On the second day of the World Cup's second round, Zoltan Almasi and Alexei Shirov were eliminated by Mircea-Emilian Parligras and Vladimir Potkin respectively. Sam Shankland, who knocked out Peter Leko, lost 0.5-1.5 to Abhijeet Gupta. Ivanchuk, Gashimov, Radjabov, Kamsky, Jakovenko, Vitiugov, Navara, Dominguez, Le Quang, Jobava, Caruana Morozevich, Tomashevsky, Efimenko, Sutovsky and Polgar qualified for the next round as well.

General info

The 2011 FIDE World Cup is a 128-player knock-out taking place August 27-September 20 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. The tournament delivers three participants for the next Candidates tournament/matches, as part of the new World Championship cycle. Except for the final, all rounds have 2-game matches at the FIDE time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to finish the game, with a 30-second increment from the first move. In case of a 1-1 tie, on the third day of the round there's a tie-break with rapid games and if necessary blitz games and an Armageddon. More info here.

Round 2.2

Also on the second day of the second round, a number of games ended in a draw rather quickly. Just like at the Candidates matches in Kazan, some players seem to prefer fighting things out in the rapid and blitz tie-break. Back then, Alexander Grischuk made no secret of this strategy and in Khanty-Mansiysk it becomes clear that it doesn't really matter whether his opponent is a former World Champion or not. Against Sebastien Feller, with the white pieces, Grischuk agreed to a draw after 13 moves. Parimarjan Negi did the same thing with White against Teimour Radjabov, but the strange thing was that the young Indian had lost his first game. The reason was probably that Negi was taken by surprise as Radjabov employed a different move order in the Ruy Lopez, and in the final position the endgame is absolutely fine for Black. The shortest games this round were the draws in Leinier Dominguez-Viktor Bologan (10 moves) and Alexander Riazantsev-Ian Nepomniachtchi (11 moves). Ernesto Inarkiev and Alexander Moiseenko drew their game in 15 moves; Daniel Fridman and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov shook hands after 20 as did Peter Heine Nielsen and Michael Adams. The match between the FIDE World Cup 2007 winner and the winner of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 only lasted two classical games. After a quick draw in the first, Kasimdzhanov went down in the second: Kamsky-Kasimdzhanov Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011 White threatens 35.f5 and the knight cannot leave because of mate on h8. 34... Nxf4?! 34... Rxc3 was probably better because after 35. f5 (35. Nxb5 Rc1+ 36. Kf2 Rf5 37. Nd4 Rd5) 35... b4 36. fxg6+ Kxg6 with two passed pawns and the white king with not much protection, Black has good drawing chances. 35. gxf4 Rxf4 36. Ne6 Rg4+ 37. Kf2 Rf5+ 38. Ke3 h5 39. Ra6 39... g6? This loses immediately. Better was 39... Re5+ 40. Kd3 Rd5+ 41. Kc2 Rd6 but this should be over as well after 42. Ra7. 40. Re7+ Kh6 41. Ra8 1-0

Two knock-out experts facing each other

After his loss in the first game, Paco Vallejo wrote on Facebook: Un poquito de la heroica mañana? (A bit of heroism tomorrow?) and indeed the Spaniard managed to level the score with the black pieces. He kept putting pressure throughout the game, but for a long time Bruzon made sure he stayed within the drawing zone. Until... Bruzon-Vallejo Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011 51. Ke3? White should have held onto his last pawn one move longer: 51. Nc3 Kf8 and only now 52. Ke3! Nxg5 53. Kd4 and it's a theoretical draw. 51... Nxg5 52. Nf4 Nf7 53. Nd5 g5 54. Kd4 Nd8 55. Kc4 Kg6 56. Ne3 Kh5 57. Kd5 g4 58. Nf5 Kg5 59. Ke4 a4 60. Nd4 a3 0-1

Vallejo's heroism saved the day for the Spaniard

After getting crushed in the first game, Alexei Shirov at least had the white pieces to try and level the score against Vladimir Potkin. In a French endgame he might have had an advantage at some point, but in the following position it's just equal. Shirov-Potkin Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011 32. Nxa6?! Better was 32. Ne6=. 32... O-O! Suddenly threatening 33... Rf5. 33. e6? The only move was 33. Nd4 but after 33... Rc4 White is in trouble. 33... Rf5 0-1

Alexei Shirov vs Alexander Potkin: 0-2 for the Russian

Like Vallejo, Bacrot managed to level the score in his mini-match against Anton Filippov. The Frenchman needed a big blunder from his opponent to save himself. Bacrot-Fillipov Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011 49... h5?? Completely missing White's threat. Almost any rook move is a dead draw, and Bacrot would have gone home. 50. b4! White might be winning here already. It was quickly over after 50... g5 51. hxg5 Kg6 52. Kb5 a3 53. Ka6 Rb1 54. b5 Rb2 55. b6 Rxf2 56. b7 Rb2 57. Rxa3 Kxg5 58. Ra5 1-0

Etienne Bacrot: a narrow escape

Games round 2.2

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