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The FIDE World Chess Cup is taking place in Khanty-Mansiysk from November 20th to December 15th 2009. It is a seven-round knockout event with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round. The final seventh round consists of four games. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time, which is GMT +5 hours = 11:00 a.m. European time = 5 a.m. New York. The World Chess Cup is an integral part of the World Championship Cycle 2009-2011.
Let's see who doesn't turn up in time today! Arbiters consulting the official
clock
Check it out, your opponent is late! Alexander Grischuk and Vladimir Malakhov
It's true, no opponent in sight. Will I get a forfeit point today?
No such luck: Wesley So and his team have braved the cold and arrive at the
hall
Good work, Wesley! The 16-year-old grandmaster is congratulated on his timely
arrival
The master and his clock: anyone who turns up now is automatically forfeited
Peter Svidler played an Exchange Grünfeld against firebrand Alexei Shirov, who at move 22, true to his character, launched an all-or-nothing attack against Svidler's king.
Alexei Shirov before the start of his game against Peter Svidler
Shirov,A (2719) - Svidler,P (2754) [D86]
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (4.1), 30.11.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5
8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Qc7 11.Rc1 Rd8 12.Bf4 Be5 13.Bg3 Bxg3 14.hxg3 e5
15.Bd5 Be6 16.dxe5 Bxd5 17.exd5 Nxe5 18.c4 a6 19.Re1 b5 20.cxb5 axb5 21.Nc3
c4 22.Qd4?!
22...Nd3 23.Ne4 (threatens devastating Nf6+ and Ne8) 23...Qa7! Attacking the attacker – did Shirov miss this? Naw, probably something deeper. 24.Nf6+ Kh8 25.Qh4 Kg7 26.Re3 Rd6 27.Rf3 h6 28.Ne4 Rxd5 29.Qf6+ Kg8 30.Rc3 Ne5 31.Rf4 Qxa2 32.Kh2 Qe2 33.Qh4 Ra6 34.g4 g5 35.Nxg5 hxg5 36.Qxg5+ Rg6
This is what you get when a brilliant Shirov-style attack fails. 0-1.
In great shape: Peter Svidler won his first round four game with the black
pieces
Czech GM Viktor Laznicka faced Shakh Mamedyarov in a Ragozin and started to come under pressure starting from around move 27.
Laznicka,V (2637) - Mamedyarov,S (2719) [D38]
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (4.1), 30.11.2009
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.d4 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.e3 0-0 7.Bd2 a6 8.Qc2
Re8 9.a3 Bd6 10.h3 h6 11.cxd5 exd5 12.Bd3 Bd7 13.b4 Na7 14.Na4 b6 15.Nc3 Nb5
16.Ne2 Ne4 17.a4 Na7 18.0-0 Nc6 19.b5 axb5 20.axb5 Nxd2 21.Qxd2 Nb4 22.Nc3 Nxd3
23.Qxd3 Be6 24.Ne5 f6 25.Nc6 Qd7 26.f3 Qf7 27.f4 Rxa1 28.Rxa1 Bd7 29.Ra2 h5
30.Kf2 h4 31.Kg1 g6 32.Re2 Kg7 33.Qb1 Bf5 34.Qd1 Qe6 35.Qd2 Ra8 36.Re1 Ra3 37.Rf1
Rb3 38.Ra1 Ba3 39.Ra2
Things are getting really tricky for White. 39...Bb1 40.Nxb1 Rxb1+ 41.Kh2 Bc1 42.Qe1 Qe4 43.Ra7
You probably see it immediately: 43...Qxf4+! Oops. 44.exf4 Bxf4+ wins at once. 44.Kh1 Qf2 45.Rxc7+ Kh6 46.Qd1 Qe2 47.Qg1 Qxe3 48.Qf1 Qf4 49.Qd3
49...Ra1. Forces 50.Qd1 Qxc7 0-1. Nobody likes to see a grown man suffer, but 49...Qg3 in the diagram position leads to a nice forced mate: 50.Qxb1 (of course White can sacrifice all his pieces to delay the inevitable for a few extra moves) 50...Qe1+ 51.Kh2 Bf4+ 52.g3 Qxg3+ 53.Kh1 Qh2 mate.
Czech GM Viktor Laznicka suffered a painful defeat with the white pieces
Azeris: GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov, organiser Faik Gasanov, GM Vugar Gashimov
Wesley So vs Vladimir Malakhov was a convoluted 65-move struggle which saw the young Filipino finishing a pawn up in an un-winnable rook ending. Bacrot-Ponomariov (20 moves), Karjakin-Vitiugov (18 moves) and Grischuk-Jakovenko (14 moves) were less exciting grandmaster draws.
Ponomariov and Bacrot at the start of their epic 20-move struggle
Completely relaxed: Sergey Karjakin before his grueling 18-move game against
Nikita Vitiugov
Alexander Grischuk after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 of his game against Dmitry Jakovenko
(the rest went 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Qxc4
Bc6 10.Bf4 a5 11.Nc3 Na6 12.Rfd1 Nb4 13.Ne5 Bd5 14.Nxd5 draw)
Sasha, the hat is for outside! Alexander Beliavsky with his charge Baadur
Jobova in the press center.
A simultaneous exhibition for visitors of the World Cup
Anyone can play, but not everyone can win
Still it's fun to play against a grandmater who is a thousand points stronger
than you
Strange – I could swear I hear a violin playing somewhere in the building
For reasons we have yet to discover the venue is full of violinsts
Please, no pictures! Faik Gasanov in an atypical pose in the hallway of
the venue
Photos by Galina Popova courtesy of FIDE
| Players | G1 | G2 | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Tot |
| Vachier-Lagrave, Max. (FRA) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| Gelfand, Boris (ISR) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| Gashimov, Vugar (AZE) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| Caruana, Fabiano (ITA) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| Shirov, Alexei (ESP) | 0 |
0.0 |
|||||
| Svidler, Peter (RUS) | 1 |
1.0 |
|||||
| Laznicka, Viktor (CZE) | 0 |
0.0 |
|||||
| Mamedyarov, Shakh. (AZE) | 1 |
1.0 |
|||||
| Karjakin, Sergey (UKR) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| Vitiugov, Nikita (RUS) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| So, Wesley (PHI) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| Malakhov, Vladimir (RUS) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| Bacrot, Etienne (FRA) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| Ponomariov, Ruslan (UKR) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| Grischuk, Alexander (RUS) | ½ |
0.5 |
|||||
| Jakovenko, Dmitry (RUS) | ½ |
0.5 |
|
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Links
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 the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009! |
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