It is what's on the board that counts

There were a numbering of interesting facets to the just completed London Grand Prix. The good showing by the 'older' generation was one surprise, as was the equally poor showing of Giri and Nakamura. Even with the 'Corsica' rules in place, there were still plenty of drawn games, although almost all of these were hard fought.
As for the winners, Boris Gelfand may have been the most surprising. Despite playing for the World Championship this year, he wasn't considered one of the tournament favourites at the start. Nonetheless he led for most of the tournament, before scoring a clutch win in the final round to share first place with Topalov and Mamedyarov.
The win by Gelfand demonstrated the maxim "it is what's on the board that counts". He sacrificed the exchange for positional compensation, and then slowly increased his advantage, until he regained the material. After that it was a quick finish as Kazimdzahnov walked into a mating net.


Gelfand Boris - Kasimdzhanov Rustam [D43]
London FIDE Grand Prix (11.3), 03.10.2012