Baku Rd4 TB: Pure adrenaline

World Cup 10th September – 5th October Baku, Azerbaijan

Round Four - Tiebreaks

Sergey Karjakin - Dmitry Andreikin

It was a significant gamble by both players, or a game of chicken depending on the perspective. In the previous World Cup, Dmitry Andreikin had taken nearly all his matches to the rapid tiebreakers where he successfully outlasted his opponents, many times much higher-rated. In fact, this year he avenged his loss in the final to Kramnik by beating the latter in... the rapid tiebreaker. It was nonetheless surprising to see how readily Sergey Karjakin agreed to this, since what else could it be called by drawing with black in just twelve moves, and a not much more exciting second game with white.

What about Sofia rules or the like? They do not have any here, and nor is there any need. Contrary to a normal tournament where a player could theoretically draw his way to the end, here each match will inevitably leave only one player standing, whether it be the classical games, rapids, blitz, or the final Armageddon.

The first game of their rapid tiebreaker was everything their first two games were not:  tense, imbalanced, exciting. It was also the turning point that sent Karjakin into the quarter finals.

Anish Giri - Radoslaw Wojtaszek

Anish Giri was another player who decided his match in the first tiebreaker. His first game against Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek was quite lopsided, and it was instructive at just how quickly a seemingly inoffensive position went bad, and decisively so.

Anish Giri put his stamp of authority in the rapids

Pavel Eljanov - Dmitry Jakovenko

Although Pavel Eljanov was the lowest rated player among the final 16, it bears remembering that he peaked at World No. 8, something his opponent and several others cannot make so bold a claim to. His form thus far has been nothing short of exceptional, having gone unbeaten until now, and gaining a massive 26 Elo. This has moved him up from No. 32 to No. 16 on the Live Ratings list.

Pavel Eljanov is having an amazing tournament and is playing like his former Top Ten self

His opponent Dmitry Jakovenko has had an excellent year, nearly overcoming a bad start in the FIDE Grand Prix to come within a whisker of qualifying for the Candidates with two excellent results in Khanty-Mansiysk and Tbilisi. This was effectively his last chance to secure a place on his own, which was stamped out by the Ukrainian.

This does not mean it is over for Jakovenko in the Candidates, just that it is not entirely up to him. Right now, you can be certain no one is rooting more for Nakamura's success than Jakovenko. The reason is that if Nakamura makes it to the final, the Grand Prix spot would open up to the overall third place winner.... you guessed it: Dmitry Jakovenko. Don't be surprised if you see him in the audience waving that US flag like the most hard-core Yankee Doodle patriot.

Wei Yi - Ding Liren

Anyone who has seen the games of the Chinese Championships can attest to the absolutely wild swashbuckling that goes on. Even after winning his tiebreaker, Anish Giri joined the live commentary to watch this final bout, almost critical of the choice of sharp moves at every turn possible. "Sometimes a quiet move is just as good", he commented, implying also the lack of necessity of putting oneself at risk.

The first two games at 25 minutes ended in draws, but there was nothing sedate or controlled about them. For many, it was hard to know who had the advantage going in. Their rapid and blitz ratings seemed completely out of touch with their actual strength, and though Ding Liren is the higher rated of the two, and in the Top Ten, 16-year-old Wei Yi has won the Leon Rapid two years in a row, including this year when he defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final.

16-years old and into the quarter-finals of the World Cup

A taste of the brilliance can be seen in game five, played at ten minutes with a ten-second increment.

The opening raised eyebrows to say the least, and it is White to play. His queen is attacked and cannot continue to protect the knight on e5 – after 12.Qf3 Black will play Qxe5. What did White play to not stare at 0-1 before the game had even started?

The full game five with the solution:

Game six was a crazy game that showed not only how badly both wanted to win it, but the nerves of steel of Wei Yi. The opening was nearly catastrophic for Black and Wei Yi's fans were praying for a slip to allow him to just survive. It was long in the coming and after some imprecisions (this was just a ten-minute game after all), Wei Yi could finally loosen his collar and count on a draw. Or so thought everyone watching. The game was nearly devoid of any risk or action but the 16-year-old was not happy, and possibly sensed weakness in his rival. Suddenly the game was alive as he injected life with some serious risk-taking, and he even found himself making a move with exactly one second left on the clock!

As you can see, Black's hand is a blur as he races to make his move
(and succeeds) with just one second left on the clock

Somehow he not only held but it was his senior opponent (kind of funny calling a 22-year-old 'senior') who cracked at the very end, blundering a drawn position, and Wei Yi took the match. The lad has alligator blood. Alligator as in cold-blooded killer.

Although he still has some hurdles to leap, notably Peter Svidler in the next round, the question has now come up more seriously: if by some miracle Wei Yi made it to the final, and thus qualified for the Candidates, would he beat Bobby Fischer's record? Bobby Fischer may have earned his spot before his 16th birthday, but he was 16 years and 5 months 29 days old when the 1959 Candidates started. The answer is: not quite. Presuming the Candidates in 2016 took place in March or thereabouts, Wei Yi would be around 16 years old and nine months. So Fischer's record will still hold no matter how the stars align in Baku.

It is worth noting that Magnus Carlsen played in the 2007 Candidates Tournament at age 16 years 5 months and ... 26 days. However, at the time the World Championship was still recovering from the fractured title that had prevailed for several years, and FIDE qualified 10 players from the World Cup to lead to an eight-player tournament to decide the World Champion.

Bobby Fischer was just 16 years old when he played in the 1959 Candidates Tournament

Daniel King analyzes the round four tiebreaks

All Round 4 tiebreak games

Round Four Results

Round five predictions

by Sagar Shah

Eight players remain at this point in the tournament and they are from seven different countries: two Ukrainians, one Chinese, one American, one Frenchman, one Dutch, one Russian and one Azeri – a tournament that has brought together the best of players from all over the globe, truly a World Cup. With only four games to be played, anything is possible as all the players are quite evenly matched. To reach up to this point in the World Cup would definitely mean that you are in good form. In the fourth round out of the eight battles, we were able to correctly predict six outcomes. Keeping this positive result in mind, we are giving this another go!

Wei Yi – Peter Svidler

Just two months ago, in July 2015, Wei Yi and Peter Svidler sat across each other to play in the China-Russia Summit. Wei Yi, who was white, played the Ruy Lopez and Peter showed his urge to play the Marshall. The Chinese youngster steered the game along the Anti-Marshall path and soon an equal endgame was reached. Both sides had two rooks, two knights and seven pawns. What happened next clearly showed what is lacking in Wei Yi’s game. Svidler centralized his king and created pawn weaknesses. His knights danced all over the board and his rook swung from one corner to another. The 16-year-old was clueless and the game ended in the Russian’s favour without much of a fight.

There is no doubt about Wei Yi’s ability and caliber. But if there is someone who can be an extremely uncomfortable opponent for him, then it is Peter Svidler. With his years of experience and deep understanding of the game he can outclass his opponent like he did in the encounter two months ago.

Prediction: Peter Svidler

Maxime Vachier Lagrave – Anish Giri

In this entire tournament Anish has remained unbeaten. In fact, he hasn’t lost a game since his last 41 classical games. The last one where he had to taste defeat was in French Team Championships in June 2015 against Yuri Solodovnichenko. But Maxime has a good chance of getting past Anish – the reason being that Anish has never really been able to show his best against Maxime. In their 22 encounters, Anish has only won twice. Besides, Giri has excellent chances of qualifying to the Candidates based on rating even if he was knocked out from the World Cup. Maxime might just want this victory more than his opponent.

Prediction: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – Sergey Karjakin

Sergey Karjakin just knocked out his nemesis Dmitry Andreikin – a player whom he hadn’t been able to beat in a classical game since last ten years. He must be feeling good about it, but not as much as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Carrying the expectations of the entire home nation on his shoulders Mamedyarov delivered by knocking out Fabiano Caruana in round four. In their personal head to head battles Mamedyarov has been doing quite well with 15 wins against Karjakin’s ten out of the 47 times they have played each other. Both of them really want to get through to the semi-finals as unlike Giri or Nakamura this is their only way to qualify, but I think it will be the Azeri who will come out alive.

Prediction: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Pavel Eljanov – Hikaru Nakamura

Eljanov has been having a phenomenal tournament at the World Cup 2015. 7.0/8 in classical time control games and 1.5/2 in rapids. But he faces one of the strongest players of this event in the next round. Hikaru Nakamura is enjoying himself in Baku. After every round he writes a Facebook status praising the opponent whom he has just defeated. The American might want to continue this tradition right until the very end. At his very best, Eljanov should not be such a huge hurdle for Hikaru to overcome.

Prediction: Hikaru Nakamura

It is highly possible that your predictions will differ from ours. So make sure that you write them in the comments section below.

Round five pairings

Photos and information from the official website and their Facebook page

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN 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.