Cap D'Agde rapid tournament, "Second Anatoly Karpov Trophy" Location: Cap d'Agde, France Dates: October 25 - November 2, 2013 Tournament mode: A double round-robin qualifying four players into a knockout phase. Time control: 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment per move. Times: See timetable (round are local time: GMT + 1) Playchess transmission: Click HERE to watch the Cap d'Agde games on Playchess.

Karpov and Bacrot into Cap d'Agde finals

The semi-finals of the Cap d’Agde were as exciting as the rest of the tournament and after the breathtaking tiebreakers yesterday, the matchups were Etienne Bacrot versus Vassily Ivanchuk and Anatoly Karpov against Mariya Muzychuk.

Ivanchuk had fought tooth and nail yesterday to not only qualify in the top four, but made a point of pounding Muzychuk into submission to earn the right of avoiding the hitherto imperial Karpov to take on Bacrot instead. It is probably not a stretch to say he may have regretted this decision as he went down in flames 2-0. In the first game, Bacrot as white played a gambit line of the Slav Defense and after the Ukrainian slipped allowing a nasty penetration on the dark squares, it was all downhill. Bacrot switched his monster bishop on d6 for an even more monstrous rook on d6, and it was over before the 30th move.

A rapt audience enjoys the games from the leisure area

In their second game, Ivanchuk chose to face Bacrot’s King’s Indian with the Saemisch and this time things looked quite positive as he seemed to be making quicker progress against the Frenchman’s king than Bacrot against his own. Time, nerves, and a highly volatile position got the better of him, and there was a certain irony as he went from much better to much worse precisely after pushing a visually attractive pawn to d6. A few moves later it was all over in the most exciting battle of the semifinals.

"I don't want to talk about the game."

If Anatoly Karpov had been expecting or hoping for an easy ride into the finals, facing his surprise opponent, Mariya Muzychuk, he was debunked of this in game one. The Karpov chose the Petroff as Black, but the position went sour on him as he missed his opponent’s chances and she obtained an endgame with a healthy extra pawn. When she let his rook out of its box with 47.Nf3? his sudden rook activity was enough to hold the draw, and they shook hands ten moves later.

It was far from an easy ride, and though Mariya failed to make it to the finals, she gave a star performance

In their second game it was another story altogether. Once more he failed to achieve anything against his less experienced opponent and reach an endgame with only minimal chances to hope for anything. The clocks were down to only a few minutes each, which did nothing to promote optimism, but a repeated blunder by Black, initially missed by Karpov, changed the course of the game. The live commentators were convinced White could not enter the pawn endgame with any chance for a win, but with six minutes left on his clock, Karpov ‘s ineffable instinct sent off alarms and he was suddenly calculating furiously. One minute, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes passed and suddenly he played 44.Nd4! a winning move if he saw the key at the end of the line. The color commentators could not see it, and had no engines to help them, but they correctly concluded that if Karpov had played it, they must be wrong, and there were no two ways about it. In a fantastic flurry, Karpov showed he had seen it, but with so little time left, stumbled at the finish line and now it was going to be a mad queen and pawn endgame. He managed to outsmart Muzychuk, as he pushed forward, and after 50 moves, oscillating between won and drawn, the world champion’s persistence finally paid off as she blundered on move 103 and it was over.

Karpov shakes hands with a deeply disappointed Muzychuk

Video of the semifinals (courtesy Europe Echecs)

Pictures and videos by Europe Echecs

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN KO 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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