Gata Kamsky wins the Chess World Cup

Kamsky - Topalov match in 2008

The American top player, GM Gata Kamsky, won convincingly the World Chess Cup 2007. Kamsky defeated in the final match GM Alexei Shirov (Spain) with a total score 2,5 - 1,5. Only three years after returning to competitive chess Gata Kamsky has claimed a major chess title. Congratulations!

The way to the title was not easy at all. He met the World U20 chess champion GM Ahmed Adly in round 1, the ex world champion GM Ruslan Ponomariov in the quater finals, and the top youngster on the FIDE list GM Magnus Carlsen in the semis. He also had to face one of the top Israel players GM Boris Avrukh, the coach of the Bulgarian national team GM Kiril Georgiev, and the player who will have more than 30 ELO jump on the January 2008 FIDE list - GM Peter Svidler. Against Svidler, Kamsky played his only tiebreak mini match and qualified by winning convincingly the rapid game with black.

At the final we saw the two players that deserved to have a shot of the title - Gata Kamsky and Alexei Shirov - both winning all their matches convincingly with only one tiebreak played. Kamsky managed to resolve the match in the second game with a nice victory with white. All other games were drawn and Kamsky claimed the title with a final score 2,5 - 1,5.

Kamsky's results at the Chess World Cup

Round 1 Gata Kamsky - Ahmed Adly 1,5 - 0,5 (replay game 1 and game 2)
Round 2 Gata Kamsky - Boris Avrukh 1,5 - 0,5
Round 3 Gata Kamsky - Kiril Georgiev 1,5 - 0,5
Round 4 Gata Kamsky - Peter Svidler 1,0 - 1,0 (1,5 - 0,5 in rapids)
Round 5 Gata Kamsky - Ruslan Ponomariov 1,5 - 0,5 (replay game 1 and game 2)
Round 6 Gata Kamsky - Magnus Carlsen (replay game 1 and game 2)
World Cup final Gata Kamsky - Alexei Shirov (game 1, game 2, game 3, game 4)

With this tournament Gata does not just win the World Cup title. He will have a shot at the World Chess Championship 2008, as in the second half of the year he will play a semi-final match against GM Veselin Topalov. The winner of this match will play the final against the winner of the 2008 match between GM Vladimir Kramnik and GM Viswanathan Anand. Besides the shot at this final, Kamsky won $ 120 000 for his victory, and he will also climb +20 ELO points.