Joint winners in Tashkent

Three winners in the second stage of FIDE Grand Prix in Tashkent: Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Morozevich and Wang Hao!

The 11th decisive round passed in a tense struggle on all the boards. Rustam Kasimdzhanov decided to enter Sveshnikov today but Boris Gelfand once again proved to be absolutely ready in this opening and managed to equalize the position without much trouble. 

Shakhriyar Mamedjarov and Wang Hao finished the game after 4 hours of play. Chinese player not only outplayed one of the leaders but got quite good theoretical chance for the sole victory in the tournament if Morozevich would lose against Svidler and other players with +1 would fail to win. Wang Hao said at the press-conference he felt he was going to play good in this tournament. “Last period in my life was so difficult, I suffered so much, that I had feeling I deserve some luck.“ 

Nevertheless, Alexander Morozevich made a draw and caught Wang Hao. The game between two Russian players turned to be spectacular despite the final result. As Peter Svidler mentioned in his twitter, “at least finally there was something to watch on my board. Games vs Alexander Morozevich tend to get watchable at some point, as a rule”. 

Sergey Karjakin got a huge advantage but Ruslan Ponomariov was stoically defending till the end and had some chances to save half a point. After 6,5 hours of play Sergey finally defeated his opponent to share the first place in Grand Prix. 

Fabiano Caruana and Peter Leko made a draw after the long struggle in Scandinavian Defence , so Fabiano lost his chance to join the group of winners. 

Leinier Dominguez succeeded to win one game in the tournament. His opponent Gata Kamsky played a bit risky today and Cuban player got a decisive advantage.

Official website: http://tashkent2012.fide.com