World Cup R1.1 – A few upsets and vivid coverage

The tournament will take place in the Ugorian Chess Academy, a modern citadel of intellectual sports in the very heart of Khanty-Mansiysk. This complex has already been involved in organization of international meetings – the 81th Congress and General Assembly of FIDE were held there in 2010, during the 39th World Chess Olympiad. The city of Khanty-Mansiysk has hosted the previous three World Cups: 2005 (won by Levon Aronian), 2007 (won by Gata Kamsky, who had to still face Veselin Topalov in a special match before challenging the reigning World Champion), and 2009 (won by Boris Gelfand, which gave the Israeli a ticket into the eight-player Candidates Matches, which he also won, so that he will challenge World Champion Anand in 2012).

The new Ugorian Chess Academy is the venue of the 2011 FIDE World Cup

The 128 players of the 2011 World Cup hail from 46 different countries, and are playing for a total prize fund of US $1.6 million. The players knocked out after the first round get $6,000, those knocked out in second round get $10,000, in the third round $16,000, in the 1/8 finals $25,000, in the quarterfinals $35,000, the semifinals $50,000. The loser in the final gets $80,000, the winner of the World Cup receives $120,000. Pretty good money, but in addition the first three finisher get tickets to the Candidates tournament in the next World Championship cycle.

Round one report

The start of the event – the signage in the picture tells it all

The Governor and the President watch the start of the first round

My God it's full of GMs! Round one under way (with Paco Vallejo striding restlessly)

Two GMs, Vladimir Akopian (Armenia) and Wang Hao (China), did not turn up in Khanty-Mansiysk, both because of health problems. The tournament started on Sunday with the first round with the pairings, as always in such events, bringing players with large rating differences – 250-350 Elo points – together on the first ten boards.

Ruslan Ponomariov, 2764, beat Robert Gwaze, Zimbabwe, 2434, in 41 moves

... and I mate him on the next move! Alexei Shirov explaing the concept to the arbiters

Anand's people: Peter Heine Nielsen kibitzing the game of Radoslaw Wojtaszek (right)

Dmitry Jakovenko, 2736, after his 35-move win over Salem Saleh, 2493

Almost all those games ended decisively with the favorites beating the underdogs, with both colors. Only Brazilian grandmaster Darcy Lima (2493 Elo) managed to make a draw as White with the Russian Champion Peter Svidler, and even in this game Svidler completely outplayed his opponent, but then missed an easy win.

Another Brazilian GM Alexander Fier (2566) defeated the tough Chinese star Wang Yue (2709), so one can safely say it was a Brazilian day in Siberia.

The main sensation today was a white-color loss by Peter Leko (2717) against the American Samuel Shankland (2539). Leko played very well in the opening and gained a solid advantage, but later his play became too forceful. White won a pawn, but his dark-squared bishop was cut off, which gave Black strong counterplay. Shankland eventually restored the material balance and created a dangerous passed pawn, which decided the game.

The Women World Champion Hou Yifan (China) put a strong resistance in the game against Sergey Movsesian (Armenia). Movsesian, playing White, won an exchange, but his opponent obtained strong counterplay in return. Yet, the resulting complicated battle ended in favor of the Armenian grandmaster.

Judit Polgar (Hungary), the highest rated woman player in chess history, won an easy game against the Cuban grandmaster Jimenez Corrales. Alexander Morozevich (Russia) misplayed the opening against Stelios Halkias (Greece) and was forced to equalize the game quickly. A draw was agreed on the 23rd move.

Moldovan grandmaster Viorel Iordachescu defeated Sebastien Feller (France), who was charged with cheating and disqualified by French Chess Federation earlier this year. Since Feller filed an appeal, and the case is still in the court, the player is able to participate in tournaments.

First round results

The second games of the Round One will be played on Monday, August 29. If a match is still tied after two games, it will proceed to tie-breaks on the next day. The tie-breaks at the World Cup consist of two rapid games, two semi-rapid, two blitz games, and, if necessary, one sudden death blitz game.

The live video broadcast from Khanty-Mansiysk is really great, produced with many cameras and in full HD. At dramatic moments during a game the will go for tight shots and show you the emotions cross the players' faces.

Movsesian vs Hou Yifan was a good example: they caught the Chinese girl's reaction when she realised she was lost after the 45...e3 blunder – heart-wrenching. One wonders how they do all this. Apparently the Siberian town is very advanced and the organisation of this event very professional. They even have GM commentary in two languages (Russian and English).

The live commentary on Playchess will continue on Monday at 13:00h CEST (= 15:00h Moscow, 7 a.m. New York), with GM Jan Gustafsson analysing with the spectators in English, and GM Klaus Bischoff in German. At around 19:00h there will be a wrap-up of the day's events.

Remaining schedule of the World Chess Cup 2011

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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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