Reports | July 04, 2012 8:59

Dreev, Kurnosov and Tkachiev qualify for Rapid World Championship final

The game Kurnosov-Andreikin in Astana

Alexey Dreev (Russia), Igor Kurnosov (Russia) and Vladislav Tkachiev (France) qualified for the Rapid World Championship final which starts next Friday. Kurnosov won the semi-finals on Tuesday with a score of 6.5/9 while Dreev and Tkachiev edged out Andreikin and Moiseenko on tie-break after these four grandmasters all finished on 6/9. There were only three qualification spots for the final.

The game Kurnosov-Andreikin in Astana | Photo courtesy of the official website

Event World Blitz and Rapid Championships
Dates July 2-10, 2012
Location Astana, Kazakhstan
System Rapid: 16-player single round robin | Blitz: 16-player double round robin
Players Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Viktor Bologan, Murtas Kazhgaleyev, Anuar Ismagambetov, Pavel Kotsur and Rinat Jumabayev 
Rate of play Rapid: 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1 | Blitz: 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1.
Extra The players are not allowed to offer draws directly to their opponents. Any draw claim will be permitted only through the Chief Arbiter and accepted in case of a triple-repetition of the position or the 50-move rule

The semi-finals of the World Rapid Championship in Astana took off on Monday with five rounds, and finished on Tuesday with four more. The tournament was to decide on the three qualifiers for the World Rapid Championship, which will start next Friday. In case you missed it, all details about the World Rapid and Blitz can be found here. 

After the first five rounds on Monday the leader was Igor Kurnosov of Russia, who scored 4/5. He was half a point ahead of Dmitry Andreikin (Russia), Alexander Moiseenko (Ukraine), Vladislav Tkachiev (France), Alexey Dreev (Russia) and Nikolai Chadaev (Russia).

After the second day (rounds 6-9) the qualifiers for the Rapid World Championship final were Dreev, Kurnosov and Tkachiev. Kurnosov finished clear first with 6.5/9 ahead of Dreev and Tkachiev, who edged out Andreikin and Moiseenko on tie-break with 6/9 for all.

World Rapid Championship | Semi-finals | Final standings

Place Seed Name Fed C-Rating Points TB1 TB2
1 8 Kurnosov, Igor RUS 2663 6.5 37 46.5
2 4 Dreev, Alexey RUS 2677 6 38 49
3 5 Tkachiev, Vladislav FRA 2644 6 37.5 47
4 1 Andreikin, Dmitry RUS 2700 6 36 46
5 2 Moiseenko, Alexander UKR 2706 6 35.5 46
6 3 Le, Quang Liem VIE 2693 5.5 33 42.5
7 15 Kuderinov, Kirill KAZ 2484 5.5 33 42.5
8 11 Gagunashvili, Merab GEO 2578 5 38 45.5
9 10 Chadaev, Nikolai RUS 2580 5 37 47
10 12 Filippov, Anton UZB 2612 5 32.5 41.5
11 7 Kotsur, Pavel KAZ 2548 5 30.5 39.5
12 9 Aleksandrov, Aleksej BLR 2602 4.5 33 40.5
13 16 Iuldachev, Saidali UZB 2495 4.5 32 39
14 14 Neverov, Valeriy UKR 2502 4.5 31 40
15 6 Jumabayev, Rinat KAZ 2525 4.5 29 38
16 18 Rychagov, Andrey RUS 2517 4 34 43.5
17 22 Saduakassova, Dinara KAZ 2216 4 27 34
18 13 Papin, Vasily RUS 2570 3.5 31 40
19 20 Akkozov, Berik KAZ 2401 3.5 27.5 35
20 19 Mankeyev, Rauan KAZ 2333 3.5 26 33
21 17 Khusnutdinov, Rustam KAZ 2503 3 30 37
22 21 Igambergenov, Alibek KAZ 2272 3 26.5 33
23 24 Akhmetov, Ayan KAZ 2286 3 26 32
24 23 Minko, Vladimir RUS 2254 1 26 34

Source: offical website & FIDE. C-Rating = Classical chess rating

With three spots available for a prestigious even like the world rapid, it was a bit disappointing to see only 24 participants in this qualifier event. Besides, as you can see in the final standings, in fact three players below 2300 were allowed to participate, which was against the regulations announced in advance.

Unfortunately the games were not transmitted live on the official website, and the moves don't seem to have been recorded either. (The games were not played on DGT boards.) Hopefully this will change for the finals which starts on Friday. At least by then ChessVibes will be present for on-the-spot reports and videos!

Schedule

Date Time Event
July 2, Monday 13:30 Opening ceremony of the World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships semifinals
  15:00 Rapid qualifiers – 5 rounds
July 3, Tuesday 15:00 Rapid qualifiers – 5 rounds
July 4, Wednesday 15:00 Blitz qualifiers – 11*2
  20:00 Closing of Blitz semifinals
July 5, Thursday 17:00 Opening ceremony of World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships
  19:00 Welcome reception on behalf of President of Kazakhstan Chess Federation
July 6, Friday 11:00 Technical conference of Championships participants
  15:00 Rapid Chess Championship – 1 through 5 rounds
July 7, Saturday 15:00 Rapid Chess Championship – 6 through 10 rounds
July 8, Sunday 15:00 Rapid Chess Championship 11 through 15 rounds
July 9, Monday 15:00 World Blitz Chess Championship 1 through 15 rounds
July 10, Tuesday 15:00 World Blitz Chess Championship 16 through 30 rounds
  20:00 Closing ceremony of World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships

 

Tags:

Share |
Peter Doggers's picture
Author: Peter Doggers

Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.

Related articles

Chess Master School

Comments

Harry_Flashman's picture

Harry_Flashman

10 months 2 weeks ago

Basing on the final standings actually 4 under 2300 players were allowed to play, not three.

Thomas's picture

Thomas

10 months 2 weeks ago

Actually the tournament homepage says "The only requirement for participants is their international ratings _should be_ not less than 2300" - sounds somewhat flexible unless it's a translation issue from Russian. In any case, I guess little harm was done by letting four youngsters play (the sub-2300ers are all born in 1995 or later).
The quantitatively weak field may be related to the fact that Astana is a pretty remote location. BTW, final standings of the blitz qualifier (assuming that the Google translation of the Russian header on the tournament webpage is accurate): Andreikin 16.5/22, Le Quang Liem 14.5, Chadaev 14 - some justice done as Andreikin had already "qualified" from the event mentioned by Ponomariov.

Your comment

By posting a comment you are agreeing to abide our Terms & Conditions

Latest articles