In round 2 of the Grand Prix in Jermuk, Dmitry Jakoveno recovered from yesterday's loss by beating Gata Kamsky in just 29 moves. Top seed Levon Aronian joined leaders Cheparinov and Leko thanks to a victory in a queen ending against Alekseev. Full, pictorial report.

The 5th tournament in the FIDE Grand Prix Series takes place in Jermuk, Armenia. It's a 14-player round-robin with Aronian, Jakovenko, Leko, Gelfand, Bacrot, Kamsky, Karjakin, Eljanov, Alekseev, Akopian, Ivanchuk, Cheparinov, Inarkiev and Kasimdzhanov. More info on the GP and Jermuk in our preview.

Round 2

Like the first round, there were five draws and two decisive games. Dmitry Jakovenko bounced back immediately with a quick win against Gata Kamsky, who got lost in a jungle of tactical possibilities. The American had equalized comfortably in his pet line - combining ...a6 and ...g6 in the Semi-Slav - because Jakovenko had missed that 15.Bd6 can be answered by 15...Nxc5! but 17...Be5? was Black's first mistake (17...Nde5) and 21...Nf3+? (21...Rf6) his second. Jakovenko on his turn should have played 20.Kxf2.

Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS) recovered well and defeated Gata Kamsky (USA)

The other winner was top seed Levon Aronian, who played a beautiful, model Catalan game against Evgeny Alekseev, won a pawn with the star move 28.Bxd5! and then managed to convert it in a queen ending at move 72. An impressive game that makes clear that Aronian is still in good shape, and therefore the absolute favourite in Jermuk.

Levon Aronian (ARM) beat Evgeny Alekseev (RUS) in a close to perfect game

After his win in round 1 Ivan Cheparinov continued well with a solid draw against Vladimir Akopian, using the Archangelsk variation of the Ruy Lopez. White's advantage was never big enough to hope for serious chances. The other leader, Peter Leko, played another strong game against Pavel Eljanov and according to online commentator Tigran Petrosian he missed a good chance twice, since both 34.Nf5! gxf5 35.Nh4! and 46.Qa5! look very good for White.

With simple moves Ernesto Inarkiev won a pawn against Vassily Ivanchuk in a Sveshnikov and Black had to fear for his life in the ending that started at move 33. And indeed White missed one or two wins in the game, in the ending with Np - Np but probably also before. The easiest would have been 83.Nd5! Nh5+ 84.Kg4 but in fact only 86.Kf8? gave away the win, where the paradoxical 86.Kg7!! still wins - a tablebase discovery that might be turned into an endgame study - Yochanan? ;-)

Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR): a narrow escape against Ernesto Inarkiev (RUS)

Bacrot-Kasimdzhanov and Karjakin-Gelfand were two Petroff defences and as we all know, on this level this opening rarely leads to very interesting games. Karjakin picked up the new trend of 3.d4 and got a slight plus due to Black's badly placed rook, but it wasn't enough. Kasimdzhanov drew even more easily.

Round 2 games

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Jermuk Grand Prix 2009 | Schedule & results

The beatiful playing hall in Jermuk...

...with a great view of the mountains...

...and of course the other boards to look at

Despite the bad weather a big number of spectators showed up...

...to follow the games outside - that's what a chess-loving country looks like!

The press room

Smbat Lputian captivated by Svetozar Gligoric's many stories

Alexander Motylev, Kateryna Dolzhikova and Sergei Karjakin

All photos © Arman Kharakhanyan

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN