World Cup R6: Ponomariov to play Gelfand in the final

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.

Semifinals: tiebreak

Ruslan Ponomariov goes through the metal detector to enter the playing venue

His opponent physicist Vladimir Malakhov

Start of game one of the tiebreak...

... which Malakhov won in 66 moves

Ruslan trying to understand how it happened

Malakhov won the first game with fine endgame technique – replay it and learn! In the second encounter it was Ponomariov who turned a bad position in a Grünfeld into an equal endgame which he proceeded to win – replay it and learn! He went on to win the third game, and in the fourth Malakhov blundered – Ponomariov was in the final.

It's all over, Malakhov is out, Ponomariov in the final

Results of round six

• Click to replay the semifinal games

Schedule of the World Cup 2009

Links Official tournament site – All ChessBase reports All games in zipped PGN Games in PGN: Rnd 1 – Rnd 2 – Rnd 3 – Rnd 4 – Rnd 5 – Semifinal 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!