President's Cup – FIDE World leads after two rounds

by ChessBase
5/8/2009 – The first round saw a well-prepared Shakhriyar Mamedyarov take a point from Alexei Shirov, who defeated Gadir Guseinov in round two. Anand defeated Vugar Gashimov to put the FIDE World team in the lead by 4.5:3.5 points. Before the games started the World Champion received his sixth Chess Oscar from the FIDE President. Live coverage was spotty. Illustrated report.

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

The President's Cup – Azerbaijan vs FIDE World – is an eight-round rapid chess tournament pitting the best players in the Republic of Azerbaijan against a FIDE selection of top players from the rest of the world. The latter includes current World Champion Vishwanathan Anand and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. The games are played in the capital Baku, in the "UNS" Creative Stage theatre, starting in the late afternoon local time – 15:00h CEST.

First day

Live coverage on the Internet was fraught with problems, with the feed from Baku dropping out a number of times, and then being resumed with illegal moves. With the help of Fritz we have tried to reconstruct as much as possible, but naturally we cannot be sure that we have got everything right (and indeed some games are obviously incomplete). So we will have to make do with the bare results. The games in our version can be downloaded using the link at the bottom of this page.

Round 1: Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Mamedyarov, Shakh.
1-0
Shirov, Alexei
Radjabov, Teimour
½-½
Anand, Vishy
Karjakin, Sergey
½-½
Guseinov, Gadir
Kramnik, Vladimir
½-½
Gashimov, Vugar

Round 2: Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Mamedyarov, Shakh.
½-½
Karjakin, Sergey
Anand, Vishy
1-0
Gashimov, Vugar
Radjabov, Teimour
½-½
Kramnik, Vladimir
Shirov, Alexei
1-0
Guseinov, Gadir

Chess Oscar


Anand (right) receives the Chess Oscar from FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

The Chess Oscar is awarded by the Russian chess magazine “64 – Chess Review” on the basis of a poll carried out amongst chess journalists and experts. It was won for the sixth time by Indian GM Viswanathan Anand, the reigning Chess World Champion, who is the only non-Russian to have won the award more than five times (Fischer won it three times, Kasparov eleven times). The Oscar comes in the form of a statuette also called the "Fascinated Wanderer".


The audience during the Opening and Award ceremony


Let the games begin: Teimour Radjabov vs Vishy Anand in round one was a draw


Vladimir Kramnik on board two plays against Vugar Gashimov – draw


Gadir Guseinov held Ukrainian and soon-to-be Russian star Sergey Karjakin to a draw


The only decided game in round one: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov beat Alexei Shirov


The carpeted playing area during round one (with clockwise Radjabov-Anand, Mamedyarov-Shirov,
Guseinov-Karjakin and Gashimov-Kramnik. In the background arbiter Alexander Bakh.

All pictures by photos by "TAG Sport", provided by Sarkhan S.M. Hashimov

The teams

Azerbaijan

FIDE World


Teimour Radjabov
Born 12.03.1987 Rating 2761

Viswanathan Anand (India)
Born 11.12.1969 Rating 2783

Vugar Gashimov
Born 24.07.1986 Rating 2730

Vladimir Kramnik (Russia)
Born 25.06.1975 Rating 2759

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Born 12.04.1985 Rating 2725

Alexei Shirov (Spain)
Born 04.07.1972 Rating 2745

Gadir Guseinov
Born 21.05.1986 Rating 2659

Sergei Karjakin (Ukraine)
Born 12.01.1990 Rating 2721

Rauf Mamedov
Born 26.04.1988 Rating 2645
 

Schedule

Thursday, May 7, 2009 17:00h Opening ceremony
  18:00h Round one
  19:30h Round two
Friday, May 8, 2009 16:00h Round three
  17:30h Round four
  19:00h Round five
Saturday, May 8, 2009 16:00h Round six
  17:30h Round seven
  19:00h Round eight
  20:30h Closing ceremony

Links

The games are bing being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.


Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register