World Cup 5.1: Kramnik pounces

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 five game one

Vladimir Kramnik pressured Anton Korobov from the very beginning. Korobov's Slav is known to be passive but solid, but Kramnik found the gap in Korobov's armor and pounced on the opportunity. By move 25 the Russian enjoyed a favorable pawn structure and the pair of bishops, with very little compensation from Black. However technique was still required as it was very unclear how to proceed with the positional advantages. Kramnik slipped a little by allowing Black to comfortably stop his passed pawn on the c-file. The Ukrainian player made a serious mistake by playing 32...g6? instead of taking the golden opportunity of eliminating the pesky passed c-pawn with 32...Ne7! After that it was all downhill for the Black side as the combination of the passed c-pawn and the threats on Black's king became too much to stop.

Svidler seems just as confused with Korobov's decision as Korobov himself...

Dmitri Andreikin tried an offbeat d4 system against Peter Svidler (above, left), but the result was less than optimal. If anything Svidler was the one that obtained an advantage from the opening, as slight as that might have been. In the final position it is maybe possible for Black to play on, as he had quite a bit of activity despite the strange situation with the pawn structure. Black instead decided to agree to a draw and try his luck the next day with the extra tempo.

Evgeny Tomashevsky (above, right) against Gata Kamsky saw both players take some "rest" from the wild encounters they had in the previous round. Tomashevsky won in a thriller against Morozevich in the blitz tiebreak while Kamsky didn't play past the classical games, but had two of the most exciting games of the entire tournament. This time the players agreed to a draw in an a6 Slav after Tomashevsky obtained absolutely nothing from the opening.

Maxime Vachier-Lagraeve (above, right) was able to obtain some pressure against Caruana's Gruenfeld. Of course both of these young players are known theoreticians, and it seemed that the Frenchman was better prepared. White was able to obtain an extra pawn and was quite ahead on the clock, but the Italian player was resourceful and kept his cool. Many moves later the activity of Black's pieces allowed him to keep the half point and now MVL will have to defend with Black against Caruana's preparation.

Does size really matter? GM Bachar Kouatly, editor of Europe Echecs, the French–language chess magazine; Ignatius Leong, FIDE Secretary-General and President of the ASEAN Chess Confederation; and chief organiser of World Cup Morten Sand (former FIDE legal advisor) of Norway.

All results of the fifth round games

• All results and standings on the official site

Replay the games of the day

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Video reports from Tromsø

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: R1 – R2 – R3 – R4 – R5 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.