results and photos
Today was an exciting day at the World Cup. For some it brought joy, for others deception. In any case the chess fans saw high quality chess.
The day started with a few rather quick draws. Aronian was well prepared and entered in a variation where Gustafsson could do nothing, but agree to a draw, with which the Armenian GM advanced to round 3. The first equal match result came after a draw in the Sasikiran – Zvjaginsev game.
Naiditsch – Carlsen
Probably the most interesting game of the day, unfortunately ended in a premature draw. They are going to tiebreak, but the game deserves attention. Check it out at the Naiditsch – Carlsen live commentary page.
Bartlomiej Macieja
The Polish GM Bartlomiej Macieja was the star of round 2. He convinced everybody that his victory from the last round against Radjabov is not a coincidence and managed to take away second consecutive point. This will give Macieja a rest day, as he will be waiting to learn his opponent from the match Sasikiran – Zvjaginsev.
Kamsky and Onischuk
Kamsky and Onischuk advanced comfortably to round 3, both securing draws. This leaves USA with two players in the third round, a Yuri Schulman lost his match to Alexei Shirov.
Ukraine
A rather interesting day for the Ukranian players. Karjakin qualified without much problems eliminating Zhang Pengxiang. However, the other boards were complicated. Ponomariov was 1 point behind after the first game and won an important victory with black to equalize. Ivanchuk did not manage to secure a win, even though he ha advantage, and goes as well to the tiebreaks. A third Ukranian joins them, as Volokitin drew his game with Zhou.
Russia
For sure the Russian players will play a key role from here on in the championship. Svidler, Grischuk, Alekseev, Jakovenko, Inarkiev, Tomashevsky, and Bareev qualify, while Motylev, Malakhov, Galkin, Zvjaginsev, Rublevsky, and Volkov are going to tiebreak.
The fantastic saves
There were several fantastic saves this round. Ivanchuk was firmly on the way to victory, but Galkin pulled out magic and stopped the Ukranian. The two Bulgarians, Cheparinov and Georgiev, were two pawns down against Tkachiev and Kasimdzhanov, but with technical play managed to hold the situation.
In total day 4 saw 20 draws, 6 wins for black and 6 wins for white. That left us with 20 players advancing to round 3 and 12 tiebreak matches. The only players that won their matches with 2,0/0 were Macieja, Svidler, and Almasi.
0,5-0,5 Ivanchuk, Vassily (UKR) ½-½ Galkin, Alexander (RUS) tiebreak
0,5-1,5 Kozul, Zdenko (CRO) ½-½ Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (AZE)
0-2 Radjabov, Teimour (AZE) 0-1 Macieja, Bartlomiej (POL)
0,5-1,5 Gustafsson, Jan (GER) ½-½ Aronian, Levon (ARM)
1,5-0,5 Shirov, Alexei (ESP) 1-0 Shulman, Yuri (USA)
0-2 Pavasovic, Dusko (SLO) 0-1 Svidler, Peter (RUS
1,5-0,5 Adams, Michael (ENG) 1-0 Gurevich, Mikhail (TUR)
0,5-1,5 Sakaev, Konstantin (RUS) 0-1 Alekseev, Evgeny (RUS)
1,5-0,5 Grischuk, Alexander (RUS) 1-0 Najer, Evgeniy (RUS)
1-1 Naiditsch, Arkadij (GER) ½-½ Carlsen, Magnus (NOR) tiebreak
1,5-0,5 Kamsky, Gata (USA) ½-½ Avrukh, Boris (ISR)
0,5-1,5 Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan (IRI) 0-1 Akopian, Vladimir (ARM)
1,5-0,5 Jakovenko, Dmitry (RUS) 1-0 Belov, Vladimir (RUS)
1-1 Wang, Hao (CHN) 0-1 Ponomariov, Ruslan (UKR) tiebreak
0,5-0,5 Wang, Yue (CHN) * Tiviakov, Sergei (NED)
0,5-1,5 Roiz, Michael (ISR) ½-½ Bacrot, Etienne (FRA)
1,5-0,5 Karjakin, Sergey (UKR) 1-0 Zhang, Pengxiang (CHN)
1-1 Motylev, Alexander (RUS) ½-½ Bu, Xiangzhi (CHN) tiebreak
0,5-1,5 Hossain Enamul (BAN) ½-½ Tomashevsky, Evgeny (RUS)
0-2 Socko, Bartosz (POL) 0-1 Almasi, Zoltan (HUN)
1-1 Malakhov, Vladimir (RUS) ½-½ Volkov, Sergey (RUS) tiebreak
1-1 Georgiev, Kiril (BUL) ½-½ Kasimdzhanov, Rustam (UZB) tiebreak
1,5-0,5 Dominguez Perez, Lenier (CUB) 1-0 Baramidze, David (GER)
1,5-0,5 Bareev, Evgeny (RUS) ½-½ Van Wely, Loek (NED)
0,5-1,5 Nevednichy, Vladislav (ROU) ½-½ Fressinet, Laurent (FRA)
1-1 Zhou, Jianchao (CHN) ½-½ Volokitin, Andrei (UKR) tiebreak
1-1 Rublevsky, Sergei (RUS) ½-½ Navara, David (CZE) tiebreak
0,5-1,5 Nikolic, Predrag (BIH) ½-½ Onischuk, Alexander (USA)
1,5-0,5 Inarkiev, Ernesto (RUS) ½-½ Vallejo Pons, Francisco (ESP)
1-1 Sasikiran, Krishnan (IND) ½-½ Zvjaginsev, Vadim (RUS) tiebreak
1-1 Cheparinov, Ivan (BUL) ½-½ Tkachiev, Vladislav (FRA) tiebreak
1-1 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter (ROU) ½-½ Zhao, Jun (CHN) tiebreak
Two happy winners in the Chess World Cup 2007 – Svidler and Kamsky
Svidler achieved perfect 2,0/2 score
Mamedyarov had no problem with Kozul and advanced to round 3
Ponomariov and Alekseev, both with wins today
Navara and Rublevski – a big clash that is going to tiebreak
Paco Vallejo could not turn around the game against Inakriev
