2013 World Cup: Round #3

2013 World Chess Cup August 10th-September 3rd, 2013 (Tromso, Norway) Game Scores (Round #3, Game #1)
1	Aronian, L		ARM	0-1	Tomashevsky, E		RUS
2	Vitiugov, N		RUS	½-½	Morozevich, A		RUS
3	Hammer, J		NOR	0-1	Kamsky, G		USA
4	Mamedyarov, S		AZE	½-½	Wei Yi		CHN
5	Le Quang Liem		VIE	1-0	Grischuk, A		RUS
6	Svidler, P		RUS	1-0	Radjabov, T		AZE
7	Karjakin, S		RUS	½-½	Eljanov, P		UKR
8	Andreikin, D		RUS	½-½	Dreev, A		RUS
9	Caruana, F		ITA	½-½	Malakhov, V		RUS
10	Granda Zuniga, J		PER	0-1	Giri, A		NED
11	Gelfand, B		ISR	1-0	Moiseenko, A		UKR
12	Vachier-Lagrave, M		FRA	1-0	Dominguez Perez, L		CUB
13	Kramnik, V		RUS	½-½	Areshchenko, A		UKR
14	Ivanchuk, V		UKR	½-½	Kryvoruchko, Y		UKR
15	Adhiban, B		IND	0-1	Nakamura, H		USA
16	Dubov, D		RUS	½-½	Korobov, A		UKR
PGN Games (Round 3.1)

No one said it would be easy, but many have picked Levon Aronian to vie for one of the first two spots. He may qualify after all, but he is at the brink of elimination in the World Cup. Battling the ill effects of a nasty cold, Aronian was outplayed by Evgeny Tomoshevsky’s Stonewall Dutch, a rare line played at top level.

In the middlegame, white’s position was shredded and black was able to pick off a healthy pawn and nursed it to victory. In the final position, Aronian was losing a piece. Alexander Grischuk went down against Le Quang Liem after going astray in the ending. At a critical moment, the Russian traded queens into a lost pawn ending. It is a painful loss for Grischuk who will have to press to level the score against the solid player from Vietnam. It will be a tough challenge.

Hikaru Nakamura showed exactly how to beat a player whose inexperience as this level showed a bit. Baskaran Adibhan upset Evgeny Alekseev and Alexandr Fier and was the big underdog again. Peter Svidler, who in the commentary room, was watching this game and declared that Adhiban did not play to his tactical strengths. Svidler recalled being brutally mated in a blitz battle against the quick-moving Indian.

Svidler feels he stands a better chance if he plays more daring. He decided to play the Exchange Ruy Lopez and got nothing in the opening. He may have studied Nakamura-Ivanchuk (London 2012), but perhaps was trying to improve with 9.Be3 instead of 9. Nc3. The game perhaps went according to plan, but Nakamura had two bishop exerting pressure in the center. He finally white’s backward pawn and in the end found an imaginative way to win material with 38…Rd4! 39.Nb1 Be5! An exchange down and in zugzwang, white resigned. Thus far, Nakamura has been one of the more consistent players. He has yet to require a tiebreak. This may be helpful as he advances.

Boris Gelfand also had a smooth win against Alexander Moiseenko in what turned out to be a positional squeeze. In what was a Ragozin QGD, Black never equalized and his pieces were pushed into odd places (Nd8, Qe7, Bd6). Black never had a chance to untangle his pieces. Gelfand turned the screws and got a tremendous bind. Ultimately, black had to donate material to keep the fight going. However, two minor pieces and passed pawn were too much for the lone rook.

Anish Giri certainly dodged a bullet against Julio Granda Zuniga.
Photo by Paul Truong.

What would this tournament be without its share of blunders. The “blunder bug” bit both Julio Granda and Jon Ludwig Hammer. Actually Granda was on the verge on winning against Anish Giri! After outplaying the young star the entire game, he made an oversight that lost a piece. Instead of 54.axb5, he should play 54.Qh8+ and then 55.axb5. Tough loss for the Peruvian legend and a relieved Giri knew he had dodged a bullet.

Hammar’s natty jacket may have been the inspiration of his creativity at the board, the Kamsky was cool as a cucumber and calmly punished his opponent’s aggression. Photo by Paul Truong.

Lots of puns were been offered in online fora such as “Hammer Time”. However, for the young Norwegian he was the one who was hammered. He may have a lot of confidence after beating David Navara, but his sacrificial attack against the Sphinx-like Gata Kamsky fell flat. Hammer sacrificed an exchange, then a piece, then another piece. He appeared to be playing blitz in the tiebreak. Kamsky calmly refuted the attack and after a horrible game against Shiminov, Kamsky seems to have rebounded.

Peter Svidler and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won against Teimour Radjabov and Leinier Dominguez, respectively. The latter game has a nice sacrificial motif commonly seen in the Najdorf with 14.Bd5!?

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

Evgeny Tomsahevsky closed the deal on Levon Aronian.
Photo by Paul Truong.

2013 World Chess Cup August 10th-September 3rd, 2013 (Tromso, Norway) Game Scores (Round #3, Game #2)
1	Tomashevsky, E		RUS	½-½	Aronian, L		ARM
2	Morozevich, A		RUS	½-½	Vitiugov, N		RUS
3	Kamsky, G		USA	½-½	Hammer, J		NOR
4	Wei Yi		CHN	½-½	Mamedyarov, S		AZE
5	Grischuk, A		RUS	1-0	Le Quang Liem		VIE
6	Radjabov, T		AZE	½-½	Svidler, P		RUS
7	Eljanov, P		UKR	½-½	Karjakin, S		RUS
8	Dreev, A		RUS	½-½	Andreikin, D		RUS
9	Malakhov, V		RUS	½-½	Caruana, F		ITA
10	Giri, A		NED	0-1	Granda Zuniga, J		PER
11	Moiseenko, A		UKR	½-½	Gelfand, B		ISR
12	Dominguez Perez, L		CUB	½-½	Vachier-Lagrave, M		FRA
13	Areshchenko, A		UKR	½-½	Kramnik, V		RUS
14	Kryvoruchko, Y		UKR	½-½	Ivanchuk, V		UKR
15	Nakamura, H		USA	1-0	Adhiban, B		IND
16	Korobov, A		UKR	½-½	Dubov, D		RUS
PGN Games (Round 3.2)

It happened. The tournament’s top-seed was eliminated from tournament contention. Levon Aronian, who has been seen battling a bad cold, tried to equalize against Evgeny Tomashevsky, but fell short and was ousted. Aronian tried the “Snake Benoni” in an attempt to catch the Russian napping. The game certainly became unbalanced and white had an advantage in space.

Tomashevsky tried capitalizing by sacrificing a piece for an attack. In actuality white’s attack looked dangerous, but he was threatening to draw more than anything else. Aronian could have held onto his material advantage, but erred with 24…gxf5?? and allowed white a free path to attack his king. With black’s pieces offside, there was no stopping white from repeating checks on the open king… and Aronian was sent packing.

Many of the games were fairly level, thus a total of ten tiebreaks will take place. Several matches included clinching draws such as Kamsky – Hammar, Svidler – Radjabov, Vachier-Lagrave – Dominguez and Gelfand – Moiseenko. Like Tomashevsky – Aronian, all completed victorious 1½-½ match results. Julio Granda Zuniga fought off elimination by outplaying Anish Giri for the second game in a row. The experienced player showed excellent technique with the stunning 45…Nbxa5! Well played! Kasparov, who has been on Twitter posting regular comments, weighed in.

Granda played well, but Giri looked like he was playing under guilt from winning a losing game yesterday, as if he owed Granda something.

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) August 18, 2013

The truth is Giri has been soundly outplayed in both games.

Grischuk-Le went 154 moves before the Russian came from the brink of elimination to win an improbable game. Le had won yesterday and only a draw would help him to move on. It was not to be. The problem appeared to be the black was playing not to lose instead of playing actively to draw (see Radjabov-Svidler 🙂 ). Le seemed to have a draw in hand for many moves, but then begin making a rash of errors.

First he missed 100…d4! which would forced more liquidation. Commentator Lawrence Trent predicted the game would last 158 moves and he was not far off. Le played 100…Kf8 and continued a passive defense which essentially came apart. In a matter of five moves, black was down two pawns and completely losing. There were no drawing methods in this ending and Grischuk showed flawless technique to convert the point.

Baskaran Adhiban may have lost to Hikaru Nakamura but should win an award for “Mr. Congeniality”. He quickly became a post-game favorite of the fans. He will return to Tromso for the Olympiad next year. Photo by Paul Truong.

The only whitewash of the round was Hikaru Nakamura’s domination of Baskaran Adhiban. The Indian was simply overmatched and did not have a chance at any point of this match. Today’s game was simply a brilliant effort by the American. The game was a King’s Indian and Nakamura decided to trade queens early and show his techique. A key sequence of the game was 16. Be3 a4 17. dxc6 Nxc6 18. Bd5 Nd4+ 19. Bxd4 Bxd5 20. exd5 exd4 21. Rc5.

White established a bind by sacrificing the exchange for the strong passed d-pawn. Black was nearly in zugzwang, but tried 31…f6. After 32. Rc6! f5+ 33. Kd4 Rbd8 34. Rxd6 Rxd6 35. Kc5 black played on a few moves before resigning. Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (or “MVL”) and Boris Gelfand are the only players who have not needed tiebreaks thus far. Ironically, both MVL and Gelfand play in the next round.

Unfortunately for the Russians and Ukrainians, out of 17 competitors at least six of them will be eliminated after the tiebreaks. They are basically cancelling each other out. Could we have a United Nations tournament in two rounds? Time will tell.

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/