2013 World Cup: Round #1

2013 World Chess Cup
August 10th-September 3rd, 2013 (Tromso, Norway)
Match Scores (Round #1)
Bracket 1
1 Aronian, L
ARM
2-0
Markov, M
KGZ
2 Lysyj, I
RUS
1½-½
Istratescu, A
FRA
3 Tomashevsky, E
RUS
5-4
Ramirez, A
USA
4 So, W
PHI
1½-½
Ipatov, A
TUR
5 Morozevich, A
RUS
2½-1½
Sambuev, B
CAN
6 Inarkiev, E
RUS
2½-3½
Leitao, R
BRA
7 Vitiugov, N
RUS
2-0
Holt, C
USA
8 Ragger, M
AUT
2½-1½
Popov, I
RUS
Bracket 2
9 Kamsky, G
USA
3½-2½
Lou Yiping
CHN
10 Shimanov, A
RUS
3½-2½
Jones, G
ENG
11 Navara, D
CZE
1½-½
Mareco, S
ARG
12 Movsesian, S
ARM
1½-2½
Hammer, J
NOR
13 Mamedyarov, S
AZE
1½-½
Shoker, S
EGY
14 Matlakov, M
RUS
1½-½
Smeets, J
NED
15 Nepomniachtchi, I
RUS
½-1½
Wei Yi
CHN
16 Shirov, A
LAT
4-2
Hou Yifan
CHN
Bracket 3
17 Grischuk, A
RUS
2-0
Bjelobrk, I
AUS
18 Zvjaginsev, V
RUS
3½-4½
Swiercz, D
POL
19 Le Quang Liem
VIE
2-0
Barbosa, O
PHI
20 Vallejo Pons, F
ESP
2-0
Flores, D
ARG
21 Svidler, P
RUS
3-1
Ushenina, A
UKR
22 Bologan, V
MDA
3½-2½
Hracek, Z
CZE
23 Radjabov, T
AZE
3½-2½
Cori, J
PER
24 Bruzon, L
CUB
3-1
Najer, E
RUS
Bracket 4
25 Karjakin, S
RUS
1½-½
Sebbar, A
MAR
26 Sasikiran, K
IND
2½-1½
Lupulescu, C
ROM
27 Jakovenko, D
RUS
2-0
Paragua, M
PHI
28 Eljanov, P
UKR
1½-½
Brunello, S
ITA
29 Wang Hao
CHN
1½-½
Liu Qingnan
CHN
30 Dreev, A
RUS
2½-1½
Azarov, S
BLR
31 Andreikin, D
RUS
2½-1½
Pouria, D
IRI
32 Akopian, V
ARM
½-1½
Truong Son, N
VIE
Bracket 5
33 Caruana, F
ITA
1½-½
Akash, G
IND
34 Yu Yangyi
CHN
3-1
Beliavsky, A
SLO
35 Malakhov, V
RUS
1½-½
Hansen, E
CAN
36 Fressinet, L
FRA
1½-½
Christiansen, L
USA
37 Leko, P
HUN
1½-½
Johannessen, L
NOR
38 Granda Zuniga, J
PER
5-4
Melkumyan, H
ARM
39 Giri, A
NED
1½-½
Salem, S
UAE
40 Li Chao
CHN
2½-1½
Postny, E
RUS
Bracket 6
41 Gelfand, B
ISR
1½-½
Rahman, Z
BAN
42 Romanov, E
RUS
½-1½
Filippov, A
UZB
43 Bacrot, E
FRA
2-0
Agdestein, S
NOR
44 Moiseenko, A
UKR
2F-0F
Adly, A*
EGY
45 Dominguez Perez, L
CUB
2-0
El Gindy, E
EGY
46 Onischuk, A
USA
1½-½
Iturrizaga, E
VEN
47 Vachier-Lagrave, M
FRA
2-0
Shabalov, A
USA
48 Polgar, J
HUN
½-1½
Ortiz Suarez, I
CUB
Bracket 7
49 Kramnik, V
RUS
2-0
Bwalya, G
ZAM
50 Khismatullini, D
RUS
1½-2½
Kobalia, M
RUS
51 Areshchenko, A
UKR
1½-½
Kaidanov, G
USA
52 Riazantsev, A
RUS
2½-3½
Felgaer, R
ARG
53 Adams, M
ENG
2½-1½
Wan Yunguo
CHN
54 Kryvoruchko, Y
UKR
4-2
Negi, P
IND
55 Ivanchuk, V
UKR
1½-½
Duda, J
POL
56 Volokitin, A
UKR
0-2
Robson, R
USA
Bracket 8
57 Nakamura, H
USA
2-0
Cori, D
PER
58 Safarli, E
AZE
4-2
Amin, B
EGY
59 Alekseev, E
RUS
3-5
Adhiban, B
IND
60 Wojtaszek, R
POL
1½-2½
Fier, A
BRA
61 Ponomariov, R
UKR
1½-½
Hansen, T
NOR
62 Fedorchuk, S
UKR
0-2
Dubov, D
RUS
63 Korobov, A
UKR
3-1
Durarbayli, V
AZE
64 Jobava, B
GEO
3-1
Kravtsiv, M
UKR

*The name in red indicates withdrawal. Opponent will receive byes in round #1.

Drum Coverage
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
| Semifinals | Finals |

Official Website: https://www.chessworldcup2013.com/
Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/
All PGN Games (TWIC): https://www.theweekinchess.com/
Rules and Regulations: https://www.chessworldcup2013.com/

5 Comments

  1. Round #1 – Game #1
    Sunday, 11 August 2013

    A few upsets… Morozevich on the brink after attack fizzles!

    What was clear in the first game yesterday was the gap between players 200 ELO points apart. While there were only a handful of upsets (notably Morozevich losing to Canada’s Sambuev), the class of the elite shined. While players like Aronian and Caruana had to squeeze wins, there were the surgical dismantling such as seen in Kramnik’s demolition of the Zambian player Gillian Bwalya.

    In that game, black essayed the Dutch Defense, a pet opening of Bwalya. The Zambian immediately wasted time with his 5…d6 and 6…d5 move and slowly showed weaknesses on the dark squares. Saddled with a bad bishop and no counterplay, Bwalya slowly lost space and in the final position drifted into total passivity. His position was hopeless, but when asked why he resigned he gave the correct idea of g4-g5, but GM Susan Polgar encouraged him to play a few more moves in such positions.

    The final position. Kramnik has an overwhelming space advantage, but Polgar encouraged him not resign these types of positions where the material is even. Perhaps Bwalya deferred to his stronger opponent, but you have to make them work a bit!

    A surgical game was Bjelobrk-Grischuk as the Russian used a nice blend of positional play with tactics to secure the point. In the position on the right, Grischuk played 19…e3! With a few deflection tactics (21…Qa4! and 26…Bh6!), black was able to raid the queenside.

    Instructive example of tactically exploiting white’s centralized king. Black hits at white’s position with 19…e3! and then plays the killing 21…Qa4!

    Deysi Cori made her debut against Hikaru Nakamura and made a good account, but fell into horrible time pressure. In the opening stages Cori tried to win a pawn with 12.Ne4, but only resulted in a roughly equal position after 21…Qa4. Both Susan Polgar and Lawrence Trent expected a ROVER (rook up and over) with Rb3 or Rd3 (which Nakamura stated may have been equal), but Cori tried to invade on the 7th rank with 26.Rc7 leaving her back rank vulnerable and her position collapsed. Inauspicious start for the darling Peruvian player.

    Alexander Morozevich is known to have lapses in the earlier phases of tournaments. One such case was a near loss against a young Alejandro Ramirez in the 2002 Olympiad. The Russian faced 32-year old Bator Sambuev and trotted out the Grunfeld. In the middlegame, black grabbed and exchange, but at the expense of his king safety. White was able to gain momentum, get his pawns rolling and ended up getting an attack resulted in mate on the board. The Russian will have to come back from this loss if he wants to advance.

    Peter Leko ruminates on the move against Leif Erlend Johannessen. On the adjacent board Alexander Morozevich would go down against Canada’s Bator Samuev. Photo by Chessvibes.com.


    Isan Ortiz showed good technique in the rook ending against Judit Polgar.
    Photo by Chessvibes.com.

    Here are some of the “upsets” given in ChessBase’s report:

    • Gata Kamsky drew in 41 moves against Chinese IM Lou Yiping, 257 points below him on the rating scale;
    • Chinese IM Liu Qingnan drew GM Wang Hao, 247 points above him;
    • Chinese IM Wan Yunguo drew GM Michael Adams, 228 point above him;
    • Canadian GM Bator Sambuev beat Alexander Morozevich, 215 point above him;
    • Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Andreikin, Korobov, Nepomniachtchi and Alekseev conceded draws to players nominally well below them;
    • Evgeny Tomashevsky drew Alejandro Ramirez, who is 118 point below him;
    • Alexei Shirov drew with white against Chinese GM Hou Yifan, who is 90 points below him;
    • Judit Polgar lost against Cuban GM Isan Reynaldo Ortiz, also 90 points her inferior;
    • Alexander Moiseenko is through to the next round after Egyptian GM Ahmed Adly did not receive an excuse for his military obligation.

    One story is that China has had a number of “upsets” in an attempt to redeem a horrible performance from 2011 where 7/9 players were eliminated in the first round. With a cadre of unheralded and perhaps underrated players, they hope to make up for the absence of Wang Yue and Ding Liren.

    Selected Games

    Official Website: https://www.chessworldcup2013.com/
    Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2013/08/09/2013-world-chess-cup-tromso-norway/
    All PGN Games (TWIC): https://www.theweekinchess.com/assets/files/pgn/wcup13.pgn
    Rules and Regulations: https://www.chessworldcup2013.com/official-info/rules-and-regulations

  2. Round #1 – Game #2
    Monday, 12 August 2013

    Twenty-eight tiebreaks coming… Nepomaniachtchi, Polgar go home…
    Ushenina upsets Svidler!


    14-year old Wei Yi ousts Nepomaniachtchi.
    Photo by Tarjei J. Svensen.

    While there are always upsets in individual games, matches usually follow a pattern of the higher-rated getting through the first round. Well… in most cases this is what happened. However, two players will be taking an early exit from Tromso… Ian Nepomanianchtchi and Judit Polgar.

    The Russian simply did not handle his already-famous opponent very well. Wei Yi is the 14-year old phenom who became a Grandmaster at 13 years 8 months is current the world’s youngest. Those who follow chess will attest to the increasing strength of the Chinese in the past decade.

    The mass of talent they have is starting to rise and while Wang Yue and Ding Liren did not qualify for the World Cup, new stars like Wei Yi will certainly give hope for China’s future. Wei Yi trotted out the Dragon and completely dismantled the Russian in fine surgical style. He will advance and play the winner of Shirov-Hou Yifan matchup. Such a shame that two bright talents are in the same bracket.

    Judit Polgar has been spending a lot of time promoting chess through various venues and has not been as active as in the past. Her rust may have shown in her match against Cuban national, Isan Ortiz-Suarez. After yesterday’s loss, Polgar got a chance to go for a win when the Cuban played the sharp Najdorf. One has to have a lot of courage to play such a line given Polgar’s countless victories ending in mating attack after g4.

    Ortiz accepted the challenge and played a sharp Najdorf Sicilian against a known Sicilian destroyer. Photo by Paul Truong.

    Thus, the game entered into traditional Sicilian themes after 11.g4 Bb7 12.g5 hxg5 13.fxg5 b4 14.Nd5!? Ortiz was not to be deterred and entered a tactical landmine, but his position held up. Commentators felt that 18.g6 would have been a better try than the text of 18.Bxb4. However, Houdini only give it as completely equal… not enough for Polgar.


    Polgar played the deadly 35.Rh2! and after 35…Rce7, Houdini assessed +8.74 after 36.Rh1! given that a mating attack is looming. The move is not easy to spot, but it leaves black totally helpless. Polgar continued with 36.Qf2 which is still decisive, but after 36…Re6 she played 37.Rd7 and her decisive advantage evaporated.

    The game plodded on with heavy pieces with the Cuban safely treading the mine fields until he got his king into safety. However Polgar could have taken advantage of his dawdling on the queenside after 34…Rc7 with 35.Rh2! since 35…Rh8 is impossible to 36.Qd4+. Houdini was screaming out after 35…Rce7?? She went for a more direct attack which netted a pawn, but left black with a strong passed e-pawn. Nevertheless, Polgar had another chance with 61. Kb6! but played it a move too late. After that point, the game was a race of pawns, but ended in a tie as both side ended only with a king and queen.

    In other games, the top seeds advanced except for Gata Kamsky who will face the unheralded (and probably underrated Chinese Lou Yiping. Morozevich equaled the count by crushing Bator Sambuev of Canada. In the press conference, he seemed relieved, but admitted that this format was not his favorite and his style is not suited for it. He mentioned that there were about ten players whose style is better suited and thus, he didn’t have any high expectations.

    In another big story, Peter Svidler blundered horribly against Anna Ushenina in a Grunfeld giving the women’s World Champion hope in tomorrow’s tiebreak. Svidler was gracious in his comments yesterday after his win. He may have given another reason why women should attempt to play the strongest competition available. Ushenina had prepared deeply and blitzed out her first 20 moves and 21.Rd7 cause Svidler to go into a long think. It appeared as if Svidler was advancing until 28…Rxf2?? The game ended after 29.Qxe6+ Kh7 30.Qd7+! netting the piece and preventing discovered checks. It may have been the best individual win in her career.

    Ray Robson played vs. Andrei Volokitin, 2-0.
    Yesterday’s 30.Re1!! idea was stunning.
    Photo by Paul Truong.

    Ray Robson was impressive in both wins against Andrei Volokitin and may be a dark horse to get to the third round. He will have to beat Vassily Ivanchuk to do so. Ivanchuk ousted young Polish star Jan-Krzysztof Duda. There will be 28 tiebreak rapid matches on tomorrow.

    Selected Games

    Official Website: https://www.chessworldcup2013.com/
    Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2013/08/09/2013-world-chess-cup-tromso-norway/
    All PGN Games (TWIC): https://www.theweekinchess.com/assets/files/pgn/wcup13.pgn
    Rules and Regulations: https://www.chessworldcup2013.com/official-info/rules-and-regulations

  3. Round #1 – Tiebreaks
    Tuesday, 13 August 2013

    Alekseev and Wojtaszek ousted…
    “Zero Tolerance Policy” bites Peru’s Jorge Cori

    What a roller-coaster of a ride in the World Cup today! There were upsets, near-upsets and nail-biting action in today’s 28 encounters. At the end of the tiebreaks, 13 rating favorites were eliminated.

    Getting right to one of the more thrilling battles. Evgeny Alekseev was certainly a favorite against former World Junior Champion Baskaran Adhiban, but after a couple of draws in the classical, the Indian began to gain confidence. In the first rapid game, Adhiban played with a lot of energy and got a strong attack overwhelming black and thus taking a 1-point lead.

    The Indian could not hold the lead after sacrificing a piece for three weakened pawns. It turned out to be inadequate compensation. Match tied at 2-2. In the first set of 10-minute games, the game ended in a peaceful draw. In the second game, Alekseev pressed by sacrificing the exchanged, but black had more than enough to hold the balance.


    Evgeny Alekseev battling Baskaran Adhiban in tiebreak.
    Photo by Paul Truong.

    In the first set of 5-minute games, all hell broke loose. Alekseev outplayed Adhiban in and arrived at a completely winning ending but the Indian was able to make a dash for white pawns in an attempt to stall for time. Alekseev who only had seconds before the three-second time delay was added for each move. Apparently this wasn’t enough and the Russian flagged and Adhiban pointed at the clock to indicate a forfeit. Alekseev, three moves from mating, was visibly shaken. In disgust, he scrawled his signature and left the playing hall.


    Fier administered the “back breaker” with 23.Rxb7! and black has to donate material after 23…Qe5 24.Rf4!
    The Brazilian held onto his lead to advance.

    The Indian advances on to play Alexandr Fier who scored an upset victory over Radoslaw Wojtaszek. After two hard fought classical games (including one ending with King vs. King) and one contentious rapid game, Fier broke through any a Trompowsky Attack. Wojtaszek got his king stuck in the center of the board and after 22…Kd8?? was hit with 23.Rxb7! causing black to hemorrhage material. The Brazilian moves on!

    There were many other exciting matches, but two that had an added attractive included Svidler-Ushenina and Shirov-Hou. Both Ushenina and Hou will be playing each other later this year and they were certainly here to compete. Let’s recap.

    Peter Svidler was gracious after his first victory over the Women’s World Champion Anna Ushenina and later stated that he was not simply being nice. Certainly. It turns out that he was in a fight for his tournament life. After losing the second classical game on a heartbreaking blunder, he entered the rapid with a bit of tension. However, he scored a rather smooth victory. In the second game, it appeared as if someone had opened a bag and emptied the chess set on the board. Mass chaos!


    Anna Ushenina gave Peter Svidler all he could handle.
    Photo by Paul Truong.

    Departing from his patented Grunfeld and avoiding preparation, Svidler trotted out the King’s Indian which turned into a Modern Benoni. He mentioned afterwards that he was not very familiar with the latest theory. It showed as the game soon got away from him.


    Svidler uncorked 30…Rxf3!? and an all-out war ensued.
    The machines said it was equal!!

    After 22.Na5 and 23.Nc6, Ushenina had a strong grip on the position. Black had a dynamic position, but his pieces lacked power. After strongly considering various sacrifices on g4, the defending World Cup champion came up with a very enterprising rook sacrifice with 30…Rxf3!? (30…Nxg4!?=). While the engine claimed the position was dead equal, Ushenina missed a golden opportunity after 37…Ng5?? and could have leveled the score with 38.Rc4! She played instead 38.Rf1 and got mated in a few moves.

    Shirov-Hou was interesting from an aesthetic point of view. This was a hard-fought match with the first game going 83 moves and points being traded in the rapid games. Hou lured Shirov into a Dragon and won a technical ending, but the second game was “Fire on Board”… a game Shirov will add to his collection. In a Ragozin Queen’s Gambit, white got a flowing position and slowly started aiming his pieces at Hou’s king. After 22.Qc3 white set up a dangerous attacking position but Hou wasn’t convinced. However, she got a bit greedy and was soon hit by a shocker. On 22…Qh2+ 23.Kf2 f6 24.Nxf6+! is crushing, but the star move was 24…Rxf6 25.Rh1!! Hou played on a couple more moves before resigning.

    Tomashevsky-Ramirez and Granda-Melkumyan the latter two going all the way to Armageddon with the favorite winning both matches. Ramirez made it exciting when he scored with a Benko Gambit and sent the match to Armageddon. Bringing back memories of his Armageddon game against Gata Kamsky in the U.S. Championship, Ramirez appeared confident. However, his queen got misplaced and a tactic forced him to sacrifice it. After this black could not build a fortress and the queen was too powerful.

    Granda-Melkumyan had seven decisive games! The Peruvian legend staved off two elimination games before winning the Armageddon game convincingly. This result will be a slight consolation for Peruvian fans who were angry at the forfeiture of GM Jorge Cori of the first blitz tiebreak. Cori was on the verge of a possible breakthrough when he was a victim to the “zero tolerance” rules which states,

    6.7 Any player who arrives at the chessboard more than one hour after the scheduled start of the session shall lose the game unless the rules of the competition specify or the arbiter decides otherwise.

    Cori had understood the round to start at 6:50 instead of 6:15. After seeing moves being played on the live stream, he rushed to the playing hall only to learn that he was 1.5 minutes late and thus forfeited. With the help of Susan Polgar, he launched an appeal which was tersely denied. Here is the letter:


    Radjabov stopped the clock and was awarded a forfeit win.
    Cori rushed into the playing hall learning that he had forfeited.
    Photos by Tarjei J. Svensen.

    Certainly one can argue that FIDE merely enforced the rules, but this issue will certainly not go away. Garry Kasparov has already seized on the issue.


    Jean-Pierre Moulain of Gabon discussing forfeiture with arbiter at 2008 Olympiad in Dresden. The decision stood. He was on 8.5/10. Photo courtesy of Barthelemy Ndjila.

    This issue has come up several times since it was first conceived and enforced at the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany. That tournament had all types of complaints from inconsistencies to outright pettiness. There was even a player vote on the issue which was resoundingly rejected in favor of a more lenient policy. When will this issue earn a serious debate? Some on Twitter have encouraged the Association of Chess Professionals to take up the case.

    After a number of embarrassing cases one would wonder what would happen if all of the players decided to protest and turned up late each round? It would certainly have to be addressed! Would it take such a drastic action for this issue to be revisited? Let hope not… and hope that we never again see the sadness that the 17-year-old Grandmaster from Peru wore on his face.

    Shabazz, Daaim. “Do rule changes ruin Olympiad spirit?” https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2008/12/18/do-rule-changes-ruin-olympiad-spirit/, 18 December 2008.

    Shabazz, Daaim. “‘No Tolerance’ rule considered harsh,” https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2009/06/14/no-tolerance-rule-considered-harsh/, 14 June 2009.

    Shabazz, Daaim. “Players protest “zero tolerance” rule,” https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2010/03/10/players-protest-zero-tolerance-rule/, 10 March, 2010.

    * * *

    Official Website: https://www.chessworldcup2013.com/
    Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2013/08/09/2013-world-chess-cup-tromso-norway/
    All PGN Games (TWIC): https://www.theweekinchess.com/assets/files/pgn/wcup13.pgn
    Rules and Regulations: https://www.chessworldcup2013.com/official-info/rules-and-regulations

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