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Upsets galore in Round one of the World Cup
24.11.2007 – 126 players are now in Khanty-Mansiysk (two did not turn up) for the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. This knockout tournament determines who will be the challenger for the next World Championship. In the first game of round one there were a number of surprises, with famous GMs struggling against much lower-ranked players. Illustrated report with games and results. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Alekseev and Ponomariov equalise
25.11.2007 – Most of the favourites are through – Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov, Radjabov, Aronian, Shirov, Svidler, Adams, Grischuk, Carlsen and Kamsky. Alekseev struck back against Anuar Ismagambetov, who had taken a full point off him yesterday, to equalise. Ruslan Ponomariov did the same against Essam El Gindy, to go into tiebreak games tomorrow. Illustrated report. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: The best-laid plans of men and mice...
25.11.2007 – ... gang aft agley, Robert Burns taught us. Or, in plain English: they often go horribly wrong. As in the FIDE World Cup, where Vassily Ivanchuk duly dispatched his 435-point weaker opponent, but where fellow Ukraine Ruslan Ponomariov, in a fit of overconfidence, faltered against Egypt's Essam El Gindy. Greek grandmaster Efstratios Grivas gives us his take on the drama of round one. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Gurevich knocks out Kaidanov
26.11.2007 – Mikhail Gurevich, 48 years old, a Ukrainian chess player who moved to Belgium in 1991 and to Turkey in 2005, where he lives today. At his peak Gurevich was consistently ranked in the top ten players in the world. After holding the well respected US GM Gregory Kaidanov to a draw in the regular games Gurevich knocked him out in the tiebreak rapids. GM Efstratios Grivas analyses. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Favourites make it through, Nigel Short falters
26.11.2007 – The players with the bigger Elos generally went through in the tiebreak day of the FIDE World Cup, most notably Alekseev, Ponomariov, Akopian and Kasimdzhanov. Loek van Wely struggled longest against his Vietnamese opponent Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. The shock was that Nigel Short's elimination by 19-year-old German GM David Baramidze. Illustrated report. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: when giants stumble
26.11.2007 – The second day in Khanty Mansiysk saw the favourites better prepared than on the first day. 44 players went through, which meant that 44 had to say goodbye. The major surprises were the elimination of Landa, Sutovsky and Pavel Eljanov (2691), who made a draw in the first game and lost the second one to IM Hossain Enamulu (2514) from Bangladesh. GM Efstratios Grivas analyses. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Ponomariov equalises, Radjabov knocked out
28.11.2007 – As in the first round Ruslan Ponomariov lost game one of the second round, but equalised (with the black pieces) to remain in contention. Teimour Radjabov lost for a second time to Bartlomiej Macieja to drop out of the FIDE World Cup. Peter Svidler is the only player who has won all his games so far, ten others have conceded only a single draw. Report with results, games and analysis. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Ponomariov and Radjabov lose first game
28.11.2007 – Ruslan Ponomariov seems to be making a habit out of it. In round two of the FIDE World Cup the former FIDE world champion once again shockingly lost, to China's Wang Hao, with the white pieces. Third seed Teimour Radjabov dropped his first game against Polish GM Bartlomiej Maciej. We bring you an illustrated report with results, games, and commentary by GM Efstratios Grivas. |
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'There are worse things in life than losing a game of chess'
29.11.2007 – Nigel Short, former world championship challenger, was eliminated in the first round of the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. It happened in the tie-breaks, when he lost the first game to 19-year-old GM David Baramidze. The latter turned up 24 minutes late for the game, and thus had less than one minute on his clock. Nigel talks about the incident and Garry Kasparov's plight. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Round three game one annotations
30.11.2007 – Having people like Mamedjarov, Aronian, Cheparinov or Nisipeanu in a tournament means that excitement is guaranteed. But the visible tendency in round three was White's willingness to win without taking unnecessary risk. Unlike in the previous days, there were no more wins for Black. We bring you highlights with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenko. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Cheparinov, Adams, Kamsky win
30.11.2007 – FIDE World Cup: five decisive games in the first leg of round three, all won with the white pieces. The most spectacular was second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's loss to the young Bulgarian GM (and Topalov second) Ivan Cheparinov. Michael Adams, Gata Kamsky, Dmitry Jakovenko and Wang Yue were the other winners. Express report. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Ponomariov through
30.11.2007 – The round two tiebreaks consisted of twelve matches, with two rapid games, two blitz games, and finally an Armageddon shootout. Top seed Vassily Ivanchuk coasted through with a fine win against Alexander Galkin, Magnus Carlsen won both his rapid games against Arkadij Naiditsch, and Ruslan Ponomariov played a very dangerous game to take out China's Wang Hao. Illustrated report. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Shirov, Carlsen, Adams through
01.12.2007 – Today we celebrate the first round three wins with the black pieces, by Alexei Shirov (who else) against Alexander Onischuk. Magnus Carlsen beat Dominguez Perez, Michael Adams and Ivan Cheparinov drew to advance. Ten players are through to round four, six matches go into tiebreaks tomorrow. We bring you a full report with extensive commentary by Dorian Rogozenko. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Top seed Ivanchuk knocked out
02.12.2007 – In today's tiebreaks four matches were decided after the rapid games, in two matches the blitz games were played. The winners were Aronian, Svidler, Bareev, Nisipeanu, Karjakin and Sasikiran. Ivanchuk, Rublevsky, Grischuk, Bacrot and Macieja are out. If you are interested in the chess, as opposed to just the pure results, we have a treat for you: commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenko. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Ponomariov, Shirov and Carlsen score
03.12.2007 – Round four is under way in the FIDE World Cup. Ruslan Ponomariov surprised everyone with a white win in game one of the round. Alexei Shirov did his usual firebrand thing, winning the first game with the black pieces. And the youngest player in the tournament, Magnus Carlsen, defeated veteran Michael Adams with white. Full report with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenko. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Karjakin and Cheparinov win, Carlsen holds Adams
04.12.2007 – Alexei Shiriv and Ruslan Ponomariov had won their first-round games, and drew to advance. Magnus Carlsen held a tough game with black against Michael Adams to join the others in the quarterfinals, where we now also find Sergey Karjakin and Ivan Cheparinov, who beat Nisipeanu and Wang Yue respectively. Full report with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenko. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Aronian, Svidler, Bareev knocked out
05.12.2007 – The carnage in the tiebreak games of the FIDE World Cup was shocking: last year's winner Levon Aronian lost to Dmitry Jakovenko; Peter Svidler lost a white game against Gata Kamsky (after drawing the first one); and Evgeny Bareev simply lost both of his games against Evgeny Alekseev to end his stay in Khanty. Full illustrated report with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenko. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Carlsen and Shirov win first quarterfinal game
06.12.2007 – Two games were decisive: Alexei Shirov and Magnus Carlsen won with white against Dmitry Jakovenko and Ivan Cheparinov respectively. The game Carlsen vs Cheparinov was especially tense and exciting. The two had already met in the third round of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk two years ago, when Magnus knocked Ivan out. Full report with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenko. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Carlsen, Kamsky and Shirov through
07.12.2007 – Alexei Shirov, always the firebrand, won his second game, with black, against Dmitry Jakovenko to move 2-0 to the semifinals. Gata Kamsky outplayed Ruslan Ponomariov to advance with 1.5:0.5 points. And the youngest player, Magnus Carlsen, easily drew against Cheparinov to make it through. Full report with games, pictures and commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenko. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: both semifinal games drawn
09.12.2007 – Magnus Carlsen, playing the white side of a Scotch Game, conceeded a somewhat timid 21-move draw to his opponent Gata Kamsky. Alexei Shirov and Sergey Karjakin battled it out for 41 moves before coming to the same conclusion: neither of them could win. Outside the local kids enjoyed the ice sculptures – a frozen chess chess set. Illustrated report with comments. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Sergey Karjakin advances to semifinals
09.12.2007 – The 17-year-olds have both made it through to the semifinals! After Magnus
Carlsen's convincing performance in the regular games it was Sergey Karjakin,
former child prodigy
and youngest grandmaster (at twelve!) in the history of the game, displayed
excellent nerves and tactical skills in the rapid chess tiebreak games of round
five. Illustrated report with Fritz analysis. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk: Gata Kamsky in the Final
10.12.2007 – Comeback Kid, Brooklyn Boy – whatever you call him: Gata Kamsky defeated Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the second semifinal game of the FIDE World Cup to move into the final stage. There he will meet the winner of the match Alexei Shirov vs Sergey Karjakin, which produced a second draw today and thus goes into the tiebreaks. Full report with a portrait of Gata Kamsky. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk World Cup: Shirov through in the tiebreaks
11.12.2007 – The 17-year-olds are both out: after Magnus Carlsen lost to Gata Kamsky in their regular games, today it was Sergey Karjakin who drew the shorter straw against Alexei Shirov, former FIDE world championship finalist and one of the most interesting currently active GMs. Shirov will play Gata Kamsky in the four game finals. Pictorial report with full commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenko. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk Final: First game drawn
13.12.2007 – As expected by many the first encounter in the FIDE World Cup final ended in a draw, but it was a high-quality game from both players. Kamsky showed once again that he came to Khanty-Mansiysk very well prepared. Meanwhile, promped by readers, our annotator GM Dorian Rogozenko discovered that in the semi-finals Shirov had overlooked a clear win – in 208 moves! |
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Khanty-Mansiysk Final: Kamsky draws first blood
14.12.2007 – Gata Kamsky has scored a first victory in game two of this four-game match. Avoiding a theoretical fight in the Sveshnikov the American GM produced a novelty on move nine and then went on to outplay his opponent Alexei Shirov, a world-famous firebrand, in a very volatile position. Kamsky now leads 1.5:0.5. Full report with analysis by GM Dorian Rogozenko. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk Final: Shirov fails to equalise
15.12.2007 – In his second must-win game with the white pieces Alexei Shirov had a promising position, but once again his American opponent, Gata Kamsky, defended solidly and held the Latvian-Spanish GM to a draw. This means that Kamsky leads by 2.0:1.0 points and Shirov has to win the final game with the black pieces. The adage for tomorrow must be: fire on the board! Pictorial report. |
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Khanty-Mansiysk Final: Kamsky wins, to challenge Topalov
16.12.2007 – American GM Gata Kamsky has won the FIDE World Cup. In the fourth game he was able to force a perpetual check and hold Alexei Shirov to a draw, which meant that he had won the Final with a score of 2.5:1.5 (three draws, one win). Kamsky won, did not lose a single game and performed 102 points higher than his nominal 2714 rating. Congratulations Gata! |
