World Cup 4.3: unparalleled drama in Tromsø

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 four tiebreaks

It was an epic round of tiebreaks deciding the fate of eight players, and again it was more about guts and glory than Elo and name.

Quang Liem Le (left in the pictures) had done his job by holding six-time Russian champion Peter Svidler to two draws in their classical games, but the rapids turned out to be too much. The first was a Gruenfeld Exchange, and things soon looked very bad for Svidler as the Vietnamese player accrued a huge advantage. A crucial misstep (31.Bxg5? instead of 31.hxg5!) allowed the Russian back into the game and they eventually drew. In game two, they repeated the same Slav as in their second classical game, though this time Svidler was better prepared and he maintained a pull throughout. The endgame was a technical tour de force as he spent over 100 moves trying to win an endgame in which he had a bishop and knight against Le’s rook and pawn, but win he did, and he is through to the next round. This game is well worth replaying:

Reigning Russian Champion Dmitry Andreikin (left) knew he had a mountain to climb facing his much higher rated compatriot Sergey Karjakin. Game one was a Torre in which Andreikin, as white, played a very straightforward plan, seizing advanced central squares and then pushing his kingside pawns for the attack. Sergey failed to neutralize the push or develop counterchances and Dmitry soon broke through in 32 moves. Game two meant Karjakin had a must-win situation on his hands and Andreikin went for a French Defense as his means to secure his ticket. His choice paid off as Sergey was unable to make anything of the position and, understanding he had nothing to lose, Karjakin took desperate measures that failed to pay off and he lost.

The match between French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Boris Gelfand was quite different. In game one the world champion contender was all but won strategically as he strangled his younger opponent with passed pawns and square denial. The Israeli’s patience or judgment failed him though, and instead of working his advantage, he decided it was time to break open the position for an attack. There was nothing decisive and the manoeuvre simply gave life to White’s paralyzed pieces. Gelfand lost control of the position and lost. In game two, he fought hard and long to try and reset the balance, but failing to break Vachier-Lagrave’s spirit was unable to save the match.

The longest match by far was the epic battle between Evgeny Tomashevsky (left) and Alexander Morozevich. It was not simply epic due to its length, but the fantastic fighting spirit displayed by both players. In game one of their rapid, despite the opposite colored bishops and symmetrical pawns, the two GMs duked it out for a full 65 moves before shaking hands. Game two was much less clear as Morozevich missed many chances to stake his claim, including 24.Ng6! which would have won the queen for rook and piece. Tomashevsky held his grit and finally drew on move 59.

Then came the ten-minute rapid/blitz games and game one saw Morozevich take the upper hand after suffering throughout the game, only to enjoy a blunder at the end decide it in his favor. This meant Tomashevsky needed a win in game two to stay alive in the match, and nothing seemed further from reality. After 40 moves, it seemed as if Evgeny had no chance at all to win, and after 30 more moves and quite a bit of shuffling around, the question was what he planned to do to try and shake things up. All his attempts seemed doomed to fail. And yet finally he managed to throw in his dream break, and a further series of exchanges seemed to merely forestall the inevitable draw. Both players had long used up all their time and were playing solely off the increments, which was where the practical chances lay. Tomashevksy would not be denied and after 169 moves, he had won his miracle marathon. You really need to play through this nail-biting marathon encounter.

This meant that the match would now go into the blitz phase with two last chances for the players to decide their fates before the Armageddon game.

Game one showed that Tomashevsky’s resilience was taking its toll as Morozevich was unable to gain anything in a Caro-Kann Advance, and eventually Evgeny won, which left Morozevich in a must-win situation. It turned out to be too much to ask for, and Moro found himself lost straight from the opening. Whether out of sporting play, or pure nerves, Tomashevsky repeated moves instead of delivering a mate in one. It made no difference of course as he had qualified to the next phase. An utterly exhausted Evgeny Tomashevsky joined live commentators GM Susan Polgar and IM Lawrence Trent describing the ordeal as “the craziest match I have ever played” in a voice that still trembled slightly from nerves and adrenaline.

Pictures provided by Paul Truong, whom you can see at work on the right above

All results of the fourth round games

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Video reports from Tromsø

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: R1 – R2 – R3 – R4 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.