The Fourth ACP World Rapid Cup in Odessa

by ChessBase
5/28/2010 – This event is taking place from May 27th-29th, 2010 in Ukraine. The matches are two rapid games, followed by blitz tiebreak games if required, and then the dreaded Armageddon blitz to decided the winner. Shocker in round one: veteran Mikhail Gurevich knocked out Vassily Ivanchuk, who played down to a bare knight in the second game. Day one report.

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The Fourth ACP World Rapid Cup is taking place from May 27th-29th, 2010 in Odessa, Ukraine. The time controls are 20 minutes per game with an increment of five seconds per move. If the two-game match is drawn two blitz games are played with a time control of three minutes with an increment of two seconds per move. If this tiebreak is also drawn a final Armageddon blitz game decides the winner: White starts with five minutes and Black with four plus the draw odds (i.e. White has to win).


First day under way – with a typically unpacked hall of spectators

First day's results

Grischuk, Alexander
2.0-0.0
Motylev, Alexander
Movsesian, Sergei
1.5-0.5
Naiditsch, Arkadij
Shirov, Alexei
3.0-2.0
Bacrot, Etienne
Karjakin, Sergey
3.0-1.0
Drozdovskij, Yuri
Eljanov, Pavel
1.5-0.5
Moiseenko, Alexander
Ivanchuk, Vassily
0.5-1.5
Gurevich, Mikhail
Jakovenko, Dmitry
2.0-0.0
Inarkiev, Ernesto
Gashimov, Vugar
3.0-2.0
Tregubov, Pavel

The shocker of course was the elimination of Vassily Ivanchuk at the hands of veteran Mikhail Gurevich. Of course Gurevich, 51, is not just anybody. The Ukrainian GM has a long and illustrious career in tournament play and training – decades ago he taught the young Viswanathan Anand a lot about the concept of "garmony" on the chessboard. Today Mikhail works as the Turkish national trainer. In the first game he had been torturing the volatile Ivanchuk, which caused the world class player to crack.


Knocked out Vassily Ivanchuk: GM Mikhail Gurevich

Gurevich,M (2614) - Ivanchuk,V (2741) [D11]
4th ACP World Rapid Cup Odessa UKR (1.1), 27.05.2010
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.Qb3 Qb6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Nh4 Bh5 8.h3 Nbd7 9.g4 Bg6 10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.Bg2 Qa6 12.cxd5 exd5 13.g5 Nh5 14.e4 dxe4 15.Bxe4 Bd6 16.Be3 Nf4 17.0-0-0 Rh4 18.Kb1 Kf8 19.Bf3 Re8 20.Rhe1 Qb6 21.Qc2 Qc7 22.d5 Ne5 23.Bh1 cxd5 24.Nxd5 Nxd5 25.Bxd5 Qxc2+ 26.Kxc2 Bb4 27.Re2 Nc4 28.Bxc4 Rxc4+ 29.Kb3 b5 30.Rc2 Rxc2 31.Kxc2 a6 32.a3 Be7 33.Rd7 Rc8+ 34.Kd3 Ke8 35.Ra7 Rc6 36.h4 Bd6 37.Bd4 Bc7 38.Bxg7 Kd8 39.Bf6+ Kc8 40.Ra8+ Kd7 41.Rf8 Ke6 42.Re8+ Kd5 43.Re7 Bb6 44.Rxf7 Bxf2 45.Rg7 Bxh4 46.Rxg6 Rc4 47.Bd8 Rg4 48.Ke3 Rg2 49.Kf3 Rxb2 50.Rxa6 b4 51.a4 b3 52.Kg4 Be1 53.Bf6 Rg2+ 54.Kf5 Kc4 55.Rb6 Ba5 56.Rb7 Bb4 57.g6 Rf2+ 58.Ke6

Actually things have calmed down and Ivanchuk can defend the position with 58...b2. But he sees a more radical solution which turns out not to be one: 58...Rxf6+? 59.Kxf6 b2 60.g7 b1Q. Black get the queen first, but is already completely lost. 61.g8Q+ Kc3 62.Qg3+ Kc4 63.Qf4+ Kc3 64.Qe3+ Kc4 65.Rc7+ Kd5 66.Qe5# 1-0.

The second game is a curiosity:

Ivanchuk,V (2741) - Gurevich,M (2614) [D45]
4th ACP World Rapid Cup Odessa UKR (1.2), 27.05.2010
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 a6 6.b3 Bb4 7.Bd2 Nbd7 8.Bd3 0-0 9.0-0 Bd6 10.Rc1 h6 11.Qc2 e5 12.cxd5 cxd5 13.dxe5 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Bxe5 15.Ne2 Bg4 16.f3 Rc8 17.Qb1 Bd7 18.Rxc8 Bxc8 19.Rc1 Qb6 20.Qc2 Bd7 21.Qc5 Qxc5 22.Rxc5 Bd6 23.Rc2 Re8 24.Kf2 Kf8 25.Bc3 Bc5 26.Bd4 Bxd4 27.Nxd4 Ke7 28.Rd2 Rc8 29.Bc2 a5 30.g4 Rc5 31.h4 Ne8 32.Ne2 g5 33.Nd4 Nd6 34.Bd3 Rc1 35.Kg3 Rg1+ 36.Kh2 Re1 37.Be2 gxh4 38.Kh3 h5 39.Rd1 hxg4+ 40.fxg4 Rxd1 41.Bxd1 Ne4 42.Kxh4 Nc3 43.Bf3 Nxa2 44.Bxd5 b5 45.Bc6 Nc3 46.Kg5 a4 47.bxa4 bxa4 48.Bxd7 Kxd7 49.Kf6 Nd5+ 50.Kxf7 Nxe3 51.g5 a3 52.g6 a2 53.Nb3 Nf5 54.Kf6 Nd6 55.Ke5 Ne8 56.Kd4 Ke7 57.Kc3 Kf6 58.Kb2 Kxg6 59.Kxa2. King and knight vs king and knight is, if we recall correctly, a draw – but the two play on: 59...Nd6 60.Nc5 Nc4 61.Kb3 Nb6 62.Kc3 Nc8 63.Kd4 Nd6 64.Ke5 Nb5 65.Kd5

What in heaven's name is going on? Gurevich narrates: "I kept looking at him, and here Vassily looked at me and said: 'I want to capture the knight!' So I played 65...Nd4, he took with 66.Kxd4 and agreed to the draw, thereby losing the match." There is only one word that adaquately describes this kind of quirky behaviour is: Chucky!


"I want your knight!" – Vassily Ivanchuk

Two matches were drawn and went into tiebreaks. Shirov and Bacrot drew both their rapid games, then each won a blitz tiebreaker. In the final armageddon Shirov won with the white pieces (the moves of this game are so far not available).


GM Etienne Bacrot from France

The same applies to Gashimov vs Tregubov: both rapid games drawn, one win each (with black) in the blitz and Gashimov won the armageddon with black to proceed to the quarter-finals.

Here are a few explosive moments from other games:

Movsesian,S (2717) - Naiditsch,A (2686) [C50]
4th ACP World Rapid Cup Odessa UKR (1.1), 27.05.2010
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 Nf6 5.d3 0-0 6.Bb3 d5 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.h3 Nb6 9.Re1 a5 10.a4 Bd6 11.Nc3 Bf5 12.Nb5 Bg6 13.Bg5 Qd7 14.Nh4 Nd4 15.Nxd4 exd4 16.Qf3 c6 17.Nxg6 hxg6 18.Re4 Bb4 19.h4 Rae8 20.h5 Rxe4 21.dxe4 gxh5 22.Qxh5 c5

23.Bf6! Qc6 24.e5 Nd7 25.Be7 c4 26.Bxf8 Nxf8 27.Ba2 Ne6 28.Rd1 d3 29.cxd3 Nf4 30.Qg4 Qxa4 31.Bxc4 Qc2 32.Rf1 Ne2+ 33.Kh2 Qd2 34.f4 1-0.


GM Sergei Movsesian, who plays for Slovakia

Karjakin,Sergey (2739) - Drozdovskij,Y (2625) [C10]
4th ACP World Rapid Cup Odessa UKR (1.1), 27.05.2010
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Bd3 c5 7.0-0 Nxe4 8.Bxe4 Nf6 9.Bg5 cxd4 10.Nxd4 Be7 11.Bf3 0-0 12.Qd3 Qb6 13.Rad1 Rd8 14.Be3 Qa5 15.Qb5 Qc7 16.Qb3 a6

17.Nf5 (17.Nc6 was the correct sacrifice!) 17...Rxd1? (simply 17...exf5 was better) 18.Nxe7+ Qxe7 19.Rxd1 h6 20.c4 e5 21.Qb6 Bg4 22.Bxg4 Nxg4 23.Bc5 Qe6 24.Qxb7 Rc8 25.b4 e4 26.h3 Ne5 27.Qxe4 Nxc4 28.Qxe6 fxe6 29.Rd4 Na3 30.Rd7 Nc2 31.Ra7 Rc6 32.a4 e5 33.a5 Kh7 34.Rb7 Nd4 35.Rb6 Rc8 36.Rxa6 Nb3 37.Be3 Rb8 38.Rb6 Ra8 39.a6 Na1 40.b5 Nc2 41.Bc5 1-0.


GM Sergey Karjakin, 20, Ukraine

Photos by Boris Buchman

Friday's matches

Grischuk, Alexander
-
Movsesian, Sergei
Shirov, Alexei
-
Karjakin, Sergey
Eljanov, Pavel
-
Jakovenko, Dmitry
Gurevich, Mikhail
-
Gashimov, Vugar

Links

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 the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!

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