9/16/2015 – It was a slugfest in many of the matches, and several were very close affairs, but at the end of the day out of the fifteen tiebreaks only two ended in victories for the underdog. Both Le Quang Liem (VIE) and Alexander Areschenko (UKR) triumphed over Nikita Vitiugov (RUS) and Levon Aronian (ARM) to go into round three. One of the matches made it all the way to Armageddon: Adams-Laznicka.
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World Cup
10th September – 5th October
Baku, Azerbaijan
Round Two - Game Two
Another fun day of chess in Baku, though if you were betting on rating you would have had a great time today! Out of the fifteen matches only two ended in victories for the lower rated player: the matches between Le Quang Liem and Nikita Vitiugov which favored the Vietnamese player after the rapids and the big upset of the day, Alexander Areschenko defeating Levon Aronian 2-0 also in the rapids.
[Event "FIDE World Cup 2015"] [Site "Baku AZE"] [Date "2015.09.16"] [Round "2.26"] [White "Aronian, Levon"] [Black "Areshchenko, Alexander"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D86"] [WhiteElo "2765"] [BlackElo "2661"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/8/8/7p/1k6/p3N1n1/K7/8 w - - 0 67"] [PlyCount "70"] [EventDate "2015.09.11"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] 67. Nd5+ {Aronian is down two pawns, but he has not lost hope. Black has to part with the a-pawn if he wants to win, which only leaves him one pawn on the board. Can White capture it?} Kc4 $1 {Black is winning the endgame. Knights are particularly bad at catching h-pawns, as this game proves.} 68. Nf4 h4 69. Kxa3 Kd4 70. Kb2 Ke4 71. Nh3 Kf3 72. Kc3 Ne4+ 73. Kd4 Nf2 74. Ng1+ Kf4 75. Kd5 Nd1 76. Kd4 Nf2 77. Kd5 Kg4 78. Kd4 Nh3 79. Ne2 Kf3 80. Kd3 Kf2 81. Kd2 Ng5 82. Nf4 Kf3 83. Ne2 Kf2 84. Nf4 Kf3 85. Ne2 Nh3 $4 {The only mistake Areschenko made this game...} (85... Ne6 $1 $19) 86. Ke1 $4 (86. Nd4+ Ke4 87. Ne6 $1 $11) 86... Kg2 $1 {Now it is winning. The knight and the king can be pushed out of the h-pawn's path.} 87. Nd4 Ng5 88. Nf5 h3 89. Ne3+ Kf3 90. Nf1 Ne4 91. Nh2+ Kg2 92. Ng4 Nf6 93. Ne3+ Kg1 94. Nf1 Nh5 95. Ke2 Nf4+ 96. Ke1 Kg2 97. Ne3+ Kf3 98. Nf1 Nd3+ 99. Kd2 Kf2 100. Ne3 Ne5 101. Nd1+ Kf3 0-1
After this game the Armenian tried some whacky opening to complicate matters, but it was definitely not his style and he lost.
After three quick draws, Nakamura outclassed Shankland (above) in a rook endgame and won the match
Motylev stood no chance against Giri, who eliminated him. Grischuk and Fedoseev traded plenty of draws until finally Grischuk won a game and passed to round three.
Amin Bassem (above) is the only person from the African continent to ever make it to round two, but Jakovenko dashed his hopes of reaching round three. Karjakin split the rapids with Onischuk but the quick (10+10) was easily in favor of the Russian with a 2-0 score.
Laurent Fressinet exited the event as Ian Nepomniachtchi took him down. This leaves Maxime Vachier-Lagrave as the only Frenchman standing in the World Cup. We hope he won't be too lonely...
The top Azeris, Mamedyarov and Radjabov, are still alive and well, going to round three
The last female standing, Hou Yifan, was eliminated by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in rapids
Red Bull is supporting Nakamura everywhere!
The big upset of the round: Alexander Areschenko beat Levon Aronian (above)
Several matches were absolute slugfests. Both Wei Yi vs. Vovk and Nepomniachtchi vs. Fressinet went all the way to the blitz (5+3) playoff. Wei Yi was finally able to break the Ukrainian's defenses and passes to the next round. One match even made it all the way to Armageddon.
Daniel King shows the blitz game Vovk-Wei Yi
After trading blows for the first six games (all decisive games!) the players drew twice in the blitz. The Armageddon was a smashing victory for the English player:
If you are wondering how an almost 2700 player can play such a game, well I can answer that from experience. After six brutal games of chess in one day with your tournament life hanging on every one, nerves through the roof, and tired beyond belief, playing the Armageddon is just about the toughest thing one can do. It's even hard to see the pieces straight, let alone be able to find combinations or even calculate basic tactics. My own loss against Tomashevsky in 2013 was far worse, but even so it will not be a pleasant experience for Laznicka to go over such a demolition.
Adams keeps the English hopes alive!
We will be bringing you the pairings as well as the highlights of the next match ups later today, by Sagar Shah.
All Round 2 TB Games
Round Two Pairings
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
V. Topalov (BUL)
2816
½
1
1.5
Sergei Zhigalko (BLR)
2657
½
0
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Lu Shanglei (CHN)
2599
1
½
1.5
Hao Wang (CHN)
2712
0
½
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Peter Svidler (RUS)
2727
½
½
1
½
2.5
LiviuDieter Nisipeanu (GER)
2678
½
½
0
½
1.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Teimour Radjabov (AZE)
2738
½
½
1
1
3.0
Ilia Smirin (ISR)
2655
½
½
0
0
1.0
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Ding Liren (CHN)
2782
1
½
1.5
Ernesto Inarkiev (RUS)
2660
0
½
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
David Navara (CZE)
2728
0
½
0.5
Gadir Guseinov (AZE)
2634
1
½
1.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Levon Aronian (ARM)
2765
½
½
0
0
1.0
Alexander Areschenko (UKR)
2661
½
½
1
1
3.0
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Wei Yi (CHN)
2734
1
0
½
½
1
0
1
½
4.5
Yuri Vovk (UKR)
2628
0
1
½
½
0
1
0
½
3.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Anish Giri (NED)
2793
½
½
1
1
3.0
Alexander Motylev (RUS)
2649
½
½
0
0
1.0
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Peter Leko (HUN)
2707
½
1
1.5
Wen Yang (CHN)
2620
½
0
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Julio Granda (PER)
2667
1
½
2.0
Cristobal Henriquez Villagra
2511
0
½
1.0
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL)
2741
1
½
1.5
Vladislav Artemiev (RUS)
2675
0
½
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Wesley So (USA)
2773
1
1
2.0
Csaba Balogh (HUN)
2657
0
0
0.0
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Nikita Vitiugov (RUS)
2725
½
½
½
0
1.5
Le Quang Liem (VIE)
2697
½
½
½
1
2.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Evgeny Tomashevsky(RUS)
2758
½
½
½
½
1
½
3.5
Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen (VIE)
2634
½
½
½
½
0
½
2.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
M. Vachier-Lagrave
2744
½
1
1.5
Gabriel Sargissian (ARM)
2679
½
0
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Hikaru Nakamura (USA)
2814
½
½
½
1
2.5
Samuel Shankland (USA)
2656
½
½
½
0
1.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Laurent Fressinet (FRA)
2702
½
½
½
½
½
½
½
0
3.5
Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS)
2705
½
½
½
½
½
½
½
1
4.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Michael Adams (ENG)
2742
0
1
1
0
1
0
½
½
1
5.0
Viktor Laznicka (CZE)
2676
1
0
0
1
0
1
½
½
0
4.0
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Lenier Dominguez (CUB)
2732
1
½
1.5
Hrant Melkumyan (ARM)
2622
0
½
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Alexander Grischuk (RUS)
2771
½
½
½
½
½
1
2.5
Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS)
2674
½
½
½
½
½
0
3.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Pavel Eljanov (UKR)
2717
1
1
2.0
Alexander Ipatov (TUR)
2625
0
0
0.0
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS)
2491
½
½
½
1
2.5
Amin Bassem (EGY)
2636
½
½
½
0
1.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR)
2726
1
½
1.5
Maxim Rodshtein (ISR)
2673
0
½
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Fabiano Caruana (USA)
2808
1
½
1.5
Rauf Mamedov (AZE)
2657
0
½
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Sandro Mareco (ARG)
2599
½
0
0.5
Anton Kovalyov (CAN)
2616
½
1
1.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
P. Harikrishna
2737
½
0
0.5
S.P. Sethuraman
2640
½
1
1.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
S. Mamedyarov (AZE)
2736
½
½
1
½
2.5
Hou Yifan (CHN)
2671
½
½
0
½
1.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)
2777
1
½
1.5
Lazaro Batista Bruzon (CUB)
2659
0
½
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Dmitry Andreikin (RUS)
2720
1
½
1.5
Anton Korobov (UKR)
2700
0
½
0.5
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Sergei Karjakin (RUS)
2762
0
1
½
½
1
1
4.0
Alexander Onischuk (USA)
2662
1
0
½
½
0
0
2.0
Player
Rtg
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
Pts
Yu Yangyi (CHN)
2721
½
½
½
½
½
1
3.5
Igor Lysyj (RUS)
2671
½
½
½
½
½
0
2.5
Photos and information from the official website and their Facebook page
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.
Alejandro RamirezGrandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12092 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 1276 are annotated.
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