Mamedov, 16, and Makhnev Lead the KazChess Masters on 2½/3

After three rounds of the KazChess Masters in Almaty, two Kazakh grandmasters sit in front. Edgar Mamedov and Denis Makhnev both have 2½ points, with Makhnev drawing level by beating Aram Hakobyan in round three.

Three of the five foreign players are half a point back: Daniil Dubov, Shamsiddin Vokhidov and Denis Lazavik.

The field and format

The tournament is a ten-player round-robin, played from 26 October to 3 November. Five local players, rated 2451 to 2581, face five visiting grandmasters who are all above 2600. Azerbaijan’s Mahammad Muradli came in as top seed, and the others from abroad are Dubov, Vokhidov (Uzbekistan), Hakobyan (Armenia) and Lazavik (Belarus).

A rating gap like that is one reason the Kazakh start stands out. On paper the home players are underdogs in most pairings, and a rating gap of 100 points or more usually means the lower-rated player scores well under half.

Mamedov’s start

Mamedov is 16 and the lowest-rated grandmaster in the field. He opened with a white win over Sauat Nurgaliyev, then became sole leader in round two by beating Hakobyan with Black in 92 moves.

In round three he drew with Muradli and stayed unbeaten. A long grind against a 2600-plus opponent, followed by a draw with the top seed, is a solid start for the youngest of the leaders.

Makhnev’s pattern

Makhnev, 25, beat Alua Nurman with White in round one, and he has now won both games in which he had White. His other game was a draw, the same 2 wins and a draw as Mamedov.

Hakobyan has now lost to both leaders. Muradli has lost to Lazavik and to Vokhidov, his second straight defeat coming in round two.

Lazavik’s swing

Lazavik, 19, lost the Esports World Cup final to Magnus Carlsen a few weeks ago. In round one he beat the top seed Muradli with White from a Sicilian Defence. Annotator Stefan Liebig notes the engine judged the position equal despite the material imbalance.

Then Muradli, the 2015 U12 world champion, played 28…Be5??, a risky pawn hunt. Lazavik answered 29.c4?!, not the best move but still clearly better for White.

Muradli kept going with 29…Bxg3??, and after 30.Bc3! Re6? 31.Qg5 Bc7 32.Rd7 he resigned. White threatened Rxc7 followed by Qd8+, as well as mate with queen and bishop on the long diagonal.

Smirnov’s recovery

Smirnov lost to Dubov in round one but bounced back by beating Nurman. In a King’s Indian, Nurman had equalised, but with both players short of time he played 29…Rxa2?? instead of 29…Ba6, attacking the white knight.

After 35.Re6! the knight was untouchable because of the mating threats against the exposed king, and Smirnov converted.

What’s next

Round three produced four draws in five games, a sharp contrast with round one, when all four decisive games were won by White. Six rounds remain. Rounds 4 to 6 finish on 31 October, and the last three games run on 1, 2 and 3 November.