Eight interesting match-ups from round two

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

Eight interesting match-ups from round two

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Gabriel Sargissian

The main reason why this match-up is going to be interesting is because of Sargissian’s marathon struggle yesterday which went right up to the Armageddon. While Gabriel played nearly six hours, his second round opponent Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had disposed off Ortiz Suarez in just two classical games. Maxime versus Gabriel is, if anything, going to be a test of the Armenian’s test of stamina. Will Sargissian be able to sustain himself?

Sargissian’s first round match against Bartel went right to the Armageddon phase,
with the players making draws in all the games apart from the 5”+3’ blitz, where they traded blows

Armenians Levon Aronian and Hrant Melkumyan came to the playing hall to support their country mate

Edge of the seat action as the Sargissian family follow the game of Gabriel
[picture taken from Lianna Sargissian’s (Gabriel’s wife) facebook page with her permission]

That look of despair after fighting so hard but going back with absolutely nothing!
This screenshot was captured from the live video straming immediately after Bartel lost the match.

Although this game went right up to the wire, we were able to find a position in the first classical game, where the Polish player had excellent chances to win.

Mateusz Bartel – Gabriel Sargissian, classical game one

The game ended in a dull draw in another four moves,
but White had an opportunity here. Can you find it? White to play.

Henriquez Villagra – Granda Zuniga

As Emil Sutovsky mentioned in the commentary: “I have to admit that I have never ever looked at a game played by Henriquez Villagra until now.” This little-known 18-year-old Chilean player was the reason why Boris Gelfand was ousted from the first round of the World Cup. The experienced Granda Zuniga now faces Henriquez, and the Peruvian will be careful not to underestimate his opponent.

The biggest surprise of World Cup 2015 was definitely Gelfand’s exit

But it was not like Gelfand was completely blanked. In the first game of their match, the Israeli had a winning position, but unexpectedly the players agreed to a draw.

Boris Gelfand – Henriquez Villagra, Classical game one

White is simply winning. There are many ways to do it. The easiest is Rc1, attacking the knight. It cannot move, as Ba3 would be very strong. And the queen on e7 also cannot really move, because the d8 rook would hang. So all in all White is completely winning – but the players agreed to a draw. Nerves. What else?!

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – Hou Yifan

Hou Yifan was pretty rusty in her first round match against Rafael Leitao. However, she was able to overcome the Brazilian and advance to the second round, where a stronger challenge awaits her in the form of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Mamedyarov had an easy victory in the first round against his Iranian opponent Idani Pouya.

Pouya Idani was not in the best possible health for his match against Mamedyarov

This would be the right place to mention the commentators of the event: Emil Sutovsky and Evgenij Miroshnichenko. Both great players in their own right are doing a highly commendable job of analyzing without the use of engines. Their commentary is insightful and you get to learn how top grandmasters evaluate certain positions and on what basis. While in a majority of the cases they do get their evaluations right, there are times when they are unable to see deep tactical or defensive ideas. Take for example the following position, which arose in the second rapid game between Rafael Leitao and Hou Yifan.

Black (Yifan) to play. How do you defend against the threat of Rf3-h3?

The commentators were convinced that Black is completely lost here, but Hou Yifan was able to find a very nice defensive idea starting with 24…Qe8 25.Qh6+ Kg8 26.Rf3. It seems like it’s all over until you notice the brilliant defensive idea 26…Nxe6! 27.Rg3+ Ng5!, when Black has defended her position and even stands better. This was just an example to show that the possibilities in chess are limitless and we as humans are bound to make errors. Isn’t this what makes chess really interesting? Sutovsky and Miroshnichenko’s live commentary begins at 15.00 hrs local time.

Lu Shanglei – Wang Hao

The all Chinese battle is bound to be very interesting. Wang Hao’s talent can be gauged from the fact that like Kasparov, Kramnik and Gelfand he became a grandmaster without achieving his International Master title. Now he has established himself as a permanent member of the 2700+ club and is currently world number 38. Lu Shanglei on the other hand is clearly under-rated at 2599. He is the reigning World Junior Champion (at least for another two days, as the current one is still going on in Khanty Mansiysk) and one of the many talented Chinese players. Lu Shanglei beat a much higher and experienced opponent in round one of the World Cup.

Moiseenko got the taste of Chinese talent as he bowed down to Lu Shanglei with a score of 2.5-1.5

One position which I liked from the Moiseenko-Lu Shanglei match was the following for it’s unusual and aethestic idea:

Alexander Moiseenko – Lu Shanglei, first rapid game

It’s Black to play. What would you do?

Alexander Grischuk – Vladimir Fedoseev

Both of them hail from Russia. It is going to be experience against youth in this match. Fedoseev won against the talented Indian player B. Adhiban and must be high on confidence, while Grischuk struggled against Yusup Atabayev (2428), a player rated early 300 points lower than him. Grischuk and Atabayev played six draws before the Russian was able to win both the blitz games and take the match. A great achievement for 21-year-old Turkmen players. Fedoseev might look at the strategy of playing it safe in classical time controls and going into the rapid and blitz, where Grischuk was clearly struggling with his time management.

Yusup Atabayev: holding an elite player like Grischuk to six draws is not an easy task

Hikaru Nakamura – Samuel Shankland

Hikaru is definitely the favourite to win this match, but Samuel will give everything he has in order to beat America’s number one. This all-American fight will be interesting to watch.

Pentala Harikrishna – S. P. Sethuraman

India had six players at the start of the World Cup 2015. Four of them were eliminated and only two remain. And now these two face off against each other. Harikrishna is a class act with a rating of 2737. But Sethuraman is the reigning National Champion and one of the fastest progressing youngster in Indian chess. He beat Sanan Sjugirov in round one with a score of 2-0. It will be interesting to see who wins this Indian match.

Ian Nepomniachtchi – Laurent Fressinet

Two of Magnus’s seconds take on each other in the second round. Ian is clearly a favourite if the game goes into the rapid or blitz, as his opponent is too weak, too slow. But in normal time controls both of them are evenly matched, and the game could go either way.

Three tactics from round one

Sergei Zhigalko – Ivan Bukavshin, rapid game one

White to play and finish off the game

Zhigalko played some fine chess to beat Bukavshin in both the rapid games, although it must be
mentioned that the latter over-stretched in game two, as he was in a must-win scenario.

Amir Zaibi – Fabiano Caruana, classical game two

Black to play

Fabiano now faces Rauf Mamedov in round two

Nguyen Ngoc Truongson – Robert Kempinski

A final easy one to end this article. White to play.

Photos and information from the official website

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