The FIDE World Cup is a knockout, starting with 128 players, with two games
(90 min for 40 moves + 30 min for the rest, with 30 seconds increment) between
pairs of players. The tiebreaks consist of two rapid games (25 min + 10
sec), then two accelerated games (10 min + 10 sec), and finally an Armageddon.
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 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 second round second games

The news of the day was that Super-GM Alexei Shirov (above left) lost to
a 14-year-old player and was knocked out of the World Cup. Chinese GM Wei
Yi, the youngest participant in Tromsø, played imaginative, fearless
chess and wound up in an ending where he had three pawns for a bishop (with
a rook on each side). It was not easy but the kid, who is completely underrated
at 2551, converted it smoothly to a win. He is through to the next round
and faces the winner of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (9th seed!) vs Maxim Matlakov,
a match that will be settled in the tiebreaks on Friday.

Top seeds Levon Aronian (right) drew his second
games against Russian GM Igor Lysyj...

... and Vladimir Kramnik (left) failed to grind
down Mikhail Kobalia, so both continue to the tiebreaks

Second seed Fabiano Caruana (left) drew against
Yu Yangyi, enough to
propel him into the next round (and give him a rest day on Friday).

Gata Kamsky (above) lost to Alexandr Shimanov
in a game fraught with incredible blunders
by both players, who now have to decide the outcome in the playoffs tomorrow.

"Yesterday I made a mistake on move 11, today I made one on move 10,"
said a wryly smiling Peter Leko (above left) in an interview with the match
commentatory Susan Polgar and Lawrence Trent. The former World Championship
challenger from Hungary could only draw his second game against Peruvian
GM Julio Granda Zuniga, so after a loss in round one Leko is out of the
World Cup.

In his interview Alexander Morozevich (above right) explained that he had
decided to play the King's Indian against Rafael Leitao because he did not
know how to play just for a draw, only for a win.

Vassily Ivanchuk (above left) and Anish Giri both won (against Ray Robson
and Li Chao) and proceed to the next round with a 2-0 score.

GM B Adhiban, who hails for Chennai, India,
celebrated his 21st birthday with
a win against Brazilian GM Alexandr Fier, one that put him into round three.

17-year-old Daniil Dubov (right) forced former
FIDE world champion
Ruslan Ponomariov into the tiebreaks with a second draw in this round

Go Norway! Jon Ludvig Hammer drew for a second
time against David Navara
to take the higher-rated Czech GM into the tiebreaks on Friday
All results of round two
# |
Player |
Fed |
Rtng |
G1
|
G2
|
Player |
Fed |
Rtng |
1 |
Lysyj, Igor |
RUS |
2648 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Aronian, Levon |
ARM |
2813 |
2 |
Caruana, Fabiano |
ITA |
2796 |
1-0
|
½-½
|
Yu, Yangyi |
CHN |
2662 |
3 |
Kobalia, Mikhail |
RUS |
2651 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Kramnik, Vladimir |
RUS |
2784 |
4 |
Grischuk, Alexander |
RUS |
2785 |
1-0
|
½-½
|
Swiercz, Dariusz |
POL |
2654 |
5 |
Sasikiran, Krishnan |
IND |
2660 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Karjakin, Sergey |
RUS |
2772 |
6 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
USA |
2772 |
1-0
|
½-½
|
Safarli, Eltaj |
AZE |
2660 |
7 |
Filippov, Anton |
UZB |
2630 |
½-½
|
0-1
|
Gelfand, Boris |
ISR |
2764 |
8 |
Kamsky, Gata |
USA |
2741 |
1-0
|
0-1
|
Shimanov, A. |
RUS |
2655 |
9 |
Matlakov, Maxim |
RUS |
2676 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Mamedyarov, Shak. |
AZE |
2775 |
10 |
Dominguez, Leinier |
CUB |
2757 |
1-0
|
½-½
|
Onischuk, Alex. |
USA |
2667 |
11 |
Dubov, Daniil |
RUS |
2624 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Ponomariov, Ruslan |
UKR |
2756 |
12 |
Wang, Hao |
CHN |
2747 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Dreev, Aleksey |
RUS |
2668 |
13 |
Bologan, Viktor |
MDA |
2672 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Svidler, Peter |
RUS |
2746 |
14 |
Adams, Michael |
ENG |
2740 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Kryvoruchko, Yuriy |
UKR |
2678 |
15 |
Granda, Julio |
PER |
2664 |
1-0
|
½-½
|
Leko, Peter |
HUN |
2744 |
16 |
Morozevich, Alex. |
RUS |
2739 |
1-0
|
½-½
|
Leitao, Rafael |
BRA |
2632 |
17 |
Ragger, Markus |
AUT |
2680 |
½-½
|
0-1
|
Vitiugov, Nikita |
RUS |
2719 |
18 |
Giri, Anish |
NED |
2737 |
1-0
|
1-0
|
Li, Chao |
CHN |
2693 |
19 |
Robson, Ray |
USA |
2623 |
0-1
|
0-1
|
Ivanchuk, Vassily |
UKR |
2731 |
20 |
Radjabov, Teimour |
AZE |
2733 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Bruzon, Lazaro |
CUB |
2698 |
21 |
Nguyen, Ngoc Truong |
VIE |
2625 |
½-½
|
0-1
|
Andreikin, Dmitry |
RUS |
2716 |
22 |
Korobov, Anton |
UKR |
2720 |
1-0
|
0-1
|
Jobava, Baadur |
GEO |
2696 |
23 |
Ortiz Suarez, Isan |
CUB |
2609 |
0-1
|
0-1
|
Vachier-Lagrave, M |
FRA |
2719 |
24 |
Shirov, Alexei |
LAT |
2696 |
½-½
|
0-1
|
Wei, Yi |
CHN |
2551 |
25 |
Hammer, Jon Ludvig |
NOR |
2605 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Navara, David |
CZE |
2715 |
26 |
Bacrot, Etienne |
FRA |
2714 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Moiseenko, Alex. |
UKR |
2699 |
27 |
Adhiban, B. |
IND |
2567 |
½-½
|
1-0
|
Fier, Alexandr |
BRA |
2595 |
28 |
Jakovenko, Dmitry |
RUS |
2724 |
½-½
|
0-1
|
Eljanov, Pavel |
UKR |
2702 |
29 |
Vallejo, Francisco |
ESP |
2706 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Le, Quang Liem |
VIE |
2702 |
30 |
Areshchenko, Alex. |
UKR |
2709 |
½-½
|
1-0
|
Felgaer, Ruben |
ARG |
2586 |
31 |
Fressinet, Laurent |
FRA |
2708 |
½-½
|
½-½
|
Malakhov, Vladimir |
RUS |
2707 |
32 |
Tomashevsky, E. |
RUS |
2706 |
1-0
|
½-½
|
So, Wesley |
PHI |
2710 |
Pictures provided by Paul Truong in Tromsø
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