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A total of 126 participants turned up on November 23 for the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, located about 1400 miles (2250 km) east of Moscow. The competition is taking place from November 24 to December 18.
The 17-year-olds have made it through to the semifinals! After Magnus Carlsen's convincing performance in the regular games Sergey Karjakin, former child prodigy and youngest grandmaster (at twelve!) in the history of the game, displayed excellent nerves and tactical skills in the rapid chess tiebreak games of round five. The first was a tame draw with the white pieces by his opponent Evgeny Alekseev. In the second the young Ukrainian struck out.
| No. | Name | Nat | Rtng | G1 |
G2 |
R1 | R2 | B1 | B2 | SD | Tot. |
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2714 | 1 |
½ |
1.5 | |||||
| Cheparinov, Ivan | BUL | 2670 | 0 |
½ |
0.5 | ||||||
| 2 | Karjakin, Sergey | UKR | 2694 | ½ |
½ |
½ |
1 |
2.5 | |||
| Alekseev, Evgeny | RUS | 2716 | ½ |
½ |
½ |
0 |
1.5 | ||||
| 3 | Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 2705 | ½ |
0 |
0.5 | |||||
| Kamsky, Gata | USA | 2714 | ½ |
1 |
1.5 | ||||||
| 4 | Shirov, Alexei | ESP | 2739 | 1 |
1 |
2.0 | |||||
| Jakovenko, Dmitry | RUS | 2710 | 0 |
0 |
0.0 | ||||||
The start of rapid game one: Alekseev (right) plays 1.e4 against Karjakin
Alekseev,Evgeny (2716) - Karjakin,Sergey (2694) [C78]
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (5.3), 08.12.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Bc5 6.c3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a4
Rb8 9.axb5 axb5 10.d3 0-0 11.Bg5 h6 12.Bh4 g5 13.Bg3 Bg4 14.h3 Bh5 15.Re1 Qd7
16.Nbd2 g4 17.hxg4 Bxg4 18.Nf1 Nh5 19.Bd5 Ne7 20.Bb3 Nc6 21.Bd5 Ne7 22.Bb3 Nc6
½-½.
Sergey Karjakin at the start of game two
Karjakin,Sergey (2694) - Alekseev,Evgeny (2716) [B90]
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (5.4), 08.12.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.f3 Be6
9.Qd2 Nbd7 10.g4 0-0 11.0-0-0 Qc7 12.Kb1 b5 13.g5 Nh5 14.f4 exf4 15.Bxf4 Nxf4
16.Qxf4 Rac8 17.Nd4 Nb6 18.Bd3 Qc5 19.Nf5 Rce8 20.Nxe7+ Rxe7 21.e5 d5 22.h4
Nc4 23.h5 d4
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It is interesting to watch chess engines sink their teeth into this position. How long does it take them to come up with Karjakin's plan?
24.h6! g6. 24...Qxe5 doesn't save Black – take a look at some of the lines: 25.Bxh7+ Kxh7 26.hxg7+ Kxg7 27.Qh4
27...Bf5 28.Qh6+ Kg8 29.Nd5 Bxc2+ 30.Ka1 (30.Kxc2?? Qe2+ 31.Rd2 Qxd2+ 32.Kb1 Qxb2#) 30...f5 31.Nxe7+ Qxe7 32.Qh8+ Kf7 33.Rh7+ Kg6 34.Rh6+ Kf7 35.Qh7+ Ke8 36.Qg6+ Rf7 37.Qxa6+-;
25.Nd5 Qxd5? Loses quickly. Black can try 25...Na3+ but after 26.bxa3 (or simply 26.Kc1+-) 26...Qxd5 27.Qf6 Qxe5 (27...Qxa2+?? 28.Kc1 does not stop the white mate on g7.) 28.Qxe5 Bxa2+ 29.Kxa2 Rxe5 White is winning. 26.Bxc4 Qxc4 27.Qf6 and now Black cannot stop the mate. 1-0. [Click to replay]
Evgeny Alekseev (right) suffering after playing 26...Qxc4...
... and resigns the game and match after Karjakin plays 27.Qf6.
Guess who's feeling pleased as Punch after the round five tiebreaks
In the semifinals we will see Sergey Karjakin playing Alexei Shirov, and Magnus Carlsen facing Gata Kamsky.
All pictures by Eugeny Atarov for the official World Cup web site
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