Big upsets on first day round 2 World Cup
24 November 2009, 18.40 CET | Last modified: 14:10 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags: World Cup
The first day of the World Cup’s second round saw quite a number of big upsets. Svidler lost with Black against Nyback, Morozevich went down with the white pieces against Laznicka, Sakaev defeated Radjabov, Ivanchuk lost to So and Inarkiev defeated Eljanov.
The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place November 20th-December 15th inn Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It’s a seven-round knockout with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round. The final seventh round consists of four games.
| Round 1 (November 21-23): 128 players | Round 5 (December 3-5): 8 players |
| Round 2 (November 24-26): 64 players | Round 6 (December 6-8): 4 players |
| Round 3 (November 27-29): 32 players | Round 7 (December 10-14): 2 players |
| Round 4 (November 30-December 2): 16 players |
The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time (11:00 CET).
Round 2, day 1
It was the world upside down today in Khanty-Mansyisk. The first seven rating favorites scored only 1.5 points and big names such as Ivanchuk, Svidler, Morozevich and Radjabov are in danger of an early knockout!
Top seeded player Boris Gelfand was again the first to finish his game today. Besides his famous “game after game” approach, his strategy in Khanty-Mansyisk is clear: draw with Black, try to win with White, and save energy wherever possible. His Petroff against Amonatov lasted just twelve moves, so the Israeli grandmaster clearly bets on his White game. And why not.
Many of the underdogs did well or very well today. Zhou Jianchao played an excellent game against Gashimov; in a Berlin Wall the Chinese 21-year-old even played a positional exchange sacrifice that kind of forced the draw immediately when Gashimov decided to go for an ending with opposite-coloured bishops.
Peter Svidler lost to Finnish grandmaster Tomi Nyback (against whom yours truly once managed to draw in a King’s Indian; perhaps a better choice than the Grünfeld for a Peter? 
) and here too all credits should go to the lower-rated player for what looks like a fine game. Nyback grabbed his chance at the right moment with the strong 30.e6!.
Peter Svidler, in danger of an early knockout
The third upset was Alexander Morozevich going down against Viktor Laznicka from the Czech Republic. The world’s number 10 tried to trick his opponent but Laznicka gladly fell for it: he got a pawn and the bishop pair for the lost exchange, and then duly won when got a passed pawn on the queenside.
A bad start of round 2 for Alexander Morozevich
Radjabov was the next to falter on this crazy first day of round 2. Sakaev ran with his king from e1 to b3, but with all the important squares and the centre protected, White was fine. Soon an ending was reached where Black should have been fine as well, but suddenly Radjabov couldn’t prevent the loss of a piece on the kingside.
Teimour Radjabov also needs a win tomorrow
The biggest surprise perhaps was the loss of Vassily Ivanchuk, the favourite to win this World Cup according to the ChessVibes visitors, against super-talent Wesley So. It seemed that the Ukrainian was totally outplaying his Pinoy opponent, but when he couldn’t find the knockout blow he should probably have taken the draw. Instead, in terrible timetrouble already, Chuky decided to play on but then lost in the ending.
Ernesto Inarkiev, who was a bit lucky to qualify in yesterday’s tiebreaks against Gustafsson, continued very well by defeating 84 points higher rated Pavel Eljanov – White powerplay in the Berlin Wall this time. Yu Yangyi proved to be more than a one-day fly and beat Polish GM Mateusz Bartel.
Ernesto Inarkiev: a good follow-up after yesterday's tiebreaks
World Cup 2007 finalist Shirov and winner Kamsky won their first game while Polgar, who had qualified without playing, started with a draw against Nisipeanu. Tomorrow 11:00 CET is the start of day 2 of round 2.
Alexei Shirov, still a favourite among the fans, did win his first game of round 2
All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE
Games round 2, day 1
Game viewer by ChessTempo
FIDE World Cup – Round 2 day 1 results
| Name | NAT | G1 | G2 | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | B1 | B2 | B3 | B4 | B5 | B6 | B7 | B8 | B9 | B10 | SD | Tot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 2 Match 01 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Amonatov, Farrukh |
TJK | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Gelfand, Boris |
ISR | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 02 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Gashimov, Vugar |
AZE | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Zhou, Jianchao |
CHN | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 03 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nyback, Tomi |
FIN | 1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Svidler, Peter |
RUS | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 04 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Morozevich, Alexander |
RUS | 0 | 0.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Laznicka, Viktor |
CZE | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 05 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sakaev, Konstantin |
RUS | 1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Radjabov, Teimour |
AZE | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 06 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ivanchuk, Vassily |
UKR | 0 | 0.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| So, Wesley |
PHI | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 07 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Akobian, Varuzhan |
USA | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Ponomariov, Ruslan |
UKR | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 08 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Grischuk, Alexander |
RUS | 1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Tkachiev, Vladislav |
FRA | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 09 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sandipan, Chanda |
IND | 0 | 0.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Jakovenko, Dmitry |
RUS | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 10 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Wang, Yue |
CHN | 1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Savchenko, Boris |
RUS | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 11 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Inarkiev, Ernesto |
RUS | 1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Eljanov, Pavel |
UKR | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 12 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Karjakin, Sergey |
UKR | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Timofeev, Artyom |
RUS | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 13 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Milov, Vadim |
SUI | 0 | 0.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar |
AZE | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 14 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Shirov, Alexei |
ESP | 1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Fedorchuk, Sergey A. |
UKR | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 15 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Caruana, Fabiano |
ITA | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Dominguez Perez, Leinier |
CUB | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 16 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Yu, Yangyi |
CHN | 1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Bartel, Mateusz |
POL | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 17 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Meier, Georg |
GER | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime |
FRA | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 18 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Alekseev, Evgeny |
RUS | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Fressinet, Laurent |
FRA | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 19 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Khalifman, Alexander |
RUS | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Tomashevsky, Evgeny |
RUS | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 20 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Wang, Hao |
CHN | 1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Ganguly, Surya Shekhar |
IND | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 21 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Shabalov, Alexander |
USA | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Navara, David |
CZE | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 22 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Malakhov, Vladimir |
RUS | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Smirin, Ilia |
ISR | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 23 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sasikiran, Krishnan |
IND | 0 | 0.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Bacrot, Etienne |
FRA | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 24 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Rublevsky, Sergei |
RUS | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Areshchenko, Alexander |
UKR | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 25 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Iturrizaga, Eduardo |
VEN | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Jobava, Baadur |
GEO | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 26 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Motylev, Alexander |
RUS | 1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Najer, Evgeniy |
RUS | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 27 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Zhou, Weiqi |
CHN | 0 | 0.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Kamsky, Gata |
USA | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 28 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Vitiugov, Nikita |
RUS | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Milos, Gilberto |
BRA | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 29 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Cheparinov, Ivan |
BUL | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Bologan, Viktor |
MDA | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 30 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Naiditsch, Arkadij |
GER | 1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Onischuk, Alexander |
USA | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 31 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Li, Chao |
CHN | 0 | 0.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Pelletier, Yannick |
SUI | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Round 2 Match 32 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Polgar, Judit |
HUN | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter |
ROU | ½ | 0.5 | ||||||||||||||||
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It looks like somebody filled in the scores for the first players in the wrong order. What happened with the top-seats???
What about Gelfand? He has black, but still. A draw in only 12 moves?
None of the top 7 seeds won today!
Yes all top seed except Grischuk and Wang Yue did not win!. I guess this is good for the emotion!
Black Kamsky was the sole US winner with his 4… a6 Slav.
Here’s an interesting article about the 4… a6 Slav http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3195
I did not understand the Moro game at all !
I agree with Glossu, this is exciting!
No upsets for me, I love it when big talents like Wesley So beat players like Ivanchuk… I think he’s a great promise for the future…
“No upsets for me, I love it when big talents like Wesley So beat players like Ivanchuk”
When someone outside the Top 100 beats 1 of the top 12 players in the world, THAT’S AN UPSET!
It’s just a matter of time before Wesley reaches the top 10 – so in that sense it’s just confirmation of what many predict for him.
Maybe not top 10 … Maybe just top 20. He is good of course. (Wesley So)
What is so special about top ten? Have some excuses for them? Wesley So will beat plenty of them as you will soon see.
The face of chess will soon seems. Many of you won’t recognize it. And that will be good.
BIG UPSETS: “Svidler lost with Black against Nyback, Morozevich went down with the white pieces against Laznicka, Sakaev defeated Radjabov, Ivanchuk lost to So and Inarkiev defeated Eljanov” — None of these matches look as an upset to my mind… All this guys know how to play chess, so anything might happen… ELO differences inside a 100-points margin are not quite predictive.
Is this a sloppy report or people is already fully mad about a few rating points? Why to play a game at all if Dr. Elo developed the perfect prediction for the outcome of every single game… Anand (2700+) should not prepare at all to play Topalov (2800+), because he can’t possibly win… Rubbish, all my money goes to the “weaker” Anand…
@Peter
Thanks, good work!
Now:
“suddenly Radjabov couldn’t prevent the loss of a piece on the kingside”
… a piece called pawn (to begin with, because a decisive one), and rather on the queenside!
“It seemed that the Ukrainian (Ivanchuk) was totally outplaying his Pinoy opponent (So)”
Not so seemingly, at least to my modest chess sense. (And *of course* he should have taken the draw!)
“Li Chao2″ Lol
Maybe with less unimportant information on the game’s window (number of game, name of the tournament, …) even this not-very-important things could stand better. More important: Elo of the players! (old sugestion already)
@everybody
Is it me, or Motylev played what one should call a perfect anti-Shvesnikov?
I don’t understand (never played or faced) that defense, but someone pls tell me what mistake must Najer did, because Black’s situation is pityfull (maybe not already lost, but dried as it could be, as minimum), as soon as move 18? What am I missing there??
Ivanchuk-So
Polgar-Nisipeanu
These eliminations should never be
Go Moro!! (He seems to be more in need than Gata, at this moment
)
Go, go, go Wesley So!
“unimportant information on the game’s window (number of game, name of the tournament, …)”
I should add “number of the round”. These things are NOT important there.
I think names and Elos of the players are. The rest is given by the whole article, or is useless.
“It’s just a matter of time before Wesley reaches the top 10 – so in that sense it’s just confirmation of what many predict for him.”
If someday the Top 10 is composed only of players born after 1979 I see it as 1. Carlsen, 2. Aronian, 3. Gashimov, 4. Radjabov, 5. Ponomariov, 6. Grischuk, 7. Jakovenko, 8. Wang, 9. Eljanov, and 10. Karjakin. Alternatives include 11. Mamedyarov, 12. Dominguez Perez, and 13. Vachier-Lagrave. Vachier-Lagrave 2718 is only 3 years older than So and is #23 in the world. So 2640 is not even in the Top 100. There would be no room for him in the Top 10. I don’t see it happening ever.
Ever seems like a long time..We will probably be already dead if your ever to be proven to right.
Then again your an Onischuk fan so I don’t think Wesley So should be so concerned with your predictive powers. (though at around 2700 there is still time for Mr Onischuk.)
An interesting prediction would be – the day post 1979 players comprise the top ten. My uneducated guess would be after 2020. In which case I would bet that at least one player who is ranked at 2300 or below would be included in the list.
Course I’m an old timer what the heck do I know
has the Petroff killed 1. e4? easy draw for Gelfand again. he made a quick draw in round 1 with the Petroff…
probably why Anand switched to 1. d4 against Kramnik at WC2008. he just couldn’t find anything convincing against the Petroff…
@Castro: Motylev-Najer was a Najdorf, not a Sveshnikov. It is quite a relevant difference that black first goes -a6 (keeping a white knight or, in some lines, bishop from b5) before he plays -e5.
As far as I know (but I am not a Najdorf expert) the game was theory for a long time, and I think things went wrong for black only in the unbalanced pawn race ending.
Guys Wesley So was just lucky. Ivanchuk just could not pull it off this time.
Well, chess is a game of luck anyway.
But So defended very well.
“An interesting prediction would be – the day post 1979 players comprise the top ten. My uneducated guess would be after 2020. In which case I would bet that at least one player who is ranked at 2300 or below would be included in the list.”
Players like Carlsen come along once in a generation. The current 10th strongest player born after 1979 is the youngest Grandmaster of all time, ranked 18th in the world, and has a 2723 rating. I think he may crack the top 10 someday. At least 1 player has been rated as high as 2739 and never cracked the top 10. Your assumption that a kid rated 2300 now will crack the top 10 in 2020 is illogical.
Aren’t there rules against playing the exchange slav versus Ivanchuk in a draw-is-sufficient situation?
Well Ivanchuk didnt have to play the Slav
@Thomas
Thanks Thomas! That’s how chess openings uncultured I am!
Still, that Black’s position after 18.Kb1 seems to me as sterile as the worse critics on the Petroff (to say the least, because White looks like simply having domination — in chessy meaning! — and things to do… like winning easy).
Not knowing similar games, it apeared to me as Najer just put himself in position… Very sad. And very good by Motylev, of course.
I think you’re parcialy wrong, because the lost pawn race was merely the least bad thing Najer could get, and was condemned long time before.
If I’m reading the official site correctly, it appears that Alexander Morozevich Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk were all top seeds who lost. This is exciting. I’m not saying Gelfand, Gashimov, or Svidler won’t win, but it’s more wide open with half the top 6 gone and arguably the strongest and most experienced Ivanchuk out. I can imagine a dark horse like Kamsky winning it all now and I did vote for him in the poll.
I guess Wang Hao from China will win this tournment. He is very powerful player. He didn’t get enough chance show his chess due to his relationship with leaders(I guess). He has beaten his two opponents with two 2:0.
Are the pairings all the way to the final already clear (if so, could someone provide a link?), or is there a drawing of lots after each round?
http://www.pgndownloads.com/files/2009/2009_World_Cup.png
“I guess Wang Hao from China will win this tournment.”
I guess not. He’s not even the best Wang from China. #16 Yue Wang 2734 is. He’s been rated as high as 2739 and #11 in the world.