2019 World Cup: Round #1

2019 World Chess Cup September 9th-October 4th, 2019 (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia) MATCH PAIRINGS
Bracket 1
1	Ding Liren		CHN	2-0	Shaun Press		PNG
2	Grigoriy Oparin		RUS	½-1½	Sergei Movsesian		ARM
3	Daniil Dubov		RUS	1½-½	Alexandr Fier		BRA
4	Arman Pashikian		ARM	½-1½	Alireza Firouzja		IRI
5	Pentala Harikrishna		IND	2-0	Yuri Gonzalez Vidal		CUB
6	Ganguly Surya Shekhar		IND	2-4	Vladimir Fedoseev		RUS
7	Kirill Alekseenko		RUS	1½-½	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son		VIE
8	Johan-Sebastian Christiansen		DEN	2-0	Radoslaw Wojtaszek		POL
Bracket 2
9	Alexander Grischuk		RUS	1½-½	Paulius Pultinevicius		LTU
10	Benjamin Bok		NED	2½-1½	Ivan Šaric		SRB
11	Ernesto Inarkiev		RUS	1½-½	Karthikeyan Murali		IND
12	Xu Xiangyu		CHN	3½-2½	Bu Xiangzhi		CHN
13	Wang Hao		CHN	3½-2½	Aleksei Pridorozhni		RUS
14	Mateusz Bartel		POL	½-1½	Maxim Rodshtein		ISR
15	Kacper Piorun		POL	3½-4½	Nijat Abasov		AZE
16	Alder Escobar		COL	1½-½	Leinier Domínguez		USA
Bracket 3
17	Ian Nepomniachtchi		RUS	2-0	Sugar Gan-Erdene		MGL
19	Alexandr Predke		RUS	2½-1½	Alexey Sarana		RUS
20	Michael Adams		POL	3½-4½	Aravindh Chithambaram		IND
18	Nikita Petrov		RUS	1½-2½	Evgeny Tomashevsky		RUS
21	Wei Yi		CHN	1½-½	Miguel Santos Ruiz		ESP
22	S.L. Narayanan		IND	1½-2½	David Antón Guijarro		ESP
23	Baskaran Adhiban		IND	1½-½	Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli		VEN
24	Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami		IRI	2½-3½	Yu Yangyi		CHN
Bracket 4
25	Sergey Karjakin		RUS	1½-½	Susanto Megaranto		IND
26	Aryan Tari		NOR	½-1½	Samuel Sevian		USA
27	Arkadij Naiditsch		AZE	0-2	Niclas Huschenbeth		GER
28	Frode Urkedal		NOR	½-1½	Nikita Vitiugov		RUS
29	Vidit Gujrathi		IND	1½-½	Alan Pichot		ARG
30	Aleksandr Rakhmanov		RUS	1½-½	Nils Grandelius		SWE
31	Anton Demchenko		RUS	1½-½	Robert Hovhannisyan		ARM
32	Sergio Duran Vega		CRC	0-2	Wesley So		USA
Bracket 5
33	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave		FRA	2-0	Daniel Anwuli		NGR
34	Constantin Lupulescu		ROM	1½-2½	Igor Kovalenko		LAT
35	Gawain Jones		ENG	1½-½	Diego Flores		ARG
36	Jose Eduardo Martinez		PER	0-2	Dmitry Jakovenko		RUS
37	Peter Svidler		RUS	1½-½	Carlos Daniel Albornoz		CUB
38	Andrey Esipenko		RUS	1½-½	Ruslan Ponomariov		UKR
39	Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu		GER	2½-1½	Mircea Parligras		ROM
40	Bilel Bellahcene		ALG	0-2	Hikaru Nakamura		USA
Bracket 6
41	Vladislav Artemiev		RUS	1½-½	Ilia Iljiushenok		RUS
42	Ahmed Adly		EGY	½-1½	Ivan Cheparinov		GEO
43	Anton Korobov		UKR	3-1	Abhijeet Gupta		IND
44	Aleksej Aleksandrov		RUS	1½-2½	Le Quang Liem		VIE
45	Maxim Matlakov		RUS	1½-½	Nodirbek Abdusattorov		UZB
46	Lu Shanglei		CHN	2-4	Boris Gelfand		ISR
47	Parham Maghsoodloo		IRI	2-0	Maksim Chigaev		RUS
48	Essam El Gindy		EGY	½-1½	Levon Aronian		ARM
Bracket 7
49	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov		AZE	2-0	Fy Rakotomaharo		MAD
50	Evgeny Bareev		CAN	½-1½	Rustam Kasimdzhanov		UZB
51	Jorge Cori		PER	0-2	Nihal Sarin		IND
52	Eltaj Safarli		AZE	3½-2½	Sam Shankland		USA
53	David Navara		CZE	½-1½	Daniil Yuffa		RUS
54	Neuris Delgado Ramirez		PAR	1½-2½	Luke McShane		ENG
55	Sanan Sjugirov		RUS	2½-1½	Sandro Mareco		ARG
56	Helgi Dam Ziska		GER	½-1½	Teimour Radjabov		AZE
Bracket 8
57	Dmitry Andreikin		RUS	2½-1½	Krikor Mekhitarian		BRA
58	Rinat Jumabayev		KAZ	1½-½	Ferenc Berkes		HUN
59	Tamir Nabaty		ISR	1½-½	S.P. Sethuraman		IND
60	Cristobal Henriquez Villagra		CHI	½-1½	Jan-Krzysztof Duda		POL
61	Jeffery Xiong		USA	1½-½	Igor Lysyj		RUS
62	Amin Tabatabaei		IRI	1½-½	Bassem Amin		EGY
63	Benjamin Gledura		HUN	½-1½	Evgeniy Najer		RUS
64	Mohammad Fahad Rahman		BAN	½-1½	Anish Giri		NED
Official Brackets

Commentators marvel at World Cup because the diversity of players and the various formats in each match. Indeed there are the unknown players who qualified from their zonal tournaments getting a chance to share the stage with the world’s elite. Then there are those rising stars looking to supplant the veterans. Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan was the youngest in the field at 14. That led to a quip by Lawrence Trent…

Jan: "Abdusattorov is out, so Nihal Sarin is now the youngest in the event"
Lawrence: "No, he's not, it's Jeffery"
Jan: "Jeffery is like 3 years older"
Lawrence: "No, it's definitely Jeffery. He's the Xiongest in the event" 🙂 #Boom #FIDEWorldCup

— chess24.com (@chess24com) September 12, 2019

Radoslaw Wojtaszek was the first big name to have an early exit after losing to Norway’s Johan-Sebastian Christiansen 2-0. Christiansen was overcome with joy after the result.

Never in my wildest dreams would I believe that I would beat such a world class player with 2-0. Extremely proud of myself and very happy! Now I'm looking forward to more fighting chess. I'll be playing Kirill Alekseenko (2671) in round 2. #FIDEWorldCup2019 pic.twitter.com/viurRaeL85

— Johan-Sebastian Christiansen (@GMJSChr) September 11, 2019

Bu Xiangzhi was another victim losing in tiebreaks to 20-year old countryman Yu Xiangzhi. Bu has enjoyed a wonderful career and he will soon make way for the cadre of rising Chinese yet to arrive on the professional circuit. There was another exchange between Trent and Jan Gustafsson on the dangers of playing in the Chinese League among unrated players. “Not good for your Elo rating,” was the moral of the story.

Perhaps the sensation of the round was the Nihal Sarin who won convincingly over Jorge Cori of Peru. His first game achieved plaudits from legendary players and the comparisons to Anatoly Karpov were commonplace.

Boy wonder Nihal Sarin ?? scored an emphatic victory over higher ranked & Peruvian, Jorge Cori ?? in round 1 of the 2019 #FIDEWorldCup@NihalSarin got a nice edge and converted with computeresque precision to bring home the point.

Replay the game here ??https://t.co/rCVoeM2DxQ pic.twitter.com/NqK7mSLRVy

— Chess.com – India (@chesscom_in) September 10, 2019

There has been a lot made of the Indian talents Sarin (15), Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (14) and Dommaraju Gukesh (13). There has been quite a bit of attention given to the recent push to develop Indian talent. Most recently a group of young Indian prodigies attended a camp conducted by Vladimir Kramnik and hosted by ChessBase. Sagar Shah of ChessBase India was on the scene. With Viswanathan Anand also lending his leadership, India will be looking to improve its #4 position in the world.

There were 28 Russians starting this event and they had their own young talents including 17-year old Andrey Esipenko winning over former FIDE champion Ruslan Ponomariov. There was a controversy involving doping tests. Ponomariov was upset because the test took a couple of hours and did not allow him time to prepare for his next game which he lost badly. Dr. Marape Marape, Chairman of FIDE Medical Commission spoke on the matter to clarify.

Not too many upsets in the first round, but Levon Aronian nearly dropped his first game against Essam El-Gindy of Egypt before holding on to draw. He would win the next game and move on. As far as smaller federations, those from Asia, Latin America and Africa did not fare well. The balance of power has shifted eastward, but the transition has been gradual.

Of course the Asian powerhouses China (#3) and India (#4) will go deep in the tournament, but chess is still in transformation and perhaps one day there will be a singular talent to come from an obscure country. Before Magnus Carlsen rise, Norway was not exactly a world power in chess and is still not a world power. However, it shows that one can rise if given the right opportunities and the World Cup is one such event.

Official: https://khantymansiysk2019.fide.com/en/
chess24.com: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/khanty-fide-world-cup-2019
Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/