A total of 126 participants turned up on November 23 for the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk,
Russia, located about 1400 miles (2250 km) east of Moscow. The competition is
taking place from November 24 to December 18.
| Name |
Nat |
Rtng |
G1 |
G2 |
G3 |
G4 |
Tot. |
| Shirov, Alexei |
ESP |
2739 |
½ |
0 |
½ |
½ |
1.5 |
| Kamsky, Gata |
USA |
2714 |
½ |
1 |
½ |
½ |
2.5 |
Round seven (Final) Game four – Sunday, December 16th
On move 27 Kamsky sacrificed an exchange for a passed pawn on the e-file. On
move 31 Black gained an additional pawn, but Black could advance his pawn to
e7 and force an immediate draw by perpetual check. The final score was 2.5:1.5
for the American GM, who had drawn three games and won one. Congratulations
to Gata Kamsky, who temporarily retired from chess to study medicine and law,
but who has now staged an incredible comeback and will occupy the attention
of the chess world for many years to come.
Kamsky,G (2714) - Shirov,A (2739) [B31]
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (7.4), 16.12.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.0-0 Bg7 5.c3 Nf6 6.Re1 0-0 7.d4 d5 8.e5
Ne4 9.Bxc6 bxc6 10.Nbd2 Bf5 11.Nh4 e6 12.Nxf5 exf5 13.f3 cxd4 14.cxd4 Ng5 15.b4
a5 16.bxa5 Rxa5 17.Nb3 Ra7 18.Bxg5 Qxg5 19.Qc2 Rc8 20.a4 Bf8 21.a5 Bb4 22.Re2
Qd8 23.e6 fxe6 24.Rxe6 Qd7 25.Qe2 Kf7 26.Re5 Bd6 27.f4 Bxe5 28.fxe5 Qb7 29.Nc5
Qb4 30.e6+ Kg8 31.Rd1 Qxa5 32.e7 Re8 33.Qe6+ Kg7 34.Qe5+ Kf7 35.Qe6+ ½-½.
[Click to replay]
Originally the winner of the FIDE World Cup was supposed to challenge the reigning
World Champion, but in a
special edict delivered last June FIDE decided that the winner had to play
former FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov first. The winner of that match then
gets to play for the world championship title against the winner of the match
Anand vs Kramnik, scheduled for October 2008. The match Kamsky vs Topalov is expected to
take place after the Anand-Kramnik world championship.
A number of readers have suggested that the Kamsky-Topalov match could become
really exciting if the American reactivates his famously belligerent father
Rustam, to counter the activities of Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov. "That
would be a wonderfully thrilling matchup," wrote one wag, "with explosive
off-the-board play. We look forward to daily blow-by-blow reports on your news
page."
Picture gallery
Sunday and the final game of the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk
Alexei Shirov ponders before moving 5...Nf6
The battle on the stage with the trophy in the foreground
Alexei Shirov and Gata Kamsky in their final encounter
In focus: the trophy which the winner gets to take home
Gata can hardly believe it: I've won the FIDE World Cup!
What could I do, you forced the draw... Shirov and Kamsky after the game
Alexei Shirov, not at all happy with the turn of events...
...but still a little melancholy smile
Gata, as some readers remarked, never smiles. Ever.
Though sometimes he comes dangerously close to doing so
... and sometimes he just can't help himself!
All pictures by from Khanty by Eugene Atarov for the official
World Cup web site
Statistics
In Khanty Mansiysk Gata Kamsky played a total of 18 games, 16 at regular time
controls and two rapid chess tiebreak games (against Peter Svidler). He lost
none of his games, won six regular games and one tiebreak game to win the FIDE
World Cup 2007. A very economic effort. But what about his performance. We consult
ChessBase (the program) and get the following for the regular games:
We see that his performance in this tournament, against opponents averaging
2679 rating points, was a tremendous 2816. For the uninitiated: this means that
we could expect the performance Kamsky displayed from a player rated 2816, statistically
speaking. His actual rating is 2714, so he was playing 102 points better than
his nominal rating on the FIDE list. In the next list he will be rated higher,
though we have not yet projected how many points he will gain (just 15 day before
the new FIDE rating list appears).
Incidentally, if you evaluate all 18 games he played, including the two rapid
ones against Svidler, Kamsky performed at a level of 2822, with seven wins,
11 draws and no losses.
All games and final table
tables of this 128-player event are too large to show normally, so we have
made a reduced, scrollable version for you. Firefox users will need to click
the image to enlarge it to the intended size.
You can also view the original table if your browser and your monitor allow
you to:
