World Cup R4: Svidler and Mamedyarov win with black

by ChessBase
11/30/2009 – That's a good way to start the fourth stage of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk: win the first game with the black pieces. And if you manage it, as Peter Svidler did, against firebrand Alexei Shirov, who was going after your king, so much the better. A number of the other games were drawn without a real fight. But good news: everyone arrived on time, nobody was forfeited. Big illustrated report.

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The FIDE World Chess Cup is taking place in Khanty-Mansiysk from November 20th to December 15th 2009. It is a seven-round knockout event with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round. The final seventh round consists of four games. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time, which is GMT +5 hours = 11:00 a.m. European time = 5 a.m. New York. The World Chess Cup is an integral part of the World Championship Cycle 2009-2011.

Round four day one


Let's see who doesn't turn up in time today! Arbiters consulting the official clock


Check it out, your opponent is late! Alexander Grischuk and Vladimir Malakhov


It's true, no opponent in sight. Will I get a forfeit point today?


No such luck: Wesley So and his team have braved the cold and arrive at the hall


Good work, Wesley! The 16-year-old grandmaster is congratulated on his timely arrival


The master and his clock: anyone who turns up now is automatically forfeited

Peter Svidler played an Exchange Grünfeld against firebrand Alexei Shirov, who at move 22, true to his character, launched an all-or-nothing attack against Svidler's king.


Alexei Shirov before the start of his game against Peter Svidler

Shirov,A (2719) - Svidler,P (2754) [D86]
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (4.1), 30.11.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Qc7 11.Rc1 Rd8 12.Bf4 Be5 13.Bg3 Bxg3 14.hxg3 e5 15.Bd5 Be6 16.dxe5 Bxd5 17.exd5 Nxe5 18.c4 a6 19.Re1 b5 20.cxb5 axb5 21.Nc3 c4 22.Qd4?!

22...Nd3 23.Ne4 (threatens devastating Nf6+ and Ne8) 23...Qa7! Attacking the attacker – did Shirov miss this? Naw, probably something deeper. 24.Nf6+ Kh8 25.Qh4 Kg7 26.Re3 Rd6 27.Rf3 h6 28.Ne4 Rxd5 29.Qf6+ Kg8 30.Rc3 Ne5 31.Rf4 Qxa2 32.Kh2 Qe2 33.Qh4 Ra6 34.g4 g5 35.Nxg5 hxg5 36.Qxg5+ Rg6

This is what you get when a brilliant Shirov-style attack fails. 0-1.


In great shape: Peter Svidler won his first round four game with the black pieces

Czech GM Viktor Laznicka faced Shakh Mamedyarov in a Ragozin and started to come under pressure starting from around move 27.

Laznicka,V (2637) - Mamedyarov,S (2719) [D38]
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (4.1), 30.11.2009
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.d4 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.e3 0-0 7.Bd2 a6 8.Qc2 Re8 9.a3 Bd6 10.h3 h6 11.cxd5 exd5 12.Bd3 Bd7 13.b4 Na7 14.Na4 b6 15.Nc3 Nb5 16.Ne2 Ne4 17.a4 Na7 18.0-0 Nc6 19.b5 axb5 20.axb5 Nxd2 21.Qxd2 Nb4 22.Nc3 Nxd3 23.Qxd3 Be6 24.Ne5 f6 25.Nc6 Qd7 26.f3 Qf7 27.f4 Rxa1 28.Rxa1 Bd7 29.Ra2 h5 30.Kf2 h4 31.Kg1 g6 32.Re2 Kg7 33.Qb1 Bf5 34.Qd1 Qe6 35.Qd2 Ra8 36.Re1 Ra3 37.Rf1 Rb3 38.Ra1 Ba3 39.Ra2

Things are getting really tricky for White. 39...Bb1 40.Nxb1 Rxb1+ 41.Kh2 Bc1 42.Qe1 Qe4 43.Ra7

You probably see it immediately: 43...Qxf4+! Oops. 44.exf4 Bxf4+ wins at once. 44.Kh1 Qf2 45.Rxc7+ Kh6 46.Qd1 Qe2 47.Qg1 Qxe3 48.Qf1 Qf4 49.Qd3

49...Ra1. Forces 50.Qd1 Qxc7 0-1. Nobody likes to see a grown man suffer, but 49...Qg3 in the diagram position leads to a nice forced mate: 50.Qxb1 (of course White can sacrifice all his pieces to delay the inevitable for a few extra moves) 50...Qe1+ 51.Kh2 Bf4+ 52.g3 Qxg3+ 53.Kh1 Qh2 mate.


Czech GM Viktor Laznicka suffered a painful defeat with the white pieces


Azeris: GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov, organiser Faik Gasanov, GM Vugar Gashimov

Wesley So vs Vladimir Malakhov was a convoluted 65-move struggle which saw the young Filipino finishing a pawn up in an un-winnable rook ending. Bacrot-Ponomariov (20 moves), Karjakin-Vitiugov (18 moves) and Grischuk-Jakovenko (14 moves) were less exciting grandmaster draws.


Ponomariov and Bacrot at the start of their epic 20-move struggle


Completely relaxed: Sergey Karjakin before his grueling 18-move game against Nikita Vitiugov


Alexander Grischuk after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 of his game against Dmitry Jakovenko (the rest went 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.Bf4 a5 11.Nc3 Na6 12.Rfd1 Nb4 13.Ne5 Bd5 14.Nxd5 draw)


Sasha, the hat is for outside! Alexander Beliavsky with his charge Baadur Jobova in the press center.


A simultaneous exhibition for visitors of the World Cup


Anyone can play, but not everyone can win


Still it's fun to play against a grandmater who is a thousand points stronger than you


Strange – I could swear I hear a violin playing somewhere in the building


For reasons we have yet to discover the venue is full of violinsts


Please, no pictures! Faik Gasanov in an atypical pose in the hallway of the venue

Photos by Galina Popova courtesy of FIDE

Results of round four

 Players  G1  G2  R1  R2  R3  R4   Tot
 Vachier-Lagrave, Max. (FRA)
½
       
0.5
 Gelfand, Boris (ISR)
½
       
0.5
               
 Gashimov, Vugar (AZE)
½
       
0.5
 Caruana, Fabiano (ITA)
½
       
0.5
               
 Shirov, Alexei (ESP)
0
       
0.0
 Svidler, Peter (RUS)
1
       
1.0
               
 Laznicka, Viktor (CZE)
0
       
0.0
 Mamedyarov, Shakh. (AZE)
1
       
1.0
               
 Karjakin, Sergey (UKR)
½
       
0.5
 Vitiugov, Nikita (RUS)
½
       
0.5
               
 So, Wesley (PHI)
½
       
0.5
 Malakhov, Vladimir (RUS)
½
       
0.5
               
 Bacrot, Etienne (FRA)
½
       
0.5
 Ponomariov, Ruslan (UKR)
½
       
0.5
               
 Grischuk, Alexander (RUS)
½
       
0.5
 Jakovenko, Dmitry (RUS)
½
       
0.5

Schedule of the World Cup 2009

Friday 20 November Opening Ceremony
Saturday 21 November Round 1- Game 1
Sunday 22 November Round 1 - Game 2
Monday 23 November Tiebreaks
Tuesday 24 November Round 2 - Game 1
Wednesday 25 November Round 2 - Game 2
Thursday 26 November Tiebreaks
Friday 27 November Round 3 - Game 1
Saturday 28 November Round 3 - Game 2
Sunday 29 November Tiebreaks
Monday 30 November Round 4 - Game 1
Tuesday 01 December Round 4 - Game 2
Wednesday 02 December Tiebreaks
 
Thursday 03 December Round 5 - Game 1
Friday 04 December Round 5 - Game 2
Saturday 05 December Tiebreaks
Sunday 06 December Round 6 - Game 1
Monday 07 December Round 6 - Game 2
Tuesday 08 December Tiebreaks
Wednesday 09 December Free Day
Thursday 10 December Round 7 - Game 1
Friday 11 December Round 7 - Game 2
Saturday 12 December Round 7 - Game 3
Sunday 13 December Round 7 - Game 4
Monday 14 December Tiebreaks / Closing
Tuesday 15 December Departures

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