(FULL REPORT) Alexander Grischuk is Peter Svidler's opponent in the final of the FIDE World Cup which starts on Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk. Today, in a thrllling tie-break semi-final, Grischuk defeated Vassily Ivanchuk, who will play against his compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov in a match for 3rd and 4th place to decide on the third spot in the next FIDE Candidates tournament.

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.

Tie-break round 6

You don't know what you've got until it's gone. We've been spoiled with such brilliant video coverage of the World Cup in the last few weeks. Then, when it's not there, you suddenly realize that you're so used to it, and really don't want to miss it!

After both Alexander Grischuk and Vassily Ivanchuk had won one rapid game in their semi-final tie-break, at the start of their first 10 minute + 10 seconds increment game suddenly the live video feed crashed, probably collapsing under the tremendous amount of fans who were following the game live. Unfortunately the crucial moment of the tie-break, where Chuky blundered in a won position, could only be followed the old way: with 'only' the board and the moves...

But let's start at the start, which was pretty dramatic already.

Grischuk-Ivanchuk
Khanty-Mansiysk (tie-break, game 1) 2011

Ivanchuk, with enough time on the clock, pushes the pawn to g4 instantly.

This game showed once again what everyone already knew: Ivanchuk, one of the most brilliant players who ever lived, always had, and always will have difficulties keeping his nerves under control during very important events, while Grischuk is just very fond of quick play and is at his very best in these circumstances.

However, at first the Ukrainian countered this theory:

Ivanchuk-Grischuk
Khanty-Mansiysk (tie-break, game 2) 2011

A superb game by Ivanchuk. But things went horribly wrong anyway:

Grischuk-Ivanchuk
Khanty-Mansiysk (tie-break, game 3) 2011

Peter Svidler, reading book during the final (well, probably during one of the breaks)

And so Ivanchuk was again in a must-win situation, but this time he didn't come close to winning chances:

Ivanchuk-Grischuk
Khanty-Mansiysk (tie-break, game 4) 2011

The end of this last game saw a strange little incident. When the players were repeating moves, and a position was reached for the second time, Grischuk looked at the arbiter and without stopping the clock he asked to see the score sheet, as he apparently wanted to find out if he could claim already.

The arbiter showed it, Grischuk played a few more moves and then Ivanchuk accepted the draw, as he couldn't avoid it anyway.

At the press conference Grischuk was asked:

You're not only a professional, but also lucky. Do you agree?

Grischuk answered:

No. I consider my wife Natasja very lucky. She always beats me in card games! I think I was lucky with Navara. Today was very tough; in the first game I got a very good position and in the second a very bad one. In the third game I was playing Polgar style, an absolutely unsound combination, all pieces were hanging, typically Judit! I was really looking forward to this tie-break; everyone knows that I prefer these tie-breaks over classical chess. I'm not thinking about Svidler yet; I don't want to spoil this very nice day.

The results of yesterday and today mean that the organizers can be happy with a full Russian final between Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler. These two players have also already qualified for the next FIDE Candidates tournament. The final will be played over four classical games and a possible tie-break. At the same time a match for 3rd and 4th place will be played between Ukrainians Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov and the winner will also qualify for the Candidates tournament. Tomorrow is a rest day; the finals start on Friday.

Finalists Grischuk and Svidler chatting after the tie-break has just finished

Tie-break games round 6

Photos © FIDE | Official website

Links

• ALL WORLD CUP REPORTS
• Official website
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• Games in PGN via TWIC