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November ratings: World Cup and Grand Swiss

11/1/2019 – The November rating list is out and reflects the performances of two of the most important tournaments on the calendar this year: The World Cup and the Grand Swiss, both qualifying events for the 2020 Candidates tournament which attracted a massive turnout of elite players. Every member of the top 40 was in action in the rating period except for the retired Vladimir Kramnik, Richard Rapport and Veselin Topalov. | Pictured: World Cup winner Teimour Radjabov, runner-up Ding Liren, third place finisher Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and fourth placed Yu Yangyi at the close of the Khanty-Mansiysk festivities. | Photo: FIDE

Teimour Radjabov is fully back, wins the 2019 World Cup

10/5/2019 – Azerbaijani Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov defeated rating favourite Ding Liren in tiebreaks at the final match of the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. After draws in all four rapid games, Radjabov got victories in both blitz encounters to take home the title and USD 110,000. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave prevailed in the match for third place with a commanding 2:0 victory over Yu Yangyi. IM LAWRENCE TRENT sent a video recap of the play-offs. | Photo: FIDE
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Who will play the 2020 Candidates?

10/4/2019 – Fabiano Caruana is already qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2020 and Ding Liren too de facto. They should now be joined by two World Cup finalists. Instead, the situation is less clear. Anish Giri is banking on a rating spot freed up by Ding's new qualification. Radjabov is also in, if he wants it, but that is very much an open question. CONRAD SCHORMANN explains. | Photos: FIDE

FIDE World Cup: Final Friday

10/3/2019 – First and third places of the World Cup will be decided Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk, as the classical phase of the deciding matches ended with 2:2 scores. Ding Liren and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had the white pieces in the last "slow" games of the match-ups, but could not get last-minute victories to avoid the rapid play-offs. Teimour Radjabov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will kick off the tiebreaks with the white pieces. Round-up show by GM YANNICK PELLETIER. | Photo: FIDE

FIDE World Cup: Radjabov ties the score

10/3/2019 – Teimour Radjabov bounced right back after his loss in game two against Ding Liren at the finals of the FIDE World Cup. The Azeri knew exactly what to do when his opponent did not play the most accurate move out of a Marshall Attack and went on to show good technique to even the score in Khanty-Mansiysk. The score of the match for third place is also 1½:1½ after Yu Yangyi could not make the most of a superior position against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Analyses by GM YANNICK PELLETIER and IM MERIJN VAN DELFT. | Photo: FIDE

Game of the Week: Radjabov vs Ding

10/2/2019 – The World Cup is headed for a dramatic conclusion, and today IM Merijn van Delft brings you right up to date. The show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. Merijn is live this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

FIDE World Cup: Ding's fine win

10/2/2019 – Ding Liren got the first win of the final match-up at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. The Chinese scored a fine positional victory with the white pieces over Teimour Radjabov, after the latter went for a double-edged variation of the English Opening. Meanwhile, in the match for third place, Yu Yangyi played the Petroff Defence and held Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to a draw in his first game with Black. GM YANNICK PELLETIER analysed both games. | Photo: FIDE

FIDE World Cup: Theoretical face-offs

9/30/2019 – Teimour Radjabov and Ding Liren signed a 33-move draw as the final match of the FIDE World Cup kicked off Monday in Khanty-Mansiysk. The players blitzed out no less than 26 moves of theory before simplifying into a completely drawn rook endgame. Meanwhile, a similar story was seen in the match-up for third place, as Yu Yangyi had the white pieces against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave — they played 36 moves of a sharp Grünfeld before splitting the point. IM LAWRENCE TRENT reviewed the highlights of the day. | Photo: FIDE

FIDE World Cup: Ding Liren reaches a second World Cup final in a row

9/29/2019 – Ding Liren arrived in Khanty-Mansiysk as the top seed and is now set to face Teimour Radjabov in the final match of the 2019 FIDE World Cup. Ding beat his compatriot Yu Yangyi on tiebreaks by drawing game one and getting a win with White in the second 25-minute encounter. Both the final and the match for third place will kick off Monday — the deciding match-ups consist of four classical games and tiebreaks, if necessary. | Photo: FIDE

FIDE World Cup: Vachier-Lagrave falls just short

9/28/2019 – Teimour Radjabov qualified to the next Candidates Tournament by knocking out Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the classical phase of the World Cup semi-finals. The Azeri grandmaster obtained a clean-cut victory with the white pieces to take down the Frenchman and will have two rest days before the final match begins next Monday. Meanwhile, Yu Yangyi and Ding Liren signed a 30-move draw and will decide their match-up on tiebreaks. GM YANNICK PELLETIER analysed the games. | Photo: FIDE

FIDE World Cup: Semi-finals kick off with draws

9/27/2019 – After Wednesday's dramatic tiebreaks, things cooled off at the start of the semi-finals in Khanty-Mansiysk. Ding Liren had White against Yu Yangyi but was the one slightly under pressure before finding a repetition, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Teimour Radjabov played 31 moves before splitting the point. A win in game two will give any of the semi-finalists a spot in the next Candidates Tournament. Round-up show by GM DANIEL KING. | Photo: FIDE

Have engines led us to lose respect for elite GMs?

9/25/2019 – Alexander Grischuk and Ding Liren sat opposite each other in the fifth round of the World Cup 2019. The game was followed with great excitement by chess players all across the world. In their first game, after 13 moves, Grischuk made a move that led the engines to give an evaluation of nearly -3 points. Online kibitzers went wild, criticizing the players. IM SAGAR SHAH reflects on whether this is an unfortunate trend. | Photo: FIDE

FIDE World Cup: Ding and Radjabov are in the semis

9/25/2019 – Ding Liren and Teimour Radjabov won with White on Tuesday to qualify to the FIDE World Cup semi-finals in Khanty-Mansiysk. The Chinese arrived in Siberia as the favourite and eliminated Alexander Grischuk, while Radjabov got the better of Jeffery Xiong, who came from getting impressive match victories over Giri and Duda. Yu Yangyi v Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave v Levon Aronian finished drawn and will be decided on tiebreaks. GM DANNY KING recapped the highlights of the day. | Photo: FIDE