2015 World Chess Cup (Baku, Azerbaijan)
The opening ceremony of the 2015 World Chess Cup officially opened the championship qualifier. One-hundred and twenty eight players have arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan carrying their flags to compete for a chance and glory… and perhaps a chance at competing in the World Candidate’s tournament in March 2016. According to fide.com,
The players, official and guests were greeted by Dr. Elman Rustamov, Governor of Azerbaijan Central Bank and President of Azerbaijan Chess Federation, Mr. Intigam Babayev, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan, and Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of FIDE. The programme also included beautiful promotional videos, a chess-themed ballet dance, and a song by Azerbaijani Eurovision contestant.
There was of course a drawing of lots resulting in Veselin Topalov starting with the white pieces. A number of the top players were on hand including eight of the players from the recently-ended Sinquefield Cup. Vladimir Kramnik won the 2013 World Chess Cup in Tromso, Norway and will be on hand to vie for another chance at the the world crown. Viswanathan Anand is has automatic seeding in the Candidates and is the only top player not competing in the event. It should be an exciting!
The total prize fund is $1,600,000 (about €1,400,000) and the winner and runner up will qualify to the 2016 Candidates tournament to determine who will compete in the World Cup. Each of the matches will comprise of two game matches, plus tiebreaks, if necessary. The last standing after the previous rounds will enter a seventh round of four games, plus tiebreaks if necessary. Players receive 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
Video by Big in Baku
Official Website: https://www.bakuworldcup2015.com/
All PGN Games (TWIC): https://www.theweekinchess.com/
Rules and Regulations: https://www.fide.com/
PARTICIPANTS of the WORLD CUP 2015
a) World Cup 2013 semi-finalists
01. Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)
02. Dmitri Andreikin (RUS)
03. Maxmine Vachier-Lagrave (FRA)
04. Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS)
b) Women’s World Champion 2014:
05. Mariya Muzychuk (UKR)
c) Junior World Champions 2013 & 2014:
06. Yu Yangyi (CHN)
07. Lu Shanglei (CHN)
d) From FIDE Rating List, average 2/2014 up to 1/2015:
08. Levon Aronian (ARM) 2808.00
09. Fabiano Caruana (USA) 2803.66
10. Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 2792.16
11. Veselin Topalov (BUL) 2784.50
12. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 2775.41
13. Sergey Karjakin (RUS) 2772.00
14. Anish Giri (NED) 2756.91
15. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) 2755.33
16. Boris Gelfand (ISR) 2752.00
17. Leinier Dominguez (CUB) 2750.25
18. Wesley So (USA) 2748.66
19. Michael Adams (ENG) 2747.66
20. Peter Svidler (RUS) 2747.41
21. Nikola Vitiugov (RUS) 2740.83
22. Vasil Ivanchuk (UKR) 2735.25
23. Peter Leko (HUN) 2731.08
24. Ding Liren (CHN) 2726.50
25. Wang Hao (CHN) 2724.83
26. Pentala Harikrishna (IND) 2723.50
e) 46 players from European Championships 2014 & 2015
27. Alexander Motylev (RUS) 2014
28. David Anton Guijarro (ESP) 2014
29. Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS) 2014
30. Dragan Solak (TUR) 2014
31. Pavel Eljanov (UKR) 2014
32. Constantin Lupulescu (ROU) 2014
33. David Navara (CZE) 2014
34. Ivan Saric (CRO) 2014
35. Igor Lysyj (RUS) 2014
36. Hrant Melkumyan (ARM) 2014
37. Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL) 2014
38. Dmitri Jakovenko (RUS) 2014
39. Vladislav Artemiev (RUS) 2014
40. Ilya Smirin (ISR) 2014
41. Laurent Fressinet (FRA) 2014
42. Gabriel Sargissian (ARM) 2014
43. Alexander Areshchenko (UKR) 2014
44. Miodrag Perunovic (SRB) 2014
45. Ivan Cheparinov (BUL) 2014
46. Viorel Iordachescu (MDA) 2014
47. Sergei Zhigalko (BLR) 2014
48. Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (ARM) 2014
49. Csaba Balogh (HUN) 2014
50. Evgeny Najer (RUS) 2015
51. Mateusz Bartel (POL) 2015
52. Denis Khismatullin (RUS) 2015
53. Andriy Vovk (UKR) 2015
54. Anton Korobov (UKR) 2015
55. Alexander Ipatov (TUR) 2015
56. Andrei Volokitin (UKR) 2015
57. Maxim Matlakov (RUS) 2015
58. Sanan Sjugirov (RUS) 2015
59. Alexander Moiseenko (UKR) 2015
60. Ilia Iljiushenok (RUS) 2015
61. Robert Kempinski (POL) 2015
62. Ivan Popov (RUS) 2015
63. Viktor Laznicka (CZE) 2015
64. Maxim Rodshtein (ISR) 2015
65. Ante Brkic (CRO) 2015
66. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (GER) 2015
67. Boris Grachev (RUS) 2015
68. Tamir Nabaty (ISR) 2015
69. Emre Can (TUR) 2015
70. Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) 2015
71. Aleksey Goganov (RUS) 2015
72. Ivan Bukavshin (RUS) 2015
f) 20 players from Americas
73. Alexandr Fier (BRA) Zonal 2.4
74. Deysi Cori (PER) Zonal 2.4
75. Lazaro Bruzon (CUB) Zonal 2.3
76. Ermes Espinosa Veloz (CUB) Zonal 2.3
77. Ray Robson (USA) Zonal 2.1
78. Alexander Onischuk (USA) Zonal 2.1
79. Gata Kamsky (USA) Zonal 2.1
80. Varuzhan Akobian (USA) Zonal 2.1
81. Samuel Sevian (USA) Zonal 2.1
82. Tomas Krnan (CAN) Zonal 2.2
83. Julio Granda Zuniga (PER) Continental 2014
84. Samuel Shankland (USA) Continental 2014
85. Isan Ortiz Suarez (CUB) Continental 2014
86. R. Leitao (BRA) Continental 2014
87. Rafael Quesada Perez (CUB) Continental 2015
88. Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli (VEN) Continental 2015
89. Federico Perez Ponsa (ARG) Continental 2015
90. Anton Kovalyov (CAN) Continental 2015
91. Sandro Mareco (ARG) Zonal 2.5
92. Cristobal Villarga (CHI) Zonal 2.5
g) 20 players from Asia/Oceania
93. Ganguly Surya Shekhar (IND) Continental 2015
94. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (IND) Continental 2015
95. Zhou Jianchao (CHN) Continental 2015
96. Maghsoodloo Parham (IRI) Continental 2015
97. Lalith Babu M.R. (IND) Continental 2015
98. Le Quang Liem (VIE) Zonal 3.3
99. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (VIE) Zonal 3.3
100. Sethuraman S.P. (IND) Zonal 3.7
101. Ziaur Rahman (BAN) Zonal 3.2
102. Wei Yi (CHN) Zonal 3.5
103. Zhao Jun (CHN) Zonal 3.5
104. Baskiran Adhiban (IND) Continental 2014
105. Ni Hua (CHN) Continental 2014
106. Rustum Kasimdzhanov (UZB) Continental 2014
107. Wen Yang (CHN) Continental 2014
108. Salem A.R. Saleh (UAE) Continental 2014
109. Max Illingworth (AUS) Zonal 3.6
110. Idani Pouya (IRI) Zonal 3.1
111. Rinat Jumabayev (KAZ) Zonal 3.4
112. Maksat Atabayev (TKM) Zonal 3.4
h) 6 players from Africa
113. Amin Bassem (EGY) Egypt
114. Ahmed Adly (EGY) Egypt
115. Amir Zaibi (TUN) Tunisia
116. Arthur Ssegwanyi (UGA) Uganda
117. Richmond Phiri (ZAM) Zambia
118. Adu Oladapo (NGR) Nigeria
i) 5 nominees of the FIDE President
119. Hou Yifan (CHN)
120. Gadir Guseinov (AZE)
121. Igor Kovalenko (LAT)
122. Michael Wiedenkeller (LUX)
123. Ernesto Inarkiev (RUS)
j) 4 nominees of the local Organising Committee
124. Rauf Mamedov (AZE)
125. Eltaj Safarli (AZE)
126. Vasif Durarbayli (AZE)
127. Teimour Radjabov (AZE)
k) 1 ACP Tour Qualifier
128. Romain Edouard (FRA)
Total = 128 players
September 10th-October 4th, 2015 (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Match Scores (Round #1)
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
| Semifinals | Finals |
Official Website: https://www.bakuworldcup2015.com/
All PGN Games (TWIC): https://www.theweekinchess.com/
Rules and Regulations: https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/WorldCup2015Regulations.pdf
Impressive effort from Adu vs this guy topy so i would like to say congratulations to a very talented chess player! perhaps you will win next time! and as an ULTRAMODERNIST my hope is you will LEARN from this brief encounter!!!
Friday, 11 September 2015
Uganda’s Ssegwanyi holds Anish Giri!
Arthur Ssegwanyi of Uganda.
There were a number of rating upsets, but the one that was notable was the draw between Arthur Ssegwanyi and world #6 player Anish Giri of the Netherlands. This got almost no attention on chess websites, but it is certainly big news on the continent of Africa. The ChessBase story did not mention the Ugandan player.
Obviously, it is not the biggest result in the World Cup for an African player, but for Uganda it is an important event… even as significant as the three Ugandans who have beaten Grandmasters. However, Giri is an elite player and stands as the strongest player a Ugandan has ever faced. Zambia’s Richmond Phiri was playing Hikaru Nakamura and on board #1 was Nigeria’s Oladapo Adu facing Veselin Topalov.
In this game, Giri played the flexible Paulsen variation and assumed the hedgehog position with the nice Ra7-c7 maneuver. Black was able to get the thematic 17…d5! in wresting the initiative. Giri won a pawn and seemed to be coasting to victory when he started to make some strategic errors.
Arthur Ssegwangyi has just played 53.Kxd4. He would battle 105 more moves with Anish Giri holding the draw. Although the game was most likely draw at this point, Giri wanted to test the Ugandan’s endgame knowledge. Ssegwangyi passed the test.
The Ugandan was able to get the queens off and played 158 moves in a rook ending to earn the draw. He stated that the game was drawn 50 moves ago, but probably more like 100! Nevertheless, the game went to king versus king in the last game to finish and the upset of the round! Most may have assumed the Ugandan would somehow blunder in the trivial ending, but this result shows that chess knowledge has spread.
China, Russia and the Americans brought sizable contingents to Baku. India has some promising players along with veterans. One such veteran got a rude awakening as Surya Shekhar Ganguly was crushed by 17-year old Russian Vladimir Armentiev in a raging kingside attack. Cuba’s Leinier Dominguez got mated by Argentina’s Federico Ponsa in a Najdorf, but Robson-Vovk was perhaps the game of the round. GM Jan Gustafsson gave the analysis.
China comes with five 2700s, Hou Yifan and two junior champions in Yu Yangyi and Lu Shanglei… a 14-year old Wei Yi. Powerful!
Ceremonial move made at the board of IM Oladapo Adu (Nigeria) and
GM Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria).
Women’s World Champion, GM Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine)
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili (for FIDE).
Videos by bakuworldcup2015.com.
Saturday, 12 September 2015
Several favorites through, but massive tiebreaks loom
The personable Deysi Cori of Peru had the unenviable task of facing Vladimir Kramnik. No upset, but it was good to see her battle. Deysi is one who plays against the strongest competition available to her and has earned 6-7 IM norms. She has qualified for the World Cup twice being the only woman since Judit Polgar to do so in a qualifying tournament. She’s certainly all grown up now from the girl we saw at the 2004 Olympiad!
“Knockout” tournaments are known as the most exciting because of the tension and excitement. The style of chess is combative since won games can most certainly clinch a match. It is also a tournament where there are bound to be a few upsets. There were a few, but for the most part, it was business as usual and the heavy favorites basically gave lessons.
While most of the favorites were able to get past their clients, there were a few who ended up leaving the tournament early. Those leaving are Ni Hua (China), Gata Kamsky (USA) and Surya Ganguly (India). S.P. Sethuraman crushed Sanan Sjugirov in an unexpected romp. Leinier Dominguez was nearly sent packing by Argentina’s Federico Ponsa who brutally mated him in the first game and was probably drawing in the second.
Cuba’s Leinier Dominguez has a second lease on life after an instructive win in second game.
Arthur Ssegwanyi got his 15 minutes of fame after the draw yesterday and also got words of support from the Uganda Chess Federation in a press release…
Indeed the Ugandan had no fear and had another tense battle with Anish Giri. It appeared the African would be able to hold the position in the middlegame but decided to give up both rooks for a queen. Despite the queen’s mobility, Giri’s two white rooks dominated the black queen and Ssegwanyi was unable to untangle his king from mating patterns. He resigned and enjoyed a lively post-mortem with the world #6 player. It was a good showing for the Ugandan. He was interviewed shortly after his game. Here is what he has to say…
Perhaps there will be more to come from African players. While the others bowed out with straight losses, Bassem Amin became the first player from the African continent of Africa to advance to the second round in a FIDE World Cup. Hichem Hamdouchi made it to the second round of the FIDE Knockout in 2004. Of course Amin is the African champion and a proper Grandmaster at over 2600 and will perhaps make his breakthrough for Egypt.
Egyptian Grandmaster Bassem Amin advances!
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili (for FIDE).
There were a number of other interesting games resulting in tragic endings. The woman’s champion Mariya Muzychuk seemed to be heading toward another draw with Michael Adams when she lost the thread on the position, lost track of the tactics and dropped a heart-breaking game.
Michael Adams has played 43…e3 setting a vicious trap. Muzychuk has a resource of 44.Bc1! and after 44…Bf3+ 45.Kxf3 Rxf2+ 46.Ke4 the e3-pawn will fall while white begins pushing passed pawns Easy draw. Muzychuk blundered with 44.Rf4 Bc4+ 45.Rg4 Rf2! and got her king and rook tangled into a net.
Certainly the three women who participated gave their best and Hou Yifan still has a chance to advance against Brazil’s Rafael Leitao, but it may take awhile before women make a deep impact as long as they are content with playing primarily in the women’s cycle. Hopefully, women players will find a way to support playing more competitive environments to improve their standard. It is good to see Deysi Cori compete against the strongest competition in Latin America (with 6-7 IM norms) and perhaps these experiences will find her among the elite in the region, men or women!
Replay of Round #1, Game #2
Sunday, 14 September 2015
Gelfand out… other favorites run the tables
A couple of scares in the first round and one major upset. Boris Gelfand of Israel was upset by 19-year old IM Cristobal Villarga, national champion of Chile. In the post-game interview the young Chilean biggest victory was beating 2500-level players, but this is by far his biggest scalp. Rustam Kasimdzahnov also lost his match to Canada’s Anton Kovalyov who had confessed to booking his flight to travel the next day.
Canada’s GM Anton Kovalyov
Kovalyov has an interesting story. He was born in 1992 in the Ukraine and migrated with his parents to Argentina in 2000 where he learned to play. He rose quickly and by 2008, he became a Grandmaster and later country’s highest-rated player. Totally raised in chess in South America, he took his talents to North America in 2013 where he settled in Montreal. He has since changed federations and become a citizen of Canada. This is the biggest victory in his career.
As for Kasimdzhanov, there is no telling of how being Fabiano Caruana’s trainer affects his own play, but he is certainly very knowledgeable and has worked with Viswanathan Anand during his championship run. Other veterans such as Alexander Grischuk and Dmitry Jakovenko are showing shaky form but both advanced to the next round. Kasimdzhanov almost flagged in the second rapid making a move with one second left in a completely drawn position. Totally unnecessary.
Is Lu Shanglei the dark horse?
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili (for FIDE).
Some of the heavyweight matches to watch in round two are: Wang Hao vs. Lu Shanglei, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs. Hou Yifan, Vachier-Lagrave vs. Gabriel Sargissian. Nguyen Ngoc Truongson may be poised for an upset against Evgeny Tomashevsky. The American derby of Hikaru Nakamura vs. Sam Shankland will be interesting as well.
Hikaru Nakamura posted this gracious comment on Facebook…
Well at least Naka played a half-way decent game vs Richmond and wasnt tryin to be disrespectful like i noticed in the Adu Games.
September 10th-October 4th, 2015 (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Match Scores (Round #2)
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
| Semifinals | Finals |
Official Website: https://www.bakuworldcup2015.com/
All PGN Games (TWIC): https://www.theweekinchess.com/
Rules and Regulations: https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/WorldCup2015Regulations.pdf
Monday, 14 September 2015
Great Wall of China continues!
Ding Liren is leading a strong Chinese effort.
If it was not clear that the Chinese are coming after Olympiad gold, then nothing else will prove it. I wrote several articles about this pending stampede starting back in 2001. The Chinese national team won their first Olympiad gold without three 2700 players and Wei Yi playing alternate! After the Chinese women had dominated the Olympiad for more than a decade. Now Chinese boast seven players over 2700, the strongest woman, several talented juniors including the last two junior champions and the youngest Grandmaster. Can you spell “dynasty”?
In this position after 29…Ne7, Ding uncorked 30.Bc2! Qxc2 31.Nd3 closing the line and forcing black to donate his queen after 31…Kg8 32. Qxh7+ Kf7 33. Ne5+ Ke6 34. Qxc2.
Today was a good day for the Chinese as Ding Liren, Wei Yi and Lu Shanglei won. Only Wang Hao lost… to Lu Shanglei! Ding Liren uncorked a combination that will make all the instructional books on tactics. In this position on the right, Ding got a novel combination with a deflection sacrifice and then a “line closer”. Instructive and unusual finish!
Lu Shanglei beat his compatriot Wang Hao in a slashing attack after closing the kingside and pouncing with 22.b5! It was too late for black to close off the queenside after 22…c5 23. a5 Qd6 24. a6 b6 25. Bg2! exploiting the h1-a8 diagonal. After 25…Bxe3 26.Qf3! black would be forced to trade queens with a position in total shambles.
The third Chinese to win was junior sensation Wei Yi who dismantled Yuri Vovk’s French. The game went along the lines of the Vovk-Robson game, but Wei found improvements. White’s attack appeared a bit crude with Nh5, Qg3 battery, but 19.Bb5! revealed the true strength of white’s plan. Wei Yi eventually pried open the kingside and launched with the beautiful retreat and attack move of 37.Nd4-f3! clearing the line for 38.Be3-d4. These Chinese are good!
Two decisive games…
Caruana beat Mamedov and Onischuk took down Karjakin.
The Cubans has also improved on the strength of their dynamic duo. Leinier Dominguez rebounded nicely for his abysmal match against Federick Ponsa. The Cuban ace powered to an impressive victory against the Berlin Defense. Unfortunately, his compatriot Lazaro Bruzon had a heart-breaking loss against Vladimir Kramnik.
In this position, after 115.Ra7+, black can still draw. What should he play, 115…Kb8 or 115…Kc8?
Battling with his lone rook against the Russian’s bishop and rook, Bruzon had seemingly found the defense. However, the defending side has to remain alert not to fall into a mating net. Bruzon accomplished that until a moment of inattention allowed Kramnik to snatch the full point. After 115.Ra7+ (diagram left), the Cuban maestro erred with 115…Kb8?? allowed a mating net after 116.Kc6 Rh3 117.Ra1! Now black faces mortality with the devastating 118.Bd6+. Bruzon resigned and stared into space after the game. He was only 10 moves away from claiming the 50-move draw rule.
There were some short, anti-competitive draws including Zhigalko-Topalov 1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. dxc5 Qxc5 7. h3 Bh5 8. Na3 a6 9. Be3 Qc7 10. Qa4+ Nbd7 11. Bf4 1/2-1/2 and Radjabov-Smirin 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. e4 d5 4. e5 d4 5. exf6 dxc3 6. bxc3 Qxf6 7. Nf3 Nc6 8. Bd3 Ne5 9. Be4 Nxf3+ 10. Qxf3 Qxf3 11. Bxf3 Rb8 12. a4 1/2-1/2. Not very edifying. Perhaps many are conserving energy to go for the faster time controls.
Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Alexander Onischuk won their games for the North American contingent while Julio Granda won for the South American region. Good day for the Americans!
What’s Hikaru Nakamura thinking? His opponent Sam Shankland lurks in the background.
GM Veselin Topalov took the day off.
Tuesday, 15 September 2015
Topalov, Caruana, Kramnik, MVL through…
several big guns go to tiebreaks.
Wesley So has won all of his games thus far. Perhaps he has returned to his excellent form.
Apart from a couple of big names like Boris Gelfand and Rustam Kasimdzhanov, the brackets have gone as expected. Veselin Topalov punched his ticket to the third round with a clean win ending in a textbook rook ending. The Bulgarian had to arrive at the Lucena position and “build the bridge” but it was always completely winning. Wesley So, Pavel Eljanov and Julio Granda win both of their games handily to advance. Other players such as Vladimir Kramnik, Fabiano Caruana, Vassily Ivanchuk and Leinier Dominguez drew out their matches to advance.
Chinese Ding Liren and Lu Shanglei also drew to advance to the third round with the latter result being considered an “upset”. However, Lu seems to have a lot of confidence at this point and shows how deep the talent pool is in China. In fact Wang Hao, a former #1 player, may be fighting to make the Olympiad team next year. Along with Li Chao and Bu Xiangzhi, he was one of the three 2700s missing from last year’s gold medal team. The young talent keeps coming!
There will be a total of 15 tiebreak matches tomorrow with some heavyweights trying to advance in the rapid segment. There are certainly upsets bound to happen as players battle in the quickened format. There are some key matches and those who finish their matches already are rewarded with some exciting chess and a rest day. Wesley So of the USA is the only player to have won all four games that he played.
Vladimir Kramnik had a vision to defend his title! So far, so good.
Does this look like confidence to you? Lu Shanglei closed the deal.
The Grand Chess Tour participants Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri,
Fabiano Caruana and Veselin Topalov talking before the round.
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili (for FIDE).
Chessdrummas are they talkin about what they LEARNIN from my funny knight trick? hehe.
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
32 players, 16 nations remaining! Aronian out.
A sad ending for the normally cherubic Levon Aronian. After having held the #2 position for many years, he seems to have lost his way. Photos by Eteri Kublashvili (for FIDE).
The second round is complete. After tense tiebreaks with blunders, swindles and missed opportunities, most of the favorites went through. Levon Aronian, who is not only a rating favorite, but also a favorite of many fans, exited the tournament after losing to Alexander Areshchenko. This would be the only major upset of a top player.
The tiebreak games were all hotly-contested and Wilder-Laznicka match went to the Armageddon game. However, the most thrilling match award would have to go to Wei Yi versus Yuri Vovk encounter. The rapid games were relatively equal, but the 10’+10″ heated up. They repeated the a sharp line in the French, but in this case Wei Yi sacrificed an exchange for what seemed like adequate compensation. Perhaps there were better continuations missed, but as time pressure became a factor the Chinese prodigy began to falter and fell on the sword to a vicious counterattack. There were a couple of occasions when Wei Yi made a move with one second left on the clock.
Video by Jan Gustafsson.
In the second 10-minute encounter, Vovk played a very unambitious London System with the idea of securing a draw to advance, but quickly allowed black to equalize. Perhaps Vovk missed his chance after 23…Qg5?! 24.Rxf8? (24.h4!) Rxf8 when black’s attack is too strong. In time pressure, white collapsed after 25.Nb6?? Nxb6?? (25…Bxd4+) 26. cxb6 (26.h4! again) Nxc1 27. Rxc1 Bxd4 28.Bxa6? f4 29.exd4 f3 threatening mate and the rook. In the final chance for Vovk, he stayed with the French Defense, but Wei Yi played the Exchange Variation and held, but not before some scary moments. Wei Yi will face Areshschenko next!
GM Emil Sutovsky seemed confused at various points in the tiebreak fast-moving games. In the Vitiugov-Le Quang Liem second rapid game, Sutovsky kept stating that Vitiugov was winning and that he was poised to advance when in fact black was fine.
Nikita Vitiugov played 39.Qxg7+ in a wild position. Le Quang Liem held the position together and in the end, snared the point and the match.
In the complicated position on the left, there are serious complications with the heavy pieces. Sutovsky became excited at 39.Qxg7+ when after Qxg7 40. Rxb7+ Ke6 (40…Kf8 loses) 41. Rxg7 Rh2+ 42. Kg3 Rxf3+ 43. Kxf3 Rxb2 when black is better. The Vietnamese player ultimately picked off all of white’s weak pawns and took the match.
Nguyen-Tomashevsky was also a thrilling encounter as the knight ending was filled with thrills and spills as the Vietnamese player held on despite the Russian misses several winning opportunities.
Hikaru Nakamura defeated his compatriot Samuel Shankland.
Photo by Paul Truong.
In Nakamura-Shankland, there was a bit of inspiration after the world’s #3 player won a technical rook ending in the rapid tiebreak match. It’s always very tough to face a friend or teammate in a knockout competition. Nakamura’s reflective Facebook post.
Michael Adams, at age 43, continues to plod on after a tense victory over Laznicka in the Armageddon match. He is the elder statesman in the tournament and showed his blitz experience in the final game. Onto round three!
September 10th-October 4th, 2015 (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Match Scores (Round #3)
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
| Semifinals | Finals |
Official Website: https://www.bakuworldcup2015.com/
All PGN Games (TWIC): https://www.theweekinchess.com/
Rules and Regulations: https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/WorldCup2015Regulations.pdf
Thursday, 17 September 2015
75% of games drawn… Grischuk on the brink of elimination!
Sasha Grischuk had a rough day today.
Alexander Grischuk has been inconsistent in the last year. Less than a year ago, he had reached a career-high Elo of 2810 and #3 in the world. However, after lackluster results followed in the FIDE Grand Prix series, a winless World Team Championship and poor results in both Grand Chess Tour events, he is sitting on a “live” rating of 2757. Losing to Pavel Eljanov is nothing to be ashamed of, but the Russian actually missed a clear win after his perpetual zeitnot problems haunted him again.
It is easy to point out where someone missed a win and 100% of the time if you gave this position to Grischuk as a puzzle, he would see the winning move in half a second. However, when the clock is ticking loudly, nerves make the mind miss easy wins and even a mate-in-one (see Santosh-Bruzon game). In the position on the right, Grischuk was in severe time pressure in a tense struggle. The a-pawn commands black’s attention, so he must deliver a checkmate if he decides to remove the blockade. After Eljanov’s 37…Rg6, Grischuk played 38.Kh4? (38.a7!+-) Qb4? 39.Kh3? (39.Qf5!+-) and Eljanov played 39…Rg5 but still had no more than a draw. After 52.Ra5 white has a fortress draw, but moves later executed a self-mate problem with 55.Kd4?? Qd5+ 56.Ke3 Ke5… mate next move.
With three players remaining for USA, Fabiano Caruana was the first to get on the board with a smooth with over an overmatched Anton Kovalyov. While this game lasted 61 moves, Caruana held a positional grip for most of the game until he decided the time was right to seize the initiative with the f4 idea. However, Kovalyov decided to go first, but 42…f5 immediately exploded in his face. Caruana temporarily sacked the exchange for a pawn, won it back and pocketed the pawn. Black’s position in total shambles and it turned into a rout.
Sergey Karjkin has been in good form,
but formidable figures lurk in his shadows.
Sergey Karjakin seems to be on form. In yet another Sicilian, the Russian faced a Tamainov in a very unorthodox way with 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. e5 Nd5 8. Ne4 Qc7 9. f4 Qb6 10. c4 Bb4+ 11. Ke2. What??? Is this Wilhelm Steinitz? Nevertheless, Karjakin was all over Yu Yangyi and ended up with a growing positional advantage. He kept slowly squeezing his prey like a boa constrictor, then hit with the killer blow 38.Rxd7! It ended the matter.
While 75% of the games were drawn, there were few short ones, but there were several interesting encounters. Check on So-Le, Radjabov-Svidler and Topalov-Lu. In the latter game, Topalov had arrived at a completely winning position, but the Chinese player slipped away. After Lu played 30…Nf3, he peered at Topalov as he thought. He must’ve had a feeling the Bulgarian was losing his way. If you want a nice laugh, got over the Granda-Wojtaszek game!
Who ordered these? 🙂
Wei Yi lost to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in 2013 World Chess Cup.
He’s the favorite to advance this time.
Lu Shanglei trying to be the coolest player amongst the 32.
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili (for FIDE).
Chessdrummas are the Traditionalist suggesting that they are surprised KRAM missed Na6!!!
Friday, 18 September 2015
Eljanov crushes Grischuk… seven exciting tiebreaks on tap!
The Ukraine’s Pavel Eljanov is on 6/6 in three matches!
Pavel Eljanov showed why you have to be in top condition in these knockout tournaments. Apparently, Alexander Grischuk is still suffering from bouts of time pressure and is having problems with consistent results. In today’s game, Grischuk had to win in order to stay alive and chose a very solid and flexible hedgehog setup. This defense allows black to adapt to white’s intentions and rely on a powerful counterattack with a timely pawn thrust.
Grischuk is totally paralyzed after 40.c6. Dreadful showing by the Russian.
It appeared that 24…e5 was a mistake as it rendered black’s a8-bishop impotent after 25.d5 and later 40.c6 (diagram right). That bishop never moved again after 18…Ba8. Ultimately ALL of black’s pieces got pushed back and there was no possible counterplay. Meanwhile white froze the queenside and quickly opened up an attack on the kingside and black was defenseless to stop it. Grischuk went out with a whimper (see game here).
Two Chinese on a collision course won their games and are poised to face each other in round four. Unfortunately, both are close friends and in the latest New in Chess, Ding Liren talked about his relationship with Wei Yi and says he is the best hope to bring the World Championship to China. Wei Yi showed excellent form today in a clinching victory over Alexander Areschchenko.
Hopefully, Areschchenko likes Chinese food because he got some home cooking from Wei Yi. His 19.Nxe6! was a powerful blow.
The Ukrainian ventured into a main line Sicilian Poisoned Pawn variation wherein the Chinese prodigy had ideas of his own. First, on 15…Nd7, white eschewed 16.Kh1 ignoring the danger on the a7-g1 diagonal and played 16.Rbd1!? instead. After 16…h3 17.g3 Bb4 18.Qe3!?, black decided to allow 18…Bxc3 19. Nxe6! After the way Wei Yi brilliantly defeated Lazaro Bruzon a couple of months ago it is unfathomable why Areschchenko allowed this. Actually, the scary 19…fxe6 was actually the best try, but after 19…Qe5 20.Nc7+ white won the exchange and played forcefully to convert a nice win. Wei Yi will advance to play his compatriot Ding Liren in a Chinese derby.
In Ding-Guseinov, it is not certain whether black’s queenside play was a new idea, but he got absolutely nothing for the sacrificed pawn. Ding simply collected the pawn and said, “xie-xie”. The rest of the game was a brutal dissection where black was flailing away at white targets, but had to keep an eye on the d-pawn sprinting up the board. White ended nicely with 41.Nc7! deflection since 41…Nd8 loses to 42.Ne8+ winning a piece. Of course, 41…Nxd7 there is the intermezzo of 42.Nxe6+ and then 43.Nxd7 also netting a piece.
In Jakovenko-Ivanchuk, the Ukrainian veteran sacrificed his queen for what turned out to be dubious compensation. Black did have two rooks for the queen, but pieces were a bit stifled and the white queen was running amok causing all kinds of devastation. There was some surprise that Ivanchuk resigned so abruptly.
Poland’s Radoslaw Wojtazek ended the run of Julio Granda Zuniga of Peru. Black had a very solid position and perhaps could have held a draw even after white launched a vicious attack. The move 14…g6 certainly did not help secure the kingside and the weakness would soon be felt.
After 18. h4 h5 19. Ne5 Be8 20. Qf3 Bf8 21. g4 hxg4 22. Nxg4 Bg7 23.h5. This was the key position. Unfortunately, Granda ran low on time trying to figure out the complications. After 23. h5 gxh5 24. Ne5 Nf6 white kept coming with 25. f5 but black was holding. Jon Ludwig Hammer pointed out that after 25…Rxd4, Wojtazek played 26. Rxd4?! and missed 26.fxe6!
The point is that 26…Rg4+ is met by 27.Qxg4! hxg4 28.exf7+ with a minor piece mate after 28…Bxf7 29.Bxf7+ Kh8 (or 29…Kf8) 30.Ng6 MATE! Instead of defense, Granda tried to complicate matters with 31…Qe2? Finally, 33…Qb1+? instead of 33…Qc1+ ended resistance after 34. Kg2 c5 35. Rxf5. No mas!
Julio Granda, whose fascinating story is well-known,
will always be hailed as a hero.
Sergey Karjakin advanced after beating Yu Yangyi in a dominant performance. In the final position, he was indeed much better, but offered the draw and took the match. It is good to save energy for the tough matches ahead. TWIC’s Mark Crowther made an observation that Karjakin is becoming adept at beating Chinese players. At quick look would show that this is correct. In the China-Russia match, Karjakin had a huge score beating Wei Yi, Ding Liren, Ni Hua and beating Yu Yangyi in the final.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has already advanced. He is hoping Teimour Radjabov will join him.
There were some short draws, but there were some interesting encounter such as Kramnik-Andreikin and Tomashevsky-MVL… both ending in minor piece endings. Lu-Topalov was another strange game starting out with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3!? d5 4. Bb5 dxe4 5. Nxe5 Qd5 6. Qa4. Lu sacrificed a pawn and then an exchange, but it yielded nothing but equality as Topalov returned the material and they shook hands.
Seven tiebreaks tomorrow with some big games. Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So both hope to join Caruana to potentially have three USA players in the final 16. Chinese could potentially have three. Russia has two players advancing with another five trying to advance. It will be a tough road however. Lu Shanglei could be a tricky opponent for Veselin Topalov. Be careful!
Two legendary national heroes…
Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) and Julio Granda Zuniga (Peru).
Two former Webster University roommates battling…
Wesley So and Le Quang Liem.
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili (for FIDE).
Saturday, 19 September 2015
Favorites through….
Nakamura wins Armageddon thriller…
Nepomniachtchi files a complaint over two-handed castle!
Hikaru Nakamura won a thrilling match, but was embroiled in a controversy concerning a FIDE rule.
What was perhaps the most thrilling match of the entire tournament went down to an Armageddon game. Hikaru Nakamura had won the first 10-minute encounter against Ian Nepomniachtchi and was poised to win the second when he blundered horribly and lost. He then lost the first blitz 5-minute game, his second in a row and putting him at the brink of elimination.
Nakamura could be seen after the game pacing the floor trying to collect his composure. Nepomniachtchi seemed posed to advance and join the other four Russians. In the second blitz game, Nakamura won a Sicilian Rossolimo in nice style and gave a fist-pump in celebration. This forced a final Armageddon game. Tension was already high. What ensued was an unlikely controversy.
Nepomniachtchi would be playing white with 5:4 time advantage on the clock and needing a win to advance. The game started with 1.c4 and Nakamura trotted out the a King’s Indian. The game appeared to be level throughout until white gained a bit of space. Needing a win, Nakamura lashed out with 21…f5 and got his kingside rolling. Nepomniachtchi seemed to be defending, but then panicked and his position soon collapsed. Thus, Nepomniachtchi had just lost the Armageddon game with Nakamura thereby losing the match 5-4 and being eliminated.
Ian Nepomniachtchi with arbiters after his heart-breaking loss. After being told of a rule infraction, he filed a protest that was later denied.
Less than an hour after the match, there were tweets about a comment made by GM Sergey Shipov during the broadcast that Nakamura had violated rules by castling two-handed. After news circulated about this, Nepomniachtchi posted some angry tweets on his Twitter account. In these two tweets, he leveled blame on both Nakamura and the arbiters who failed to intervene.
Then after this, he decided to file an appeal on the infraction.
The apparent infraction of FIDE Article 4.1 occurred seconds into the game on Nakamura’s 5…0-0 where the American player used a two-handed method commonly seen in off-hand blitz games. There were a team of arbiters observing the game and there was no objection made. Nepomniachtchi also made no objection and continued the game normally despite seeing the move clearly. The game was highly intense and the infraction did not tragically decided the game. After Nakamura’s 56…f2+, Nepomniachtchi extended his hand in resignation.
While this story has unfolding, The Chess Drum was chatting with Nakamura who looked in the FIDE handbook and invoked Article 4.8 “The act of moving the pieces” which states,
Nakamura has not denied committing the infraction and most certainly would have agreed to any penalty during the game. However, once Nepomniachtchi took to Twitter, the situation became a bit more contentious. It may be Nakamura’s view that if Article 4.8 is in effect, then you forfeit a claim on Article 4.1. Certainly this has not been the first time this has occurred, but one wonders if the appeal will be granted since Nepomniachtchi signed the scoresheets before filing the appeal.
It is hard to know what could be done after the result was completed. There is certainly no grounds for replaying the game. At most, there may have been a time addition for Nepomniachtchi which could have been crucial, but such a claim was not made. What will perhaps occur is that Nakamura will receive a warning from the arbiters before he plays Michael Adams tomorrow. (Update: Official Ruling was that Nepomniachtchi’s appeal was denied… https://www.bakuworldcup2015.com/news/8/141.)
Vladimir Kramnik did not successfully defend his 2013 title.
Peter Svidler eliminated local Azeri favorite, Teimour Radjabov. Only Shakhriyar Mamedyarov remains as the flag bearer for Azerbaijan. Four Russians are through.
Vladimir Kramnik was the next pre-tournament favorite to be eliminated after he was impressively outplayed by his compatriot Dmitri Andreikin in the second rapid encounter. His compatriot Evgeny Tomshevsky was also eliminated after losing both 10-minute games by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Mixed day for the Russians. However, Peter Svidler upended Teimour Radjabov leaving only one Azeri player in the competition.
Meanwhile Lu Shanglei was trying to join Ding Liren and Wei Yi, but he had to get past Veselin Topalov. Shanglei had a decent position, but then got hit by some tactics after 21…Rab8 22.c4 Nf6 23.Qe5! Black ended up losing the exchange by force and resigned on the spot. The second game was WILD!
Shanglei played 1.Nc3!? which many found amusing, but he threw his pieces forward. In reality, there was no attack and black seized the initiative. After the queens came off, white complicated matters and as they went into a fierce time scramble, Shanglei’s R+N could not work magic over Topalov B+N and the Bulgarian would move on.
Leinier Dominguez missed a chance in the first five-minute game.
In Dominguez-Adams, the match will not win an award for the most exciting ever played, but Adams came from the dead after being in a totally lost position in the first five-minute blitz game. The Cuban had won the exchange and appeared poised to go up +1, but then his time was ticking dangerous low, reaching 0:01 a couple of times!! Adams came back won the exchange and the game. In the second game, Dominguez was never able to get anything going, played risky and dropped the second game.
Svidler-Topalov
Ding-Wei
Giri-Wojtaszek
So-Vachier
Nakamura-Adams
Eljanov-Jakovenko
Caruana-Memdyarov
Karjakin-Andreikin
There was an interesting precedent that occurred during the 2008 Olympiad in the match between Finland and Jamaica. In this controversy Tomi Nyback of Finland was in time pressure against Jamaica’s Shane Matthews when he picked up his king to move to f4. Seeing that this would have been losing, he returned the piece and moved his bishop. Matthews immediately protested.
The arbiters were summoned and Nyback stated that he was adjusting the king. Arbiters discounted witness testimony disputing Nyback’s version, accepted Nyback’s explanation and allowed the game to continue. Matthews pitifully allowed his time to run out. Jamaica filed an appeal (the match was drawn), but it was determined that the result would be upheld because Matthews signed the scoresheet approving the result.
Nepomniachtchi still not satisfied…
If Nepo did not notice the infraction and the arbiters did not point out the infraction, it is like football… play goes on. To try to go back after the result was accepted (scoresheets signed) is rather dubious.
Video by chess.com
(in Russian with some English)
Video from chess-news.ru.
September 10th-October 4th, 2015 (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Match Scores (Round #4)