8/25/2013 – Or, on a positive note: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Dmitry Andreikin won their games and advanced to the semi-finals. The French GM defeated the top ranked Fabiano Caruana, who played the Dutch Defence and got lost in the resulting Stonewall formation. Andreikin played an off-beat 1.d4-line against Peter Svidler and won the full point in just 30 moves. Report with pictures and analysis.
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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.
Round five tiebreaks
In the first rapid game, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (above left playing black)
employed the same maneouver that he had used against Gelfand in the Slav,
provoking an early h3 before establishing his bishop on f5. Fabiano Caruana
was unable to create chances against this idea and slowly but surely the
game went towards a draw.
In a very strange move order the second game eventually arrived at a Stonewall
formation. However it seemed that Caruana (left) was a little baffled in
this position, as he wasn't able to create anything, while White kept improving
his position gradually. He kept shuffling his pieces in the back ranks,
waiting for Caruana to make a mistake, which came when he allowed his knight
on c4 to be pushed to a5, where it was completely out of play. White eventually
won a pawn and obtained a better pawn structure on top of that. After that
MVL simply cruised to victory and to the semi-finals.
Dmitri Andreikin (above right) attempted another off-beat d4 but this time
with more success. Despite the symmetrical structure the superior placement
of his pieces and the quick access to the c-file gave him a considerable
edge. Svidler was able to neutralize this, but gave his opponent chances
when he played the somewhat over-aggressive 22...Nb4?! instead of the solid
22...Nf6. Andreikin didn't think twice to sacrifice a pawn and obtain a
strong initiative that was difficult to defend against in this fast time
control. The final blunder in move 29 gave away a piece and the game.
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 e6 3. Nd2 {It's hard to say that this move can possibly
promise White any kind of advantage. However it is playable and White
isn't
worse yet.} h6 4. Bh4 c5 5. e3 Be7 6. c3 b6 7. Ngf3 Ba6 $2 {A very hard
move
to understand. Black could always play this after castling short, which
is
where he has to castle anyways, after which it is almost a guarantee that
White will develop his light-squared bishop. If this is the case, then
why not
wait for the development and win a tempo by playing Ba6 on the next move?}
8.
Bxf6 Bxf6 9. Bxa6 Nxa6 10. Ne4 cxd4 11. Nxf6+ $6 {Also difficult to understand.
The knight had more potential than the bishop in this position, so why
trade
it off in such a hurry? The combination of rapid time controls and extreme
fatigue from the long tournament results in many mistakes.} Qxf6 12. cxd4
Qe7
13. O-O O-O 14. Qa4 Nc7 15. Rac1 Nd5 16. Ne5 d6 17. Nd3 Rfc8 18. h3 Qb7
{Black
has been given enough time to consolidate. White doesn't hold an advantage
anymore.} 19. Qa3 Qd7 20. Qa6 f5 $6 {A strange decision from any point
of view.
Black has no reason to try too hard to win as White holds some very small
pressure on the queenside that cannot be ignored. So why weaken the kingside/
center on top of that?} (20... Ne7 $1 21. g3 {(or any random move that
White
makes, there isn't much to do in the position)} Rxc1 22. Rxc1 Rc8 23.
Rxc8+
Nxc8 $11 {and the game will surely end in a draw.}) 21. Rfe1 Kf7 22. Nf4
Nb4 $6
{It is possible that this move is not that bad, but with the clock ticking
and
with so much on the line there is absolutely no reason to go munching
a pawn
on a2 and stranding Black's own knight.} 23. Qe2 Nxa2 24. Rxc8 Rxc8 25.
e4 {
Unsurprisingly this central break puts a lot of pressure on the black
position.
Black is still holding but now has to be very careful.} Nb4 26. exf5 exf5
27.
Qf3 a5 $6 (27... d5 $1 {trying to give back material as soon as possible
for
simplifications would have allowed Black to still be close to equal.})
28. Re6
{now the pressure intensifies.} Kg8 29. Qg3 $1 Nd5 $2 {Losing with no
resistance. However already Black's position was very perilous.} 30. Qb3
$1 {
The knight cannot move, and is thus lost. A simple but fatal tactic.}
(30. Qb3
Nxf4 31. Re7+ $18) 1-0
Svidler repeated the Caro-Kann variation of the classic game in this must-win
scenario. However Black quickly sacrificed a pawn for open lines and strong
pressure against White's pawns and even obtained a superior position. Andreikin
forced a repetition in a clearly better situation, allowing him to advance
to the next round.
Interviews with the winners: Susan Polgar talks
to Dmitry Andreikin
... and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, with Europe
Echecs producer Gérard Demuydt at the camera
London System PowerBase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
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