ACP 02: rapid World Champion out

The ACP cup runs from the 13th of September to the 15th of September in Riga, Latvia. The tournament will be a rapid event with blitz tiebreaks in a knock out format. The pairings will be somewhat unusual, as the four highest rated playesr will be randomly paired against the four lowest rated players, consequently the players ranked fifth to eighth will be randomly paired against the players ranked ninth to twelfth. The tournament will follow FIDE rapid play rules and FIDE blitz play rules for the normal portion and the tiebreaks.

The matches will consist of 25 minutes per player at the start of the game with 10 seconds increment from move one. In case of a tiebreak the games will move to 3 minutes with 2 seconds increment. Finally, an Armageddon will be used where White starts with 5 minutes and must win against Black's 4 minutes; at the 61st move however players will begin to receive a 2 second increment.

Day two report

Grischuk-Wojtaszek

Grischuk completely outclassed the polish player. In the first game an endgame arose with opposite colored bishops, but White's blockade and his passed pawn were too powerful. He even sacrificed a piece to be able to push his pawn forward and convert the win. Wojtaszek tried too hard in the second game and ended up losing 2-0.

Mamedyarov-Ponomariov

Mamedyarov had to try as hard as he could with white when Ponomariov was able to swiftly take a strong advantage in game one. Despite the symmetrical structure, the pair of bishops guaranteed the Ukrainian player an advantage that he was able to convert. In the second game too many risks were taken and the Azerbaijani found himself in the worst side of complications, with his king too exposed Ponomariov was able to launch a fantastic attack and finish off the series.

Nepomniatchi-Malakhov

The only match that went to overtime. Malakhov was able to strike back in the second game despite reaching a drawish endgame after Nepomniatchi won his first game with White. However the young star was able to strike back in the tiebreaks and took the match Nepomniatchi 3-1 Malakhov

The last straw

Svidler-Radjabov

Svidler was able to quickly dismantle Radjabov with the black pieces. An anti-Paulsen backfired in Radjabov's face as Svidler took the initiative and all of Radjabov's pawns. All the Russian had to do afterwards was hold a draw and advance and he did exactly that.

Tomorrow's mataches:

Grischuk-Svidler
Nepomniatchi-Ponomariov

September 15:
Semi Finals

12:00 game 1
13:15 game 2
14:30 Tiebreaks

Finals

14:30 game 1
14:45 game 2
19:00 Tiebreaks

The games will have live broadcast in Russian and English on the official tournament site

All photos by Lennart Ootes

Round two games

Links Official tournament site PGN of all games The games will be 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.