FIDE World Cup: Bouncing back

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
9/12/2019 – More than half the matches of round one at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk already have a winner, with most of the top twenty in the initial ratings list set to have a rest day before round two. That is not the case of Radoslaw Wojtaszek, however, who was eliminated by Johan-Sebastian Christiansen, while Yu Yangyi, Hikaru Nakamura and Dmitry Andreikin still have to defeat their lower-rated opponents on tiebreaks if they want to go through. Do not miss the round-up show by GM ERWIN L'AMI. | Pictured: Gawain Jones, who qualified to round two. | Photo: FIDE

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Knock-outs are tough

A big portion of the players participating in the World Cup have invested a lot of time making their way down to the Khanty-Mansiysk, and some of them are already packing their bags to return home after merely two days. But that is the nature of single-elimination tournaments, and for most chess players getting a chance to be a part of the World Championship cycle compensates for the long hours of travelling and the tension attached to it — besides prize money, of course. 

The second games from round one left forty-one players out of contention, while twenty-three pairings will go to tiebreaks on Thursday. The strongest players leaving Siberia are Radoslaw Wojtaszek and David Navara, who were knocked out by Johan-Sebastian Christiansen and Daniil Yuffa respectively. Meanwhile, three household names still need to show their prowess in rapid (and blitz, if necessary) to stay in the fight: Yu Yangyi, Hikaru Nakamura and Dmitry Andreikin.

Out of those three, perhaps Yu Yangyi is the one with the most difficult task ahead — at least psychologically — as he won game one but saw his opponent, Ehsam Ghaem Maghami from Iran, bounce back to tie the score. Four other players also got wins on demand after losing game one: Narayanan, Ganguly and Sethuraman from India, and Constantin Lupulescu from Romania.   

Daniel Anwuli

Nigerian Daniel Anwuli was knocked out — and encouraged — by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Photo: FIDE

Winning on demand

The disheartening feeling of losing the first game of the competition can only be surpassed by the elation felt after getting a win on demand to take the match to tiebreaks. On Wednesday, five players tied the scores of their match-ups after having lost game one the day before. For their opponents, going from a mindset of 'a draw is enough' to 'anything can happen on tiebreaks' will be a challenging task.

The biggest surprise of the day was certainly given by Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, a 37-year-old Iranian grandmaster who also holds a Bachelor of Laws. Ghaem lost his first game against world number ten Yu Yangyi with the black pieces. But, in game two, the Iranian obtained a positional edge out of the opening, thanks to the pair of bishops and a slight initiative. By move 34, he was clearly in the driver's seat:

 
Ghaem Maghami vs. Yu Yangyi
Position after 33...Rb8

34.c6 invites a queen trade that will end up favouring White. After the queens left the board, Ghaem rounded up Black's e-pawn. Yu Yangyi, in turn, thought his best chance was to exchange into an opposite-coloured bishop endgame, albeit with rooks still on the board. The Iranian GM accurately improved his position but missed a good chance on move 55:

 
Position after 54...Ra8

Instead of the direct 55.b3+, Ghaem could have restricted the mobility of Black's king with 55.♖f1, which would have eased the conversion greatly. After the text, Yu Yangyi kept finding defensive resources and at some point it seemed like he would manage to hold the draw. But the underdog kept pushing, until getting the coveted win after long 132 moves. His next challenge? To defeat a top-ten rapid player on tiebreaks!

Ehsan Ghaem Maghami

Ehsan Ghaem Maghami from Iran | Photo: FIDE

Romanian Constantin Lupulescu, who recently won the strong Reykjavik Open, also managed to bounce back in his match against Latvian grandmaster Igor Kovalenko — he also got a strategic advantage in the early middlegame, but needed 'only' 57 moves to get the win.

Besides Ghaem and Lupulescu, no less than three Indian representatives won on demand on Wednesday: Narayanan defeated David Anton from Spain, Ganguly beat Vladimir Fedoseev from Russian and Sethuraman got the better of Rilton Cup champion Tamir Nabaty. Despite only needing a draw, Nabaty chose to play a setup with the kings castled on opposite flanks. Sethuraman, with Black, got a stable position and eventually took advantage of his opponent's imprecise calculation:

 
Nabaty vs. Sethuraman
Position after 23...Ne4

Nabaty erred with 24.c6, counting on ♘xf7+ later, as Black's a8-rook would be hanging after the other rook captures the knight. However, after 24...h6+ 25.c2 xf2, the anticipated 26.xf7+ xf7 27.xa8+ can be safely answered with 27...f8 and Black is totally winning. The game continued until move 38, when the Israeli threw in the towel.

Sethuraman

Sethuraman defeated Tamir Nabaty to force the tiebreaks | Photo: FIDE

All games mentioned in this section

IM Sagar Shah annotated the games played by Indian players.

 
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1.e41,162,86954%2421---
1.d4944,72655%2434---
1.Nf3280,65156%2441---
1.c4181,58656%2442---
1.g319,66356%2427---
1.b314,17554%2427---
1.f45,87148%2376---
1.Nc33,76751%2384---
1.b41,73748%2378---
1.a31,19354%2403---
1.e31,06448%2408---
1.d394550%2378---
1.g465846%2359---
1.h444453%2373---
1.c342251%2422---
1.h327856%2416---
1.a410860%2468---
1.Nh38866%2510---
1.f38745%2429---
1.Na34063%2477---
1.c4 0 e6 78 2.Nf3 0 Nf6 35 3.g3 8 d5 47 4.Bg2 11 d4 216 5.0-0 33 c5 9 6.d3 8 Nc6 8 7.e3 5 Be7 18 8.exd4 203 cxd4 61 9.Re1 8 0-0 8 10.Na3 25 Qb6 96 This has never really been played before apart from one game! 10...Nd7 is the main move aiming for e5. 11.Nc2 e5 12.b4 Nxb4 13.Nxe5± 11.Nc2 132 a5 96 12.b3 239 White would like to go Rb1 followed by a3 and then slowly aim to get in the b4 break. Rd8 59 13.Rb1 251 Nb4 869 14.a3 219 Nxc2 81 15.Qxc2 7 Bd7 78 16.Ne5± 533 Be8 110 White surely has a very pleasant position here. 17.b4 436 axb4 142 18.axb4 7 Ra4 389 19.Bd2 45 Qa7 608 20.Qd1 473 Nd7 201 21.Nf3 155 21.Nxd7 Bxd7 22.b5± b6 23.Bf4± 21...Ra3 314 22.Ra1 544 Nb6 119 23.Ne5 157 White still has a small plus. Rxa1 598 24.Qxa1 5 Qxa1 9 25.Rxa1 5 f6 11 26.Nf3 200 Na4 15 27.Ne1 421 27.b5 Nc5 28.Bb4 Kf8 29.Bxc5 Bxc5 30.Nd2± 27...b6 123 28.f4 27 Nc3 201 29.Nc2 249 e5 291 Black has managed to limit his losses the game is around equal. 30.Bxc3 573 dxc3 6 31.Be4 7 exf4 45 32.gxf4 119 Bd6 48 33.f5 117 Bf7 140 33...g5 34.Ra3 Be5= 34.Ra3 135 Be5 31 35.d4! 128 Ganguly is very alert! Bxd4+ 569 Fedoseev takes the practical option of sacrificing a piece, but it should not be enough. 35...Bd6 36.Rxc3± should be easy to convert. 36.Nxd4 7 Rxd4 14 37.Ra8+ 7 Be8 3 38.Rxe8+ 13 Kf7 18 39.Re6 7 g6 37 White is completely winning. 40.Kf1 0 Rxc4 0 41.Bd5 888 Rd4 558 41...c2 42.Rc6++- 42.Bb3 8 c2 5 43.Re4+! 25 Kg7 65 44.Bxc2 7 Rd2 4 45.Ba4 484 45.Re2 Rd4 46.b5 Rb4 47.Re7+ Kh6 48.Bd3+- 45...Rxh2 11 46.Re7+ 35 Kh6 5 47.Rb7 4 gxf5 38 48.Rxb6 102 White gets a passed b-pawn. The kingside pawns are not going to move forward! Kg5 72 49.Bc6 185 f4 103 50.Bg2 156 f5 191 51.Kg1 165 Rh4 5 52.Bf3 119 Rh3 55 53.Kg2 6 Rg3+ 10 54.Kf2 3 Rh3 10 55.Rb8 67 Rh2+ 107 56.Bg2 8 f3 133 57.Kxf3 21 Rh4 4 To beat Fedoseev being 1-0 down in the match is no easy task! Great work by Ganguly. It's time for Tiebreak now! 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Ganguly,S2658Fedoseev,V26641–02019FIDE World Cup 20191.2
Narayanan.S.L2611Anton Guijarro,D26741–02019C65FIDE World Cup 20191.2
Nabaty,T2658Sethuraman,S26240–12019B22FIDE World Cup 20191.2
Lupulescu,C2643Kovalenko,I26741–02019FIDE World Cup 20191.2
Ghaem Maghami,E2544Yu,Y27631–02019FIDE World Cup 20191.2

Christiansen and Yuffa beat strong opposition

After sensationally beating Radoslaw Wojtaszek with the black pieces on day one, Johan-Sebastian Christiansen went on to show good preparation in the rematch encounter. In a well-known theoretical variation, the Norwegian played an exchange sacrifice that has mostly led to draws in previous attempts:

 
Christiansen vs. Wojtaszek
Position after 12...b5

Players like Wei Yi or Alexander Donchenko could not defeat lower-rated opponents with Black after 13.xd7, while Wojtaszek, of course, needed to look for winning chances at all costs. As it tends to happen in these situations, this approach instead led to a loss, which meant Christiansen got his ticket to the next round with a 2:0 victory over the strong Polish grandmaster. 

Johan-Sebastian Christiansen

Johan-Sebastian Christiansen interviewed after his victory | Photo: FIDE

The other 2700+ grandmaster that was knocked out in round one was David Navara. The Czech had drawn his first game with Black against Russian Daniil Yuffa, after keeping the balance in a technical endgame. Navara faced the Caro-Kann Defence in the rematch encounter. Yuffa slowly but surely equalized the position in the early middlegame and made good use of a tactical chance offered by his rival:

 
Navara vs. Yuffa
Position after 25.a5

Navara's previous 25.a5 was imprecise, as it allowed 25...d4 — after 26.xd4, Black can play 26...xg2+ and regain the piece in favourable conditions: 27.xg2 d5+ 28.f3 xb5.

Black was left with the better pawn structure and a flexible knight facing a rather hesitant bishop. Converting such a positional edge is never easy against the big guns, but Yuffa was up to the task and got to eliminate his opponent with mate-in-one on the board:

 
Position after 61...Ne3

There is nothing White can do to prevent 62...♛g4#. Navara resigned.

Peter Svidler, Carlos Albornoz

The World Cup is a big chess celebration — Carlos Albornoz analysing with Peter Svidler after the latter won the mini-match 1½:½ | Photo: FIDE 

Following on some of the stories from our first report, the youngsters continued to impress. Alireza Firouzja, Nihal Sarin and Andrey Esipenko are already in round two, while Nodirbek Abdusattorov held a second draw against Maxim Matlakov. Although they are not as (incredibly) young, Parham Maghsoodloo and Jeffery Xiong also impressed, by getting 2:0 wins over Russians Maksim Chigaev and Igor Lysyj respectively.


Post-game interview with Jeffery Xiong


All games mentioned in this section

 
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Qe2 B94: Sicilian Najdorf: 6 Bg5 Nbd7 7.f4 Qc7 8.Qf3 g6 9.0-0-0 Bg7 10.Be2 h6 11.Bh4 Nb6 12.h3 Bd7 13.Rhe1 Bc6 14.Nxc6 bxc6 15.Bxf6 exf6 1/2-1/2 (69) Sjugirov,S (2661)-Artemiev,V (2754) Sochi 2019 7...h6 8.Bh4 g6 9.f4 White is slightly better. e5 10.fxe5 dxe5 11.0-0-0 Qc7 11...g5 12.Bf2 12.Nb3 b5 13.Rxd7 Nxd7 14.Nd5 Qb8! 15.Na5N Bc5 16.Qd2 White has compensation. White has good play. g5 17.Bg3 Qd6 18.Be2 0-0 19.Rf1 f6 20.h4 Kg7 21.hxg5 fxg5 21...hxg5= keeps the balance. 22.Bg4 Bb6 22.Rxf8± Nxf8? 22...Qxf8± 23.Nc7 Kh7 23.b4+- Ba7?
23...Bxb4 24.Qxb4 Qxb4 25.Bxe5+ 25.Nxb4 Ng6± 25...Kf7 26.Nxb4 Ng6 24.Qc3! Ng6 25.Nc6 Bb8 26.Nxe5 Nxe5 27.Qxc8 And now Qb7+ would win. Ra7
next ...Nd3+! is good for Black. 28.Bf2! Strongly threatening Bc5. Rf7 29.Bc5 Rf8 30.Qb7+ Much less strong is 30.Qxf8+?! Qxf8 31.Bxf8+ Kxf8 30...Rf7 31.Qc8 31.Qa8+- Qd8 32.Bd4 32.Qxa6 Nd7+- 31...Rf8!± 32.Qh3 Qc6 32...Qd8± 33.Kb1 33.Bxf8+ Qxf8 34.Qe3 Qd6± 33...Qc8 33.Bxf8++- Kxf8 34.Kb1 34.Qf5++- and the rest is easy. Kg7 35.Bh5 34...Kg7± 35.Bd3 Ba7 36.Qf5 Bd4 36...Nxd3± 37.cxd3 Bd4 37.a3 Better is 37.Be2+- 37...Qd6 37...Ng6± 38.Be2+- Qc6 39.Bd3 39.Bh5+- 39...Qd6!± 40.Be2 40.Bf1± 40...Qc6!+- 41.Bh5 Qd6 42.Qc8 White should play 42.Kc1+- 42...Nc4? 42...Qf8± 43.Qxf8+ Kxf8 43.Nc7 Accuracy: White = 50%, Black = 51%.
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Christiansen,J2558Wojtaszek,R27391–02019FIDE World Cup 20191.2
Navara,D2724Yuffa,D25770–12019FIDE World Cup 20191.2
Maghsoodloo,P2664Chigaev,M26441–02019FIDE World Cup 20191.2
Xiong,J2707Lysyj,I25961–02019FIDE World Cup 20191.2

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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