World Cup 1.1: A few surprises in Tromsø

The FIDE World Cup is a knockout, starting with 128 players. You can view the pairings in PDF here, or go to the score tables of round one here. Two games are played between each pair of players. The rate of play is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. If the score is equal there are two rapid chess tiebreak games (25 min + 10 sec), then, if the score is still tied, two accelerated games (10 min + 10 sec). If the score is still tied two blitz games will be played at 5 min + 3 sec, and if there is still no decision a final Armageddon game with 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black, with a 3 sec increment after move 60, will be played. In this game Black has draw odds (i.e. he wins if the game is drawn). The winner and the runner-up of the World Cup 2013 will qualify for the Candidates Tournament of the next World Championship cycle.

The venue of the 2013 FIDE World Cup is the city of Tromsø, which lies in the northern-most region of Norway, almost 400 km inside the Arctic Circle. You can find all details and links to many ChessBase articles on Tromsø here. The World Cup starts on Sunday, August 11th and lasts until September 3rd (tiebreaks, closing ceremony). Each round lasts three days, while the final will consist of four classical games. Thursday August 29 is a free day. A detailed schedule can be found here.

Results of the first round first game

The first day started with a 15-minute delay, because security was very strict and players were carefully checked for presence of electronic devices. There were are some noteworthy upsets and results in this round:

• Gata Kamsky drew in 41 moves against Chinese IM Lou Yiping, 257 points below him on the rating scale;
• Chinese IM Liu Qingnan drew GM Wang Hao, 247 points above him;
• Chinese IM Wan Yunguo drew GM Michael Adams, 228 point above him;
• Canadian GM Bator Sambuev beat Alexander Morozevich, 215 point above him;
• Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Andreikin, Korobov, Nepomniachtchi and Alekseev conceded draws to players nominally well below them;
• Evgeny Tomashevsky drew Alejandro Ramirez, who is 118 point below him;
• Alexei Shirov drew with white against Chinese GM Hou Yifan, who is 90 points below him;
• Judit Polgar lost against Cuban GM Isan Reynaldo Ortiz, also 90 points her inferior.;
• Alexander Moiseenko is through to the next round after Egyptian GM Ahmed Adly did not turn up in Tromsø.

• All results and standings on the official site

Michael Adams vs Chinese IM Wan Yunguo, 228 point below him ended in a draw; women's world champion Anna Ushenina lost her game against Peter Svidler (standing in the background on the left)

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat Alexander Shabalov in 39 moves

Peter Leko (left) won his game against Leif Erlend Johannessen in 59 moves,
while Alexander Morozevich (right, dark suit) got mated by Bator Sambuev on move 50

Upset: Judit Polgar lost against Cuban GM Isan Reynaldo Ortiz, 90 points her inferior

Vassily Ivanchuk, 2731, drew Jan-Krzysztof Duda, 2534, in 35 moves

Teimour Radjabov, rated 2733, drew against GM Jorge Cori of Peru, rated 2569

Alexei Shirov drew his game against 19-year-old Chinese GM Hou Yifan

Ukrainian GM Andrei Volokitin, rated 2688, lost to GM Ray Robson, USA, rated 2623

Etienne Bacrot of France took down local GM Simen Agdestein in 27 moves

Pictures provided by Paul Truong in Tromsø

Replay all games of the round

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Video reports

Commentators Susan Polgar and Lawrence Trent in the tournament studio

Round 1, Game 1 - Part 1

Round 1, Game 1 - Part 2

Round 1, Game 1 - Part 3

Full event coverage

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN 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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.