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Fabiano Caruana has built a healthy lead at the Khanty Manisysk Grand Prix. Caruana (+3,=4) has 5 points from 7 rounds. He's back to #2 in the live ratings. He's followed by Sergei Karjakin and Lenier Dominguez Perez (both 4.5). Peter Svidler and Hikaru Nakamura also have plus scores (4 each).
The major tension is because this is the final GP and two Candidates spots are up for grabs. Evgeny Tomashevsky trails on 2.5 but he has accumulated plenty of GP points. A pullback could still clinch a spot in the Candidates for him. Tomashevsky had a "tragic draw" versus Alexander Grischuk when he missed clear wins. By his own admission, he was so upset that he's not yet regained his mojo. The dark horse for the Candidates could be Caruana's compatriot, Nakamura, who is sitting unbeaten on 4. A strong finish from the world #4 could also pull him into the Candidates.
After several lacklustre events, Caruana showed recovering form in the latter stages of the Gashimov Memorial. He has carried his good form into this event, and never looked to be in trouble. He crushed Tomashevsky in a key encounter.
The Italian-American has also been blessed with a little luck. He blew a winning position against Grischuk when he misplayed a technical endgame under extreme time pressure. However, Grischuk handed the win back and that has helped "Fab", or "The Don" as he's variously known, to cement the lead.
Meanwhile, French-Kazakh GM and general gadfly Vlad Tkachiev has produced a vastly entertaining and thought-provoking "proof of concept" for cheating. Tkachiev rented some easily available equipment such as micro ear buds from his "contacts", for the princely sum of Euro 25.
Tkachiev set up a cheating relay with killer moves being dictated to him. He beat, nay thrashed, GM Daniil Dubov in blitz play. The episode (including the running commentary aid from Tkachiev's assistant who was analysing on a computer) was recorded. Dubov did not catch on until told. Indeed, the play looks like "normal", high-quality blitz from two strong 2650 GMs.
The DIAGRAM (White: Caruana Vs Black: Tomashevsky Khanty-Mansiysk GP 2015) WHITE TO PLAY, is an absolute mess. Both kings are exposed in an opposite castled position. White gets an edge by 26.Qc4! Nxe5 27.dxe5 Qe6 28.Nd6 but he played 26.Nc3 Nxc3+ 27.Qxc3 Nxe5 Here, white could try the strong 28.dxe5, hoping for 28.- Qe6 29.Rd6! Bxd6 30.exd6 Qf6 31.Qxc6
Instead he played 28.Qb3+?! Rf7 29.dxe5 Qf5+ 30.Ka2 Bb4? Before this, white is better. Now he's absolutely winning with 31.e6 Re7 32.Bh4 Ree8 33.e7+ Qf7 34.Re6 b5 35.Rd8 bxa4 36.Qe3 Bxe7 37.Rxa8 Rxa8 38.Bxe7 Re8 39.Ka1 a3 40.bxa3 Qf5 41.Qc3 (1-0).
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
