Round 03 Game 01: Magnus Carlsen on track to win
Fabiano Caruana returns to the competition after his win by forfeit Sunday, July 18th, 2021 – With the player field cut by more than a half, the venue is starting to look rather big in relation to the number of boards. The “weakest” players in the pairings tree are 2550+ and nearly all of the top dogs are still in contention. Wherever you look, 2650-2700+ players are walking around, in full concentration. An absolute pleasure to enjoy the presence of such fabulous players. The World Champion Magnus Carlsen is taking things very seriously: it’s clear that he has come here to win. The World Cup is one of the few events that Carlsen doesn’t yet have in his trophy case. This afternoon he made the first step to qualify for the fourth round by defeating his teammate Aryan Tari with the white pieces. Magnus Carlsen – Aryan Tari Tari was actually doing very well but low on time Aryan blundered 38…Bd4? 39.Rb5 a4? 40.Ne7+ and he had to resign because he was either losing a piece or on the bad side of an Anastasia mate (with Rh5). Instead of 38…Bd4, Tari could have played 38…a4 and although he is a pawn down, he might be able to hold the double rook ending. Everyone was happy to see Fabiano Caruana back on the stage after his win by forfeit in the second round. Although he was only able to get a draw (with Black against Rinat Jumabayev) he was relatively content with the result, having the White pieces tomorrow. Fabiano was kind enough to pop in for a brief interview in which he explained his thoughts on the game and confirmed that he was feeling great. Top-ten player Alexander Grischuk also made a huge step to qualify for the next round by defeating Argentina’s number one Alan Pichot with White. The intermediate move 17.Bf4! may have escaped Pichot’s attention but it left him in a very delicate position. Although Grischuk’s king had to make the walk to f3 he had everything under control and soon created a mating net which proved definitive. The top Russian player in the field explained his thoughts in a brief post-game interview. The all-Indian encounter between Santosh Vidit and Baskaran Adhiban also proved to be a fighting game. Adhiban was doing well in a King’s Indian until he blundered a pawn with 19…e4, maybe due to an oversight. Vidit played it safe and actively relocated his pieces, netting a second pawn and went on to win. Adhiban will have to go all-out tomorrow for a win but, as Vidit was quick to say in the postgame interview, “Adhiban goes all-out no matter the score”. Other important results this afternoon were: Dubov-Malakhov (1-0), Van Foreest-Piorun (0-1), Oparin-Karjakin (0-1), Vitiugov-Shirov (1-0) and the main surprise result Martirosyan-Mamedyarov (1-0) (the winner is pictured below) In the women’s group, the main favourite Aleksandra Goryachkina (pictured below) is still on 100% having defeated Olga Badelka with White. Today she played a solid Catalan opening, achieving a small positional plus after the opening. Later in the game she opened the a-file and penetrated into her opponent’s position with her heavy pieces, winning a pawn and converting in the endgame. Joining her on 100% is the older of the two very strong Muzychuk sisters, Anna. Today’s win over Pauline Guichard – with Black – gives her very good chances to qualify for the fourth round. She gave her thoughts on the game in a brief post-game interview. Other important results this afternoon include Kashlinskaya-Galliamova (1-0), Dzagnidze-Yip (0-1), Cramling-Kosteniuk (0-1), Gunina-Harika (1-0), Tan-Sebag (1-0) and Munguntuul-Lagno (0-1). All these players have the advantage going into the second game of the third round. Their opponents will have to win on-demand tomorrow in the Galaxy Centre in Sochi to force the tie-breaks. The general partner of the tournament Nornickel established a special prize – Platinum Crown – for the best games of Rounds 2, 3 and 4 at the FIDE World Cup and Women’s World Cup. Michal Krasenkow and Bibisara Assaubayeva were awarded Platinum Crown for the best game of Round 2. The games were selected by the jury – commentators Sergey Shipov, Evgenij Miroshnichenko, tournament director Mark Glukhovsky, and international arbiter Boris Postovsky. 57-year old Polish GM Michal Krasenkow beat Candidates tournament participant Kirill Alekseenko in a spectacular style. In the position on the diagram (see diagram below), he went for a rook sacrifice – 29.Rxh6! – eventually laying his hands on the Black king. 17-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva developed great dynamics in the middlegame, based on careful calculation, crushing her compatriot and leader of Kazakhstani women’s list Zhansaya Abdumalik. Michal Krasenkow – Kirill Alekseenko Pairings of the second game of the third round, live games and PGN files can be found on the World Cup website alongside a great amount of other interesting information such as daily videos, a complete photo collection and other useful data. Text: Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer press@fide.com Photo: Eric Rosen and Anastasiia Korolkova About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from July 12th (Round 1) to August 6th (finals), the 2021 FIDE World Cup will gather together in Sochi (Russia) 309 of the world’s best chess players, with 206 of them playing in the Open World Cup (and 103 participants in the first-ever Women’s World Cup. The top two finishers in the tournament, aside from World Champion Magnus Carlsen who is also participating, will qualify for the 2022 Candidates Tournament, in addition to winning the 110.000 USD first prize (80.000 USD for the runner-up). Organisers: International Chess Federation (FIDE), Chess Federation of Russia, Russian Ministry of Sports, and Government of Krasnodar Krai. Partners: Gazprom – general partner Nornickel – general partner PhosAgro – general partner Chessable – event’s partner Aeroflot – CFR’s partner Educational centre “Sirius”
Round 02 tiebreaks: Chess Armageddon in Sochi
Dominguez, Firouzja and Maghsoodloo eliminated in the tiebreaks Most of the round two matches were decided yesterday in the classical games. Nonetheless, 60 players (44 in the open section and 16 in the women’s section) returned to the playing hall of the Galaxy Centre to fight it out over the board for a spot in the third round of the World Cup. The tiebreaks in this event are a nerve-racking issue, only suitable for the fittest players. Two rapid games – 25 minutes base time + 10 seconds increment – to start off with, followed by two more rapid games (10/10) and finally two blitz 5/3 games if there is no winner. The “Armageddon” decisive game format is left for the end: 5 minutes vs 4 on the clock but the draw favours the player who chooses Black. Two of the thirty matches ended up in the “sudden death” blitz match, one of the most exciting chess-related topics that has been seen in quite a while. In the open group, Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov (2667) defeated German GM Rasmus Svane (2615) in the last game with the Black pieces, with both players blitzing out their last moves to avoid losing on time. The final 5-4 score (9 games!) just gives us an idea of what might come further down the line. In the women’s group, Spanish WGM Ana Matnadze (2421) lost a heart-breaking “Armageddon” blitz game against WGM Olga Badelka (2418) from Belarus, losing on time in a winning position and only two seconds left for her opponent. The total score of this match was also 5-4. After taking a well-deserved break, Ana found time to graciously give her thoughts in the post-game interview (in Spanish). However, the most amazing surprise of the round was GM Alireza Firouzja’s (2759) loss to 16-year-old GM Javokhir Sindarov (2558), from Uzbekistan. Four solid draws in the classical and 25-minute rapid games were followed by a very lively King’s Indian defence, in which Sindarov played a very nice positional pawn sacrifice with 22…f3! Followed by …Nh5-f4, taking over the initiative and eventually winning the decisive game. Representing France for the first time, the elimination of Firouzja is a huge blow for his fans from all over the world. The other big surprise was the early departure of former Cuban (now USA) GM Lenier Dominguez Perez (2758), rated number 13 in the world’s best player list. But rapid matches can go either way, and it was GM Jakhongir Vakhidov (2534, Uzbekistan) (pictured below) who will now face Pavel Ponkratov in the third round. The key moment of the first rapid game occurred on move twenty when Lenier, in a difficult position, tried to defend his knight with 20…Rd5 (instead 20…Nc6 gives up the exchange for a pawn but there is still a game). After 21.e4 Rb5 maybe Dominguez missed 22.a4! in his previous calculations, and he had to give up material in worse conditions. In a must-win situation, he over-pressed in his next game and Vakhidov ended the rapid match with a clear 2-0. However, the afternoon was going to bring us even more mishaps. Another huge upset was the defeat of Iran’s best player, GM Parham Maghsoodloo (2698) against 55-year old GM Kiril Georgiev (2594), rated more than 100 points behind. Both of the classic games ended in solid draws, which theoretically might have favoured Maghsoodloo, who won the León rapid two years ago. However, it was the veteran player who took down the first rapid game. Parham, with White, went for an interesting sacrifice with 27.Nxg7 but Georgiev defended tenaciously and the knight was eventually trapped. All tomorrow’s third-round matchups are very interesting but our suggestion is to keep an eye on the games between Norway’s one and two Magnus Carlsen and Aryan Tari, Daniil Dubov against Vladimir Malakhov (both from Russia) and the all-Indian match between Santosh Gujrathi Vidit and Baskaran Adhiban. One of the most exciting matches of the second round in the women’s group was the 4-game encounter between seventeen-year-old IM Carissa Yip (2430) from the USA, against the strong Ukrainian WGM Nataliya Buksa (2413). After tying 1-1 in the classical games, Carissa got the best of her opponent in the first rapid game. Even so, she had to bring all her defensive skills to play in the second rapid game, in which Buksa threw all her pieces against Yip’s king in an open Sicilian. Although White had enjoyed a much better position in the opening, the key moment was the blunder 32.e5? (instead, 32.Rxc8 Rxc8 33.Qd1 and the position is more or less equal) after which Yip won a piece with 32…Qxb5 and converted in good fashion. Yip will face experienced Georgian GM Nana Dzagnidze (2523) in the third round. Carissa shared her thoughts with us after the game in a brief interview. Top German female player WGM Elisabeth Paehtz (2466) (pictured below) also qualified for the third round, albeit not without difficulty. She had to resort to winning the blitz games against her opponent, Bulgaria WGM Nurgyul Salimova (2395), who proved to be very resourceful during the whole match. Even though she was visibly exhausted after the grueling match, Paehtz kindly gave us her thoughts on her performance. Several third-round encounters will prove to be tremendously exciting. Our bet would be to follow the all-Russian matchups between Alina Kashlinskaya and Alisa Galliamova – they have played some really amazing games recently -, and young guns Polina Shuvalova and Leya Garifullina. The other exciting match might be the Ukrainian battle between former World Champion Anna Ushenina and Mariya Muzychuk, who boasts a 2550 rating and is one of the favourites to win the tournament. Pairings of the third round, live games and PGN files can be found on the World Cup website alongside a great amount of other interesting information such as daily videos, a complete photo collection and other useful data. Text: Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer press@fide.com Photo: Eric Rosen and Anastasiia Korolkova About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from July 12th (Round 1) to August 6th (finals), the 2021 FIDE World Cup will gather together in Sochi (Russia) 309 of the world’s best chess players, with 206 of them playing in the Open World Cup (and 103 participants in the first-ever Women’s World Cup. The top two finishers in the tournament, aside from World Champion Magnus Carlsen who is also participating,