The tournament is taking place in the Ugorian Chess Academy in the very heart of Khanty-Mansiysk, which has hosted three previous World Cups: 2005, 2007, and 2009. The 128 participants hail from 46 different countries, and are playing for a total prize fund of US $1.6 million. In addition the first three finisher get tickets to the Candidates tournament in the next World Championship cycle.

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Round two game two – Shirov and Movsesian sent packing

Some of the players who drew their games yesterday decided not to tempt fate and made quick draws, clearly showing preference for the rapid chess tie-breaks. Among them were Alexander Riazatsev, Ian Nepomnichtchi and Alexander Grischuk (all Russian) and Sebastian Feller (France).

Alexander Morozevich vs Brazilian GM Alexander Fier

Those who lost their starting game were forced to burn the bridges. The task was especially tough for the players who had the black pieces. One of them, the Brazilian Alexander Fier, went for a very risky line in the Paulsen Sicilian, quickly lost the right to castle, and was defeated by Alexander Morozevich (Russia). Morozevich won the match with the perfect score.

The same result, 2:0, was recorded in the match between Vladimir Potkin (Russia) and Alexei Shirov (Spain). Shirov had white and created a very sharp position, where both sides risked everything. However, the Spaniard blundered first, and was unable to parry the opponent's mating threats.

Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), and Lenier Dominguez (Cuba) advanced rather easily to round three. They won yesterday, and today their opponents were unable to obtain satisfactory positions after the opening and had to start peace negotiations.

Seven more players also maintained their match advantage by drawing the second game after winning the first one: Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan), Dmitry Jakovenko, Nikita Vitiugov, Evgeny Tomashevsky (all Russian), Mircea-Emilian Parligras (Romania), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam), and Emil Sutovsky (Israel).

Through to round three: Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan

Only three players made a comeback after losing the starting game, and will play tie-breaks tomorrow: Etienne Bacrot (France) defeated Anton Filippov (Uzbekistan), Ruben Felgaer defeated Yaroslav Zherebukh (Ukraine), and Francisco Vallejo (Spain) won with black against Lazaro Bruzon (Cuba).

Rustam Kasimdzhanov vs Gata Kamsky ended in a win for the American

Finally we can congratulate the players who advanced to round three by winning today: Gata Kamsky (USA), David Navara (Czech Republic), Abhijeet Gupta (India), Baadur Jobava (Georgia), Fabiano Caruana (Italy), Zakhar Efimenko (Ukraine), and Judit Polgar (Hungary). The world's strongest woman player won a very nice game against the powerful Sergey Movsesian (Armenia).

Smoking heads at the World Cup

The lion queen

Game annotated by GM Efstratios Grivas

Judith Polgar is a living legend for women chess and one of just two women participants in the FIDE World Cup. The other one, 17-year-old Chinese GM Hou Yifan, was eliminated in the first round by the same Sergei Movsesian. Sergei, who is now once again representing Armenia, continued his 'affair' in the women's world by trying to eliminate the second woman participant as well, in just the second round! But what a cruel world we live in nowadays; no longer do women behave like 'lovely cats' but more like cruel lions, ready to prove that this is certainly no longer a men's world! Judith won the match 1½-½, and went through to the third round!

Results of round two

• Source: official results page

Results as a bracket table

On Friday, September 2nd, 26 chess players will continue their battles in the 1/32 round of the World Cup Final. You will want to watch Grischuk (RUS) vs Feller (FRA), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) vs Ni Hua (China), Lazaro Bruzon (Cuba) vs Francisco Vallejo (Spain) and Bu Xiangzhi (China) vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France).

The live commentary on Playchess will continue daily at 13:00h CEST (= 15:00h Moscow, 7 a.m. New York), with GM commentary in English and 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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