World Cup 3.2: Aronian out, Grischuk equalises

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.

Round three game two report

In Evgeny Tomashevsky vs Levon Aronian White sacrificed a knight for the attack (19.Nxh7!?), but Aronian defended well and after a misstep had a near-winning position. Tragically for his fans, he returned the favor with 24...gxf5?? and a draw meant he was out.

The young Dutchman Anish Giri (right) only needed a draw to get through, but the great Peruvian fighter Julio Granda Zuniga outplayed him with black and found a brilliant tactic to end it all: 45...Nbxa5!!

Leinier Dominguez - Vachier : Things might have gotten quite dicey for Maxime Vachier Lagrave had Leinier Dominguez played 34.Kd2, but the opportunity was missed and the French GM is through to the next phase.

Alexander Morozevich, who had missed clear wins in the first game, today conceded a
mysterious 13-move draw with white, and obviously puts his hopes in the rapid tiebreaks.

The 14-year-old grandmaster Wei Yi (right) held the top ten player Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to a second draw and will now have his chances in the tiebreaks. Mamedyarov is a superb rapid player, but fast time controls often favor the young.

Gata Kamsky played a Four Knights Scotch and held Jon Ludvig Hammer to a 26-move draw.
This means that Kamsky is through to round four.

Peter Svidler held Teimour Radjabov to draw in a fantastically complex Symmetrical
English in which Svidler was a rook down. This game is worth a closer look:

Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik had great chances in the endgame against Alexander
Areshchenko, but missed the best moves time and time again. The draw means a tiebreak.

The longest game of the day, between Alexander Grischuk and Le Quang Liem ...

...which went to 154 moves and was ultimately won by Grischuk (with Granda kibitzing)

Interesting: at move 105 (48 minutes into Part 4 of the live coverage below) commentator Lawrence Trent asked viewers to predict how long the game would last. His own prediction: 158 move. Off by four, but certainly a sign of precognitive abilities.

Pictures provided by Paul Truong in Tromsø

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Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: R1 – R2 – R3 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.