World Cup R2.1: small tragedies, expected victories

The tournament is taking place in the Ugorian Chess Academy in the very heart of Khanty-Mansiysk, which has hosted three previous World Cups: 2005, 2007, and 2009. The 128 participants hail from 46 different countries, and are playing for a total prize fund of US $1.6 million. In addition the first three finisher get tickets to the Candidates tournament in the next World Championship cycle.

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Round two game one – small tragedies of the second round

The first games of the second round were played on Wednesday, August 31, at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. Peace agreements were signed very quickly between Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB) and Gata Kasmsky (USA), Ni Hua (CHN) and Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) and between Yuri Drozdovskij (UKR) and Fabiano Caruana (ITA). On the previous day Drozdovskij had played a very long and exhausting tie-break, going all the way to the "Armageddon”. He probably did not have enough time to fully recover. One wonders, however, why neither Kasimdzhanov nor Ni Hua used the advantage of the first move: either they did not guess the choice of the opening of the opponent, or they have built their strategy around the intention of settling things in the rapid chess matches.

Today spectators witnessed several opening catastrophes. Russian Nikita Vitiugov demonstrated his deep preparation in a sharp Anti-Moscow Variation against Anton Korobov (Ukraine). The Belorussian grandmaster Sergey Azarov, playing with Black against Vugar Gashimov (AZE), chose a nowadays very popular Jaenish Gambit. However, he faced a rather rare defence, lost his way quickly and went down to a mating attack.

Alexei Shirov working hard in his game against Vladimir Potkin

Peter Heine Nielsen and Alexander Morozevich kibitzing

Another game finished very quickly – and successfully for Vladimir Potkin (RUS), who defeated Alexey Shirov (ESP). The opening was not the reason for it: Shirov, playing Black, had a comfortable position, but having maneuvered in not the best was, gave up his initiative on the entire chess board and lost in just 28 moves.

Teimour Radjabov (AZE, above on the right in the striped shirt), Mircea-Emilian Parligras (ROU), Anton Filippov (UZB), Yaroslav Zherebukh (UKR) and Emil Sutovsky (ISR) won the first game playing White.

Vassily Ivanchuk (dark jacket) wanders around, with Fridman, Kamsky, Navara and
Kasimdzhanov still hard at work in their games

A very valuable bid to qualify for the third round was made by the following chess players, who won their games playing Black: Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR), Dmitry Jakovenko, Alexander Morozevich and Evgeny Tomashevsky (all from Russia), Lazaro Bruzon and Leinier Dominguez (both from Cuba), Le Quang Liem (VIE).

Cuban GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista faced Francisco Vallejo Pons from Spain with the black pieces. Vallejo applied lasting pressure until around move 60, when he lost track and then blundered horribly on move 65, allowing his opponent a forced mate.

The rating favorite of the tournament, Russian GM Sergey Karjakin (above), did not managed to break the resourceful defense of the young Philippine GM Wesley So. Alexander Grischuk (RUS) had a tough position with black against Sebastien Feller (FRA), but he managed to defend it and save half a point.

Judit Polgar drew her game against Sergei Movsesian, who is nominally stronger (by one point)

Results of round two

• Source: official results page

Results as a bracket table

On Wednesday, August 31, 64 chess players will continue their battles in the 1/32 of the World Cup Final. We should mention such pairings as Kamsky (USA) vs Kasimdzhanov (UZB), Movsesian (ARM) vs Polgar (HUN), Grischuk (RUS) vs Feller (FRA).

The live commentary on Playchess will continue daily at 13:00h CEST (= 15:00h Moscow, 7 a.m. New York), with GM commentary in English and German. At around 19:00h there will be a wrap-up of the day's events.

Remaining schedule of the World Chess Cup 2011

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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