FIDE Grand Prix - Beijing 2013 - Round 7

I am not sure how you can feel about that but I am always bit surprised when a game of two grandmasters rated 2700+ ends up in about 25 moves and it is not a draw! One would even say that this is very rare situation on that level of chess. Not in Beijing! Round 7 started with 2 quick games, in both of them White was successful. The shorter finished in 22 moves, the longer in 24!

In the first game Wang Hao outplayed Anish Giri. Philidor Defence was played and Wang Hao launched an attack in sort of romantic style and bamboozled his opponent completely. 
In the second miniature Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated Veselin Topalov who blundered piece. What an upset!




In the clash of two most creative players in the world, Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Alexander Morozevich. Queen's Gambit Declined was played, both players castled queenside and after tactical clash in the centre and queenside it was White who remained piece up.





Peter Leko played Sergey Karjakin. Queen's Indian was played and this game is a nice example how positional advantage is more important than material. At certain point players reached the ending Queen and Knight vs Queen and Knight and despite that material was even White was better off.






Gata Kamsky tried to tame Boris Gelfand's Grünfeld Indian and went for line with early b4 to prevent c5. After complicated middle game Gelfand got better rook ending but he did not manage to turn the advantage into the victory.




Alexander Grischuk played against home player - Wang Yue. In Capablanca system of Réti Opening he gained small edge and little by little he improved his position, his rooks penetrated on the 7th rank and Wang Yue had to drop a pawn. His passed d-pawn finally ran upon 7th rank and Wang gave up an exchange. In the ending Rook and Pawn vs Knight and Pawn Grischuk's victory was just a matter of technique and time.