Peter Leko (Hungary) was eliminated by Sam Shankland (USA) at the World Cup in Kanty-Mansiysk on Monday, after their second game ended in a draw. Wang Yue (CHN) is also out after the first round; he lost 0.5-1.5 to Alexandr Fier (BRA). Anton Filippov won both games against the higher rated Sergei Zhigalko.

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 1.2

On the first day of the World Cup not 64 but 62 games were played, after Akopian and Wang Hao had to cancel shortly before the tournament. On Monday, the number of games was 61, because Ahmed Adly couldn't play. The Egyptian GM was hospitalized to the regional clinic due to sudden pains, which were caused by kidney stones. The official website reports that Adly is fine and can leave the hospital tomorrow. His opponent Bu Xiangzhi, who had won the first game, qualified for the second round. The biggest shock of this first round is the elimination of Peter Leko. After spoiling a close to winning advantage and then even losing his first game, on Monday the Hungarian didn't come close to an advantage (let alone winning chances) in his black game versus Sam Shankland. It was a surprising an excellent result for Shankland, who after the game said he had already booked a plane ticket for Wednesday. "This I have to change, and they will charge me a lot," the American said. Last year he was still a professional, but at the moment Shankland is a college student. "From the moment I went to college my results became huge!"

Sam Shankland eliminates Peter Leko

Leko, who recently returned to tournament chess after a rest period of nine months (here he explains why) , was a good sport: "My opponent was playing very strongly. I tried to do my best, I tried to experiment, but I failed." Another big upset was the knock-out of Chinese top GM Wang Yue by Alexandr Fier from Brazil. Like Shankland, already yesterday Fier beat his opponent and our regular commenter Thomas described it well:

He managed what Topalov couldn’t really do in his WCh matches against Kramnik and Anand, and what Grischuk recently (World Team Championship) didn’t manage against the same Wang Yue: break down the “Slav wall” – this particular line is a bit reminiscent of the Berlin, early queen swap and black playing ugly moves as -Rg8.

On day 2 Wang Yue got huge pressure, after sacrificing an exchange and getting two pawns back for it and what seemed like a killing bishop pair. However, Fier just defended and defended, until it was can easy draw. Gata Kamsky needs a tie-break to decide his match against Brazilian IM Diego Rafael Di Berardino. The U.S. Champion won his first game convincingly, but things went wrong in game 2: Di Berardino-Kamsky Khanty-Mansiysk 2011 Here 27... Bd5 should be equal. Instead, 27... Kh8?! was risky: 28. exd4! Bxf4 29. Qe2 Now Kamsky decided to defend the position a pawn down with 29... Bd5 but after 30. dxe5 Qe6 31. Rce1 Rac8 32. Bh4! White eventually won. After 29... Bxc1 White can choose between: a) 30. Rxc1 Qc6 31. d5 Rxd5 (31... Bxd5 32. Qxe5+) 32. Bxd5 Qxd5 33. Rc5 or b) 30. Qxe4!? Bh6 31. dxe5 with good compensation.

Gata Kamsky: the highest rated player in the round 1 tie-breaks

The same happened to Paco Vallejo. First, the Spaniard easily beat Peruvian talent Jorge Cori with the black pieces, but then lost with White in the next game.

Vallejo needs a tie-break too

There was one more minimatch with this scenario (all other tied matches saw two draws): Iordachescu-Feller. The (in)famous French GM had to level the score on day 2, and managed: Feller-Iordachescu Khanty-Mansiysk 2011 45. Rxb7! Rxb7 46. Ba6 d4 (46... Rdd7 fails to 47. Qh8+) 47. Qb2 Kd7 48. Bxb7 dxe3 49. fxe3 Qc5 50. a6 Kc7 51. Kh1 Qxe3 52. Qa1 Rd2 53. a7 Rxg2 54. Qa5+ Kd7 55. Bxc6+! Nxc6 56. Qd5+ Kc7 57. a8N+! 1-0 Michael Adams had started with a smooth victory, playing Black against Philippine GM Mark Paragua. However, with the white pieces the English grandmaster got himself into trouble: Adams-Paragua Khanty-Mansiysk 2011 36... Rbb3 Paragua misses the killing 36... Bf6! a) 37. Qf2 Rxh3+ 38. Kg1 Bh4 39. Qf4 d3+ 40. Nd4 Rxd4; b) 37. Qe1 Rxh3+ 38. Kg1 d3+ 39. Qf2 Rh1+; c) 37. Qh6 Bg5!! (it's all about the Rxh3 trick) 38. Qxg5 Rxh3+ 39. Kg1 d3+ 40. Nd4 Rxd4. 37. Ng1 Rxb5 38. Nc3 Rxb2 39. Rxb2 Qxb2 40. Qd8+ Kh7 41. Nd5 41... Qf2 41... Bxd5 42. Qxd5 Rg3 was still relatively easy to win. 42. Nxe3 dxe3 43. Qg5! e2 44. Nxe2 Qxe2 45. Qh4+ Qh5 46. Qxh5+ gxh5 47. Rd6 and Adams managed to hold this and qualify for the next round.

Games round 1.2

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Photos © Official website

Links

• Official website
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• Games in PGN via TWIC