World Cup 1.2: Polgar, Nepo out, Ushenina still in

The FIDE World Cup is a knockout, starting with 128 players, with two games (90 min for 40 moves + 30 min for the rest, with 30 seconds increment) between pairs of players. The tiebreaks consist of two rapid games (25 min + 10 sec), then two accelerated games (10 min + 10 sec), and finally an Armageddon. The winner and the runner-up of the World Cup 2013 will qualify for the Candidates Tournament of the next World Championship cycle. The venue is the city of Tromsø, which lies in the northern-most region of Norway, almost 400 km inside the Arctic Circle. You can find all details and links to many ChessBase articles on Tromsø here. The World Cup starts on Sunday, August 11th and lasts until September 3rd (tiebreaks, closing ceremony). Each round lasts three days, while the final will consist of four classical games. Thursday August 29 is a free day. A detailed schedule can be found here.

Results of the first round second game

There were are some noteworthy results in this round:

• The top seeds (1–12) went through comfortable, except Gata Kamsky, who drew again against Chinese IM Lou Yiping and has to play tiebreaks;
• 13th seed Peter Svidler lost against women's world champion Anna Ushenina and goes into the tiebreaks with her;
• Chinese IM Wan Yunguo drew his second game against GM Michael Adams = tiebreaks;
• Alexander Morozevich beat Bator Sambuev to force a tiebreak;
• Radjabov, Andreikin, Korobov, and Alekseev again conceded draws and play tiebreaks;
• Ian Nepomniachtchi lost to 105th seed Wei Yi and is knocked out;
• Evgeny Tomashevsky drew Alejandro Ramirez, who is 118 point below him;
• Alexei Shirov drew again against Chinese GM Hou Yifan and goes into the tiebreak with her;
• Judit Polgar drew her game against Cuban GM Isan Reynaldo Ortiz and is knocked out.
• Alejandro Ramirez drew Evgeny Tomashevsky to force a tiebreak;
• Ray Robson beat Andrei Volokitin for a second time to progress to round two.

• All results and standings on the official site

Thorough checking of the players before they enter the playing hall...

... including a pat-down by female security personnel

This led to long waiting lines and delays in the start – but what you gonna do?

At last the second day of round one can start (with Caruana vs G. Akash in the foreground)

Alexei Shirov drew a second time against Chinese GM Hou Yifan

Parimarjan Negi (right) lost this game against Yuriy Kryvoruchko and goes into the tiebreak

The big shock of the day: Anna Ushenina beat Peter Svidler and forced a playoff

On the next table Michael Adams is forced into the playoffs by 115th seed Wan Yunguo of China

Our friend Alexander Ipatov, fresh from his adventures in South Africa, drew his
second game against Wesley So and, after the loss in round one, is knocked out

Gata Kamsky struggling against 121st seed IM Lou Yiping from China

18-year-old GM Ray Robson (left) knocked out the nominally stronger Andrei Volokitin 2-0

The third youngest participant, 17-year-old Russian GM Daniil Dubov, knocked out Sergey Fedorchuk 2-0

After a shock draw Vassily Ivanchuk won his second game against 15-year-old Polish IM Jan Duda

The youngest: 14-year-old Chinese GM Wei Yi beat Ian Nepomniachtchi with the
black pieces and eliminated the Russian Super-GM, rated 2723, from the World Cup

Another shocker: Judit Polgar knocked out by 87th seed Cuban GM Isan Ortiz

Our friend (we have many friends) Alejandro Ramirez, left, drew with a Slav against Evgeny Tomashevsky
and forced the Russian GM, who is 118 points above him on the rating scale, into the tiebreaks

Pictures provided by Paul Truong in Tromsø

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Video reports from Tromsø

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.