FIDE WCC R3-1: Topalov wins five in a row

by ChessBase
6/24/2004 – The top seeds (except for the unlucky Nigel Short) are all coasting towards the final of FIDE's knockout world championship. But you should also watch out for some dark horses, like 16-year-old Hikaru Nakamura and Croatian Zdenko Kozul, whose performance so far has been an incredible Elo 3002. We bring you games, results and pictures.

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Round three, game one report

The FIDE knockout world championship is down to 32 players, of whom 9 are Russian. The average rating has risen to 2648, after a lot of weaker players were eliminated. The highest ranked player is Veselin Topalov at 2737, which is 193 points more than the lowest-ranked player left in the tournament (Hichem Hamdouchi of Morocco). The prize fund now dangling for a win in round three is $22,000, with 20-40% deductions if the matches go into tie-breaks.


Veselin Topalov, the unstoppable top seed, won again, this time against Slovak Sergei Movsesian. It was the Bulgarian's fifth victory in succession.


The other top seed Michael Adams, England, defeated Hichem Hamdouchi of Morocco. In the background we see Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan preparing to play Romanian Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (pony tail).


Russian GM Sergei Rublevsky left) went down to Croatian Zdenko Kozul (right). This was the only game today in which Black was victorious. Kozul has now scored 4.5 points in five games, against an average opposition rated 2636. This gives him a huge Elo performance of 3002.


The youngest player left in the tournament, 16-year-old Hikaru Nakamura (left) of the US, is playing some of the most spirited games in this tournament. Today he beat Alexander Lastin (27, right). Once again Hikaru played aggressively and fast, really dominating his Russian opponent.

The above pictures are from the event's picture gallery page and are brought to you be courtesy of FIDE (© FIDE.com)

Results of round three, game one

1 Topalov, Veselin (BUL) Movsesian, Sergei (SVK) 1-0
2 Aronian, Levon (ARM) Smirnov, Pavel (RUS) 1/2
3 Adams, Michael (ENG) Hamdouchi, Hichem (MAR) 1-0
4 Filippov, Valerij (RUS) Grischuk, Alexander (RUS) 1/2
5 Ivanchuk, Vassily (UKR) Kasimdzhanov, Rustam (UZB) 1/2
6 Zvjaginsev, Vadim (RUS) Krasenkow, Michal (POL) 1/2
7 Dominguez, Lenier (CUB) Tkachiev, Vladislav (FRA) 1-0
8 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (AZE) Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter (ROM) 1/2
9 Kharlov, Andrei (RUS) Leitao, Rafael (BRA) 1-0
10 Sakaev, Konstantin (RUS) Dreev, Alexey (RUS) 1/2
11 Akopian, Vladimir (ARM) Moiseenko, Alexander (UKR) 1-0
12 Almasi, Zoltan (HUN) Ye, Jiangchuan (CHN) 1-0
13 Anastasian, Ashot (ARM) Beliavsky, Alexander G (SLO) 1/2
14 Nakamura, Hikaru (USA) Lastin, Alexander (RUS) 1-0
15 Bacrot, Etienne (FRA) Radjabov, Teimour (AZE) 1/2
16 Rublevsky, Sergei (RUS) Kozul, Zdenko (CRO) 0-1

Photos from Libya

Rana Jawad from the BBC World Service has been in Libya for around five months and provided the FIDE web site with some beautiful shots she has taken around the country.

The rest of Rana Jawad's pictures of Libya can be seen (in full size) here...


General information

The FIDE site, which is being hosted by Libya Telecom And Technology, looks well equipped to handle live coverage of the event. The schedule, list of players, results tree and games are all in place, there are reports and picture galleries. The start page is http://wcc2004.fide.com and http://wcclibya2004.com.

Live coverage

The live game transmission from Tripoli, apparently of all games, requires you to have Java Virtual Machine installed on your PC. This program is distributed free of charge by Sun Microsystems (and is useful for many other applications). Visit the Java check page to see if you have everything required for the live coverage and install Java if you don't. To follow the games click on "Live coverage" in the link list above. There is a "View" button behind each pairing of players. Many of the key games will also be covered and discussed on the Playchess.com server.

Schedule

Note that local time in Tripoli is the same as in Central Europe. The start of the games is generally at 14:30h, which is GMT + 2 and translates to 13:30 London, 8:30 a.m. New York, 16:30 Moscow, 18:00 New Delhi, 20:30 Hong Kong, 21:30 Tokyo, 22:30 Melbourne, and 03:00 a.m. (on the next day) in the French Polynesia-Marquesas Islands of Taiohae.

World Chess Championship 2003-2004
18 June - 13 July 2004 – Schedule
Date Day Events Games Time
18 June Friday Opening Ceremony
Players' Meeting
18.00
22.30
19 June Saturday Round 1 Game 1 14.30
20 June Sunday Round 1 Game 2*
14.30
21 June Monday Round 2 Game 1 14.30
22 June Tuesday Round 2 Game 2*
14.30
23 June Wednesday Round 3 Game 1 14.30
24 June Thursday Round 3 Game 2* 14.30
25 June Friday Rest Day
26 June Saturday Round 4 Game 1 14.30
27 June Sunday Round 4 Game 2* 14.30
28 June Monday Round 5 Game 1 14.30
29 June Tuesday Round 5 Game 2* 14.30
30 June Wednesday Rest day
1 July Thursday Round 6 Game 1 14.30
2 July Friday Round 6 Game 2 14.30
3 July Saturday Round 6 Game 3 14.30
4 July Sunday Round 6 Game 4 14.30
5 July Monday Round 6 Tie-Breaks 14.30
6 July Tuesday Final Match Game 1 14.30
7 July Wednesday Final Match Game 2 14.30
8 July Thursday Final Match Game 3 14.30
9 July Friday Rest Day
10 July Saturday Final Match Game 4 14.30
11 July Sunday Final Match Game 5 14.30
12 July Monday Final Match Game 6 14.30
13 July Tuesday Final Match Tie-breaks 12.30
13 July Tuesday Closing Ceremony 18.00
* Tie-breaks at 20:30h

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