hou’s third victory of the tournament and put her into a seven-way tie for third.

Most of the other games in the finale were relatively short draws, with the exception of the game between Hikaru Nakamura of the United States and Peter Svidler of Russia, which ended after 35 moves with Svidler holding a slight edge and the game between Anish Giri and Alexander Grischuk, where Russian player had good chances to win. Nakamura, Svidler, Grischuk and Giri were among the group of seven players who tied for third.

The Moscow Grand Prix was the second in a series of four tournaments. The top two finishers will qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger for the World Championship.

Twenty-four of the top players in the world are competing in the Grand Prix, with 18 playing in each tournament. (Each player competes in three of the four competitions.)

The Moscow tournament was held in the Telegraph building in central Moscow, a landmark building that is steps from the Kremlin. The Telegraph was also the site of the 2016 Candidates tournament.

The series is sponsored by Kaspersky Lab, the global cybersecurity company, PhosAgro, a giant Russian fertilizer company, and EG Capital Advisors, a global financial management company. Each tournament has a prize fund of 130,000 euros.

The series is organized by Agon Limited, the commercial partner of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. All the games are broadcast on WorldChess.com, the official site of the World Championship.

After two stages of Grand Prix Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is leading in overall Grand Prix Series with 280 points, Ding Liren is on the second place with 240 points. Alexander Grischuk and Maxime Vachire-Lagrave share the third place with 211,4 points.

Moscow Grand Prix Standings and Overall GP Standings

Round 9 Photo Gallery

Closing Ceremony Photo Gallery

Round 8: Ding Liren and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov continue to lead before the last round.

There was the only decisive game Nepomniachtchi-Harikrishna in the round 8 of the Moscow Grand Prix. All the other encounters finished in a draw which means both leaders Ding Liren and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov tie for the first place and once again none of their rivals joined them on the top.

Peter Svidler, who had white pieces against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, got very good chances to win the game and to switch places in the table with his opponent. Shakhriyar had to sacrifice an exchange in order not to defend a hopeless position but Peter Svidler didn’t find a precise way to convert his advantage. Anish Giri managed to surprise Ding Liren at the opening but even though Chinese player chose a risky continuation, it seems he was just in time to trade few pieces and convert the game into an equal ending.

The only decisive game of the round Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Pentala Harikrishna turned out to be also one of the most dramatic ones as Russian player lost his good winning chances, then missed an opportunity to make a draw and eventually lost.

In two longest games of round 8 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Francisco Valjeho Ponscame close to score in their games against Evgeniy Tomashevsky and Hou Yifan accordingly.

One round to go seven players, including Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Teimour Rajabov, Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Boris Gelfand, are just half a point behind the leaders and the fate of the tournament will be decided in the last round.

The Moscow Grand Prix is the second in a series of four tournaments. The top two finishers will qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger for the World Championship.

Twenty-four of the top players in the world are competing in the Grand Prix, with 18 playing in each tournament. (Each player competes in three of the four competitions.)

The Moscow tournament is being held in the Telegraph building in central Moscow, a landmark building that is steps from the Kremlin. The Telegraph was also the site of the 2016 Candidates tournament.

The series is sponsored by Kaspersky Lab, the global cybersecurity company, PhosAgro, a giant Russian fertilizer company, and EG Capital Advisors, a global financial management company. Each tournament has a prize fund of 130,000 euros.

The series is organized by Agon Limited, the commercial partner of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. All the games are broadcast on WorldChess.com, the official site of the World Championship

Round 8 Photo Gallery

Round 7: Tension Mounts at Moscow Grand Prix

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and Ding Liren of China each drew their games on Friday in Round 7 of the Moscow Grand Prix and they continue to lead the tournament. Each now has 4.5 points.

But Anish Giri of the Netherlands beat Salem Saleh of the United Arab Emirates, putting him in the pack of seven players who trail the leaders by only half a point. He scored his first victory at the venue of FIDE Grand Prix and Candidates in Moscow.

With two rounds to go, the tournament is far from decided.

Hou Yifan of China also won on Friday, beating Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway after Hammer blundered in the endgame. Hou Yifan missed her advantage an the ending rook vs knight looked drawish but according to Hammer, he overestimated his position and started to play for victory at the wrong moment.

As has been true throughout the tournament, there were several short draws, but there were several notable exceptions as three games were drawn on the 60th move. One of those involved Hikaru Nakamura of the United States, one of the players trailing the leaders by half a point, who pushed Ding to the limit but could not crack his defense.

Pentala Harikrishna of India and Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia, and Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain and Michael Adams of England were the others who drew on move 60.

Andrey Guryev, Russian Chess Federation Board of Trustees Member, CEO PJSC PhosAgro, made a first symbolic move 1.d4 in the game Svidler-Gelfand.

The ambassador of the United Arab Emeriates in Russia Omar Saif Ghobash visited the venue and spoke to Saleh Salem before the start of the game.

Former World Champion Anatoly Karpov visited the Moscow Grand Prix venue.

The Moscow Grand Prix is the second in a series of four tournaments. The top two finishers will qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger for the World Championship.

Twenty-four of the top players in the world are competing in the Grand Prix, with 18 playing in each tournament. (Each player competes in three of the four competitions.)

The Moscow tournament is being held in the Telegraph building in central Moscow, a landmark building that is steps from the Kremlin. The Telegraph was also the site of the 2016 Candidates tournament.

The series is sponsored by Kaspersky Lab, the global cybersecurity company, PhosAgro, a giant Russian fertilizer company, and EG Capital Advisors, a global financial management company. Each tournament has a prize fund of 130,000 euros.

The series is organized by Agon Limited, the commercial partner of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. All the games are broadcast on WorldChess.com, the official site of the World Championship.

Round 7 Photo Gallery

Round 6: The Race for First of Moscow Grand Prix Tightens

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and Ding Liren of China continue to lead the Moscow Grand Prix after both drew in Round 6 on Thursday, but there are now six players within a half point of the leaders.

Ding drew a hard-fought, roller-coaster game with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, while Mamedyarov agreed to an early peace with Teimour Radjabov, a compatriot. Ding Liren found an interesting exchange sacrifice during his home preparation and when Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finally realized what had happened his position was already bad. Nevertheless, french player found a very nice defence and after 30...Rf4 converted the game into a drawish rook ending.

Ding and Mamedyarov now have 4 points apiece.

There were three decisive games in Round 6: Boris Gelfand of Israel beat Pentala Harikrishna of India, Hikaru Nakamura of the United State defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, and Michael Adams of England beat Ernesto Inarkiev of Russia.

Boris Gelfand was happy to get a playable position out of the opening against Pentala Harikrishna. After inaccurate 23...c5 Indian player allowed his opponent to get better position. With a nice tactical blow 27.Nf7 Boris Gelfand gained a material advantage and eventually won the first game in the tournament.

Ian Nepomniachtchi underestimated the danger of Nakamura`s attack on the King’s side and after 25. Ne6 ended up in a hopeless position.

The victories by Gelfand and Nakamura moved them into the group of players who trail the leaders by half a point. The group also includes Radjabov, Vachier-Lagrave, and Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk, who are both from Russia.

Salem A.R. Saleh of the UAE made a draw against Hou Yifan of China. Yifan found a very strong move 28...a6 with an idea to catch the opponent’s queen after 29. Rb7 Rb7 30.Qb7 Rb6, which Salem A.R. Saleh completely missed. Fortunately for the player from the UAE he had 29.e5 with a balanced position.

Peter Svidler found the most precise way to equalize the position with Black pieces against Alexander Grischuk and after more than 40 minutes of thinking his opponent could not find anything better than to accept following three-fold repetition.

It looked like playing white Evgeniy Tomashevskiy did everything absolutely right and got a huge advantage out of the opening and the position of Anish Giri was close to collapse. However, Anish traded his queen for the rook and bishop and suddenly white lost his ambitions to play for a victory.

The win by Adams allowed him to switch places with Inarkiev, who is now in last place.

The Moscow Grand Prix is the second in a series of four tournaments. The top two finishers will qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger for the World Championship.

Twenty-four of the top players in the world are competing in the Grand Prix, with 18 playing in each tournament. (Each player competes in three of the four competitions.)

The Moscow tournament is being held in the Telegraph building in central Moscow, a landmark building that is steps from the Kremlin. The Telegraph was also the site of the 2016 Candidates tournament.

The series is sponsored by Kaspersky Lab, the global cybersecurity company, PhosAgro, a giant Russian fertilizer company, and EG Capital Advisors, a global financial management company. Each tournament has a prize fund of 130,000 euros.

The series is organized by Agon Limited, the commercial partner of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. All the games are broadcast on WorldChess.com, the official site of the World Championship.

Round 6 Photo Gallery

Round 5: Mamedyarov, Ding Continue to Lead Moscow Grand Prix

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and Ding Liren of China played a very brief draw in Round 5 of the Moscow Grand Prix. That preserved their position in the tournament and they remain co-leaders, each now has 3.5 points.

There were three other games that were decisive. Alexander Grischuk of Russia beat Hou Yifan of China, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France beat Salem Saleh of United Arab Emirates, and Pentala Harikrishna of India defeated Michael Adams of England.

The wins by Grischuk and Vachier-Lagrave moved them into a tie for third place with Peter Svidler of Russia and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, who faced each other and drew. All four players have 3 points apiece.

Round 6 of the nine-round tournament is Wednesday.

The Moscow Grand Prix is the second in a series of four tournaments. The top two finishers will qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger for the World Championship.

Twenty-four of the top players in the world are competing in the Grand Prix, with 18 playing in each tournament. (Each player competes in three of the four competitions.)

The Moscow tournament is being held in the Telegraph building in central Moscow, a landmark building that is steps from the Kremlin. The Telegraph was also the site of the 2016 Candidates tournament.

The series is sponsored by Kaspersky Lab, the global cybersecurity company, PhosAgro, a giant Russian fertilizer company, and EG Capital Advisors, a global financial management company. Each tournament has a prize fund of 130,000 euros.

The series is organized by Agon Limited, the commercial partner of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. All the games are broadcast on WorldChess.com, the official site of the World Championship.

Round 5 Photo Gallery

Round 4: Mamedyarov catches Ding

With a victory on Monday in Round 4 of the Moscow Grand Prix, Shakhriyar Memdyarov of Azerbaijan moved to the top of the leaderboard. He shares the lead with Ding Liren of China, the sole leader after Round 3. They each have 3 points.

There were two other decisive results in Round 4: Teimour Radjabov, a compatriot of Mamedyarov’s, beat Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain, while Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia defeated Michael Adams of England.

It was the second time in the tournament that Nepomniachtchi had bounced back from a loss with a victory.

As for Radjabov, his win moved him into a tie for second with Peter Svidler of Russia, each with 2.5 points

Round 4 Photo Gallery

Round 3: Ding Liren Takes Over Lead of Moscow Grand Prix

In a clash of co-leaders in Round 3 of the Moscow Grand Prix, Ding Liren of China prevailed over Hou Yifan, his compatriot, to take over sole lead of the tournament.

In contrast to the relative calm of the first two rounds, in which there were a total of only three decisive games, in Round 3 five of the games, or more than half ended decisively. In addition to the Ding-Hou game, Peter Svidler of Russia beat Pentala Harikrishna of India, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan defeated Michael Adams of England, Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway downed Ernesto Inarkiev of Russia, and Salem Saleh of the United Arab Emirates beat Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.

Ding now leads the tournament with 2.5 points, followed by Svidler, Mamedyarov and Saleh, who have 2 points apiece.



The President of the Republic of Ingushetia Yunus-bek Yevkurov made a first symbolic move in the game Inarkiev-Hammer. In his interview to the official website Mr. Yevkurov said: “I`m really impressed with the organization of the Grand Prix event and I hope to organize one of the stages of GP series in the Republic of Ingushetia.”



He also played a friendly game against four-years-old chess talent Misha Osipov.

Twenty-four of the top players in the world are competing in the Grand Prix, with 18 playing in each tournament. (Each player competes in three of the four competitions.)

The Moscow Grand Prix is the second of four in the series. The top two finishers will qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger for the World Championship.

The Moscow tournament is being held in the Telegraph building in central Moscow, a landmark building that is steps from the Kremlin. The Telegraph was also the site of the 2016 Candidates tournament.

The series is sponsored by Kaspersky Lab, the global cybersecurity company, PhosAgro, a giant Russian fertilizer company, and EG Capital Advisors, a global financial management company. Each tournament has a prize fund of 130,000 euros.

The series is organized by Agon Limited, the commercial partner of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. All the games are broadcast on WorldChess.com, the official site of the World Championship.

Round 3 Photo Gallery

Round 2: The Chinese Lead Moscow Grand Prix

Hou Yifan and Ding Liren, the two Chinese players in the Moscow Grand Prix, are tied for the lead after two rounds. While Hou drew in Round 2 with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, Ding beat Ernesto Inarkiev of Russia to catch up to his compatriot.



There was one other decisive game as Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia bounced back from his Round 1 loss to Hou to beat Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway. The Moscow Grand Prix is the second of four in the series. Each tournament has a prize fund of 130,000 euros. The Moscow tournament is being held in the Telegraph building in central Moscow, a landmark building that is steps from the Kremlin. The Telegraph was also the site of the 2016 Candidates tournament.

The top two finishers in the Grand Prix will qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger for the World Championship. Twenty-four of the top players in the world are competing in the Grand Prix, with 18 playing in each Grand Prix. (Each player competes in three of the four tournaments.)

The Grand Prix is organized by Agon Limited, the commercial partner of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. Agon has the exclusive commercial rights to organize the cycle of the World Championship.

The Grand Prix is sponsored by Kaspersky Lab, the global cybersecurity company, PhosAgro, a giant Russian fertilizer company, and EG Capital Advisors, a global financial management company.

Though three of the seven games that were drawn in Round 2 were hard-fought, four were short and uninspired – three ended in less than 20 moves. Though such risk-averse play may be understandable given the high stakes, it is not exciting for the fans. The player who has best exemplified this trend is Alexander Grischuk of Russia, who drew his first game against Salem Saleh of the United Arab Emirates in 11 moves, and his second against Evgeny Tomashevsky, a compatriot, in 15 moves.

On the other end of the spectrum, Pentala Harikrishna of India has really worked hard. His first game against Hammer went 92 moves, and his second draw, against Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain, was 82 moves.


Round 2 Photo Gallery

Hou Yifan Is Sole Winner in Round 1 of Moscow Grand Prix

The 2017 Grand Prix – a four-tournament series to select two players for the 2018 Candidates tournament – resumed on Friday with Round 1 of the second tournament, which is being held in Moscow.

Hou Yifan of China, the only woman in the series, was also the sole winner. She beat Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, gradually outplaying him from a nearly level position arising out of a peculiar variation of the Queen’s Gambit.



While the other games were drawn, several were hard fought and exciting. Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway got a tangible material advantage against Pentala Harikrishna of India, but he was unable to convert and the game was drawn in 92 moves. Three other games -- between Anish Giri of the Netherlands and Boris Gelfand of Israel, Ernesto Inarkiev of Russia and Hikaru Nakamura of the United States, and Evgeny Tomashevsky and Peter Svidler, both of Russia -- all ended in perpetual checks.

The tournament is being held in the Telegraph building in central Moscow, a landmark building that is steps from the Kremlin. The Telegraph was also the site of the 2016 Candidates tournament.

The Grand Prix is being organized by Agon Limited, the commercial partner of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. Agon has the exclusive commercial rights to organize the cycle of the World Championship.

Each Grand Prix has a prize fund of 130,000 euros. The Grand Prix is being sponsored by Kaspersky Lab, the global cybersecurity company, PhosAgro, a giant Russian fertilizer company, and EG Capital Advisors, a global financial management company.

Twenty-four of the world’s best players are competing in the Grand Prix, with 18 of them participating in each of the tournaments.

The first Grand Prix tournament was held in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, in February. Three players – Alexander Grischuk of Russia, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France – tied for first, with Grischuk winning on tiebreaks.

The third and fourth will be held in Geneva and Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Round 1 Photo Gallery

Round 2 on 2017/05/13 at 14.00