Upsets galore in Round one of the World Cup

by ChessBase
11/24/2007 – 126 players are now in Khanty-Mansiysk (two did not turn up) for the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. This knockout tournament determines who will be the challenger for the next World Championship. In the first game of round one there were a number of surprises, with famous GMs struggling against much lower-ranked players. Illustrated report with games and results.
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A total of 126 participants turned up on November 23 for the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The competition is taking place from November 24 to December 18. The winner of the World Cup receives the right to challenge the former world champion Veselin Topalov in a match.

Schedule of the World Cup 2007

Date Event
22.11.07 Arrival
23.11.07 Opening ceremony
24.11.07 Round I- game 1
25.11.07 Round I- game 2
26.11.07 Tie break
27.11.07 Round II- game 1
28.11.07 Round II- game 2
29.11.07 Tie break
30.11.07 Round III- game 1
 1.12.07 Round III- game 2
 2.12.07 Tie break
 3.12.07 Round IV- game 1
 4.12.07 Round IV- game 2
 5.12.07 Tie break
 6.12.07 Round V- game 1
 7.12.07 Round V- game 2
 8.12.07 Tie break
 9.12.07 Round VI- game 1
10.12.07 Round VI- game 2
11.12.07 Tie break
12.12.07 Free day
13.12.07 Round VII- game 1
14.12.07 Round VII- game 2
15.12.07 Round VII- game 3
16.12.07 Round VII- game 4
17.12.07 Tie break, Closing
18.12.07 Departure

Khanty-Mansiysk

The town is located about 1400 miles (2250 km) east of Moscow, just north of Kazakhstan, on the Irtysh River, 15 km from its confluence with the Ob. The name is pronounced "hanty-mansisk", with the first part rhyming with "hunty", the second with "fun-sick". If you are up to it, pronounce the initial "k" like the guttural "ch" in the German "Dach" or the Spanish "rojo". The Russian original is Ха́нты-Манси́йск.

The original place was called Samarovsky Yam, and was founded in 1637 by 50 horse-drivers with their families. They set up camp on the right bank of the Irtysh River, at the foot of steep mountains, with the thick cedar forest growing on them.The settlement became known as Samarovo, and the town of Khanty-Mansiysk originated from it.


Khanty-Mansiysk – map by Google Earth

Arrival and opening


Airport encounter: GMs Levon Aronian and Sergey Tiviakov on their way to Khanty-Mansiysk


First impression: a forest covered in snow – the temperature is minus 10°C (14°F)


Hotel Yugorskaya Dolina, where the event is being staged


The opening with FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov


Folklore and chess themed culture at the opening ceremony

Round one Game one

There were upsets galore in the first game of Round one. The world's number 17 player, Gata Kamsky, rated 2714, could only draw with the white pieces against Junior World Champion Ahmed Adly, who is rated 220 points below him. Similarly Michael Adams, rated 2729, drew against Igor Zugic, who is 252 points below him. IM Anur Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan, rated 2480, beat GM Evgeny Alekseev, rated 2716.


Levon Aronian, ARM, 2741, vs Juan Pablo Hobaica, ARG, 2427 – Aronian won


Susanto Megaranto, Indonesia, 2569, vs Kiril Georgiev, BUL, 2649 – Georgiev won


US grandmaster Alexander Shabalov, 2626, who lost to Dusko Pavasovic, SLO, 2597

Things were even worse for some other well-known grandmasters: Former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, rated 2705, lost to Essam El Gindy, who is nominally 202 points weaker; Konstantin Landa, 2678, lost to Vladislav Nevednichy, 2531; and US GM Alexander Shabalov, 2626, lost with white to Dusko Pavasovic, 2597.


Shocking: Ruslan Ponomariov, UKR, 2705, lost to Essam El Gindy, EGY, 2503


Evgeny Bareev, RUS, 2653, who beat Julio Becerra Rivero, USA, 2568


Second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, AZE, 2752, beat Khaled Abdel Razik 2389


Nigel Short, ENG, 2649 vs David Baramidze, GER, 2569 – draw

The top seeds Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov, Radjabov, Aronian, Shirov, Svidler, Grischuk and Carlsen all won their first games from round one. No big surprises there.

All photos by GM Sergey Tiviakov

All results of Round one Game one

No.    White  
Res.
    Black  
Score
1 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR
1-0
Aderito, Pedro ANG
1-0
2 Abdel Razik, Khaled EGY
0-1
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE
0-1
3 Radjabov, Teimour AZE
1-0
Genba, Vladimir RUS
1-0
4 Hobaica, Juan Pablo ARG
0-1
Aronian, Levon ARM
0-1
5 Shirov, Alexei ESP
1-0
Gwaze, Robert ZIM
1-0
6 Iturrizaga, Eduardo VEN
---
 Svidler, Peter RUS
0-2*
7 Adams, Michael ENG
½-½
Zugic, Igor CAN
½-½
8 Ismagambetov, Anuar KAZ
1-0
Alekseev, Evgeny RUS
1-0
9 Grischuk, Alexander RUS
1-0
Lima, Darcy BRA
1-0
10 Zhao, Zong-Yuan AUS
0-1
Carlsen, Magnus NOR
0-1
11 Kamsky, Gata USA
½-½
Adly, Ahmed EGY
½-½
12 Filippov, Anton UZB
½-½
Akopian, Vladimir ARM
½-½
13 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS
1-0
Rahman, Ziaur BAN
1-0
14 El Gindy, Essam EGY
1-0
Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR
1-0
15 Wang, Yue CHN
½-½
Pridorozhni, Aleksei RUS
½-½
16 Laylo, Darwin PHI
½-½
Bacrot, Etienne FRA
½-½
17 Karjakin, Sergey UKR
1-0
Matsuura, Everaldo BRA
1-0
18 Kabanov, Nikolai RUS
0-1
Bu, Xiangzhi CHN
0-1
19 Eljanov, Pavel UKR
½-½
Hossain Enamul BAN
½-½
20 Wen Yang CHN
0-1
Almasi, Zoltan HUN
0-1
21 Malakhov, Vladimir RUS
1-0
Xu, Yuhua CHN
1-0
22 Gopal, G.N. IND
½-½
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam UZB
½-½
23 Dominguez Perez, Lenier CUB
1-0
Iljushin, Alexei RUS
1-0
24 Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son VIE
½-½
Van Wely, Loek NED
½-½
25 Landa, Konstantin RUS
0-1
Nevednichy, Vladislav ROU
0-1
26 Le, Quang Liem VIE
½-½
Volokitin, Andrei UKR
½-½
27 Rublevsky, Sergei RUS
1-0
Hera, Imre Jr. HUN
1-0
28 Andriasian, Zaven ARM
½-½
Onischuk, Alexander USA
½-½
29 Inarkiev, Ernesto RUS
½-½
Peralta, Fernando ARG
½-½
30 Kunte, Abhijit IND
½-½
Zvjaginsev, Vadim RUS
½-½
31 Cheparinov, Ivan BUL
---
 Gonzalez Zamora, Juan BUL
2-0*
32 Zhao, Jun CHN
½-½
Harikrishna, P. IND
½-½
33 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter ROU
1-0
Amin, Bassem EGY
1-0
34 Balogh, Csaba HUN
½-½
Tkachiev, Vladislav FRA
½-½
35 Sasikiran, Krishnan IND
½-½
Zhigalko, Sergei BLR
½-½
36 Kudrin, Sergey USA
0-1
Vallejo Pons, Francisco ESP
0-1
37 Nikolic, Predrag BIH
1-0
Iljin, Artem RUS
1-0
38 Ivanov, Alexander USA
½-½
Navara, David CZE
½-½
39 Sutovsky, Emil ISR
½-½
Zhou, Jianchao CHN
½-½
40 Flores, Diego ARG
0-1
Fressinet, Laurent FRA
0-1
41 Bareev, Evgeny RUS
1-0
Becerra Rivero, Julio USA
1-0
42 Baramidze, David GER
½-½
Short, Nigel D ENG
½-½
43 Georgiev, Kiril BUL
1-0
Megaranto, Susanto INA
1-0
44 Gajewski, Grzegorz POL
0-1
Volkov, Sergey RUS
0-1
45 Socko, Bartosz POL
1-0
Georgiev, Vladimir MKD
1-0
46 Mamedov, Rauf AZE
½-½
Tomashevsky, Evgeny RUS
½-½
47 Motylev, Alexander RUS
1-0
Savchenko, Boris RUS
1-0
48 Gagunashvili, Merab GEO
½-½
Zhang, Pengxiang CHN
½-½
49 Roiz, Michael ISR
½-½
Akobian, Varuzhan USA
½-½
50 Ganguly, Surya Shekhar IND
0-1
Tiviakov, Sergei NED
0-1
51 Wang, Hao CHN
½-½
Markus, Robert SRB
½-½
52 Belov, Vladimir RUS
½-½
Khalifman, Alexander RUS
½-½
54 Milos, Gilberto BRA
½-½
Avrukh, Boris ISR
½-½
55 Naiditsch, Arkadij GER
½-½
Granda Zuniga, Julio E PER
½-½
56 Berg, Emanuel SWE
0-1
Najer, Evgeniy RUS
0-1
57 Sakaev, Konstantin RUS
½-½
Vitiugov, Nikita RUS
½-½
58 Kaidanov, Gregory S USA
½-½
Gurevich, Mikhail TUR
½-½
59 Shabalov, Alexander USA
0-1
Pavasovic, Dusko SLO
0-1
60 Leitao, Rafael BRA
½-½
Shulman, Yuri USA
½-½
61 Rodshtein, Maxim ISR
½-½
Gustafsson, Jan GER
½-½
62 Macieja, Bartlomiej POL
1-0
Laznicka, Viktor CZE
1-0
63 Kozul, Zdenko CRO
½-½
Bruzon Batista, Lazaro CUB
½-½
64 Galkin, Alexander RUS
1-0
Bartel, Mateusz POL
1-0

* Two matches were decided without play because two players failed to appear in Khanty-Mansiysk: Mexican GM Juan Carlos Gonzalez Zamora withdrew due to illness, and Georgian GM Zvaid Izoria could not travel due to problems with his visa.

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