World Cup 2.2: fifteen matches still undecided

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 second round second games

The news of the day was that Super-GM Alexei Shirov (above left) lost to a 14-year-old player and was knocked out of the World Cup. Chinese GM Wei Yi, the youngest participant in Tromsø, played imaginative, fearless chess and wound up in an ending where he had three pawns for a bishop (with a rook on each side). It was not easy but the kid, who is completely underrated at 2551, converted it smoothly to a win. He is through to the next round and faces the winner of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (9th seed!) vs Maxim Matlakov, a match that will be settled in the tiebreaks on Friday.

Top seeds Levon Aronian (right) drew his second games against Russian GM Igor Lysyj...

... and Vladimir Kramnik (left) failed to grind down Mikhail Kobalia, so both continue to the tiebreaks

Second seed Fabiano Caruana (left) drew against Yu Yangyi, enough to
propel him into the next round (and give him a rest day on Friday).

Gata Kamsky (above) lost to Alexandr Shimanov in a game fraught with incredible blunders
by both players, who now have to decide the outcome in the playoffs tomorrow.

"Yesterday I made a mistake on move 11, today I made one on move 10," said a wryly smiling Peter Leko (above left) in an interview with the match commentatory Susan Polgar and Lawrence Trent. The former World Championship challenger from Hungary could only draw his second game against Peruvian GM Julio Granda Zuniga, so after a loss in round one Leko is out of the World Cup.

In his interview Alexander Morozevich (above right) explained that he had decided to play the King's Indian against Rafael Leitao because he did not know how to play just for a draw, only for a win.

Vassily Ivanchuk (above left) and Anish Giri both won (against Ray Robson and Li Chao) and proceed to the next round with a 2-0 score.

GM B Adhiban, who hails for Chennai, India, celebrated his 21st birthday with
a win against Brazilian GM Alexandr Fier, one that put him into round three.

17-year-old Daniil Dubov (right) forced former FIDE world champion
Ruslan Ponomariov into the tiebreaks with a second draw in this round

Go Norway! Jon Ludvig Hammer drew for a second time against David Navara
to take the higher-rated Czech GM into the tiebreaks on Friday

All results of round two

• All results and standings on the official site

Pictures provided by Paul Truong in Tromsø

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Video reports from Tromsø

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: R1 – R2 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.