FIDE World Cup 2023 Round 1 Tiebreaks: A lot of drama and a few upsets
The tiebreaks of round one of the World Cup saw a lot of drama, particularly in the Open tournament. While the favourites mostly won, a few notable surprises made it to the second round of the World Cup After six hours of play, four rounds of tiebreaks in the Open and two in the Women’s tournament, the full list of qualifiers for the second stage of the 2023 FIDE World Cup in both the Open and the Women’s tournament was determined. Altogether – 24 boards in the Open and 9 in the Women’s World Cup played the round one tiebreaks. While all the top favourites qualified, there have been a few upsets, such as Azerbaijan’s GM Gadimbayli and Argentinean IM Pablo Acosta, who knocked out significantly higher-rated opponents. In the women’s tournament, all the favourites moved to round two, with just one match (Guichard vs Serikbay) entering the second tiebreaker. The first move in today’s tiebreaks was made by Romeo Mikautadze, Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. The rapid playoffs The regulations for both the Open and the Women’s World Cup stipulate that if the score is level after the two regular games, after a new drawing of colours done immediately after Game 2, two tiebreak games shall be played with the time control of 25 minutes for each player + 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move one. The first to qualify in the Open section was Indian GM Adhiban who, after two draws in the regular part of round one, won both rapid games against GM Lance Henderson de La Fuente from Andorra. Adhiban will play against Daniil Dubov in Round 2. In a notable surprise, Abdulla Gadimbayli of Azerbaijan managed to defeat the over 100-points higher rated Uzbek GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov in the rapid playoff and qualify for round two. Some of the top grandmasters who faced upsets in the first games made strong comebacks: Serbian GM Velimir Ivic won both of his rapid games against the 14-year-old Ediz Gurel from Turkey. (Gurel stunned Ivic in the first game of round one with a quick victory.) The Serbian will face Spain’s Vallejo Pons in round two. Azeri GM Eltaj Safarli came strong against IM Roberto Carlos Sanchez Alvarez from Panama, winning both games in the tiebreak rapid. He will be facing Andrey Esipenko in Round 2. Hungarian GM Ferenc Berkes also qualified, having won in the first and drawn in the second tiebreak game against Iranian Darini Pouria. Berkes will now have a tough challenge in round two, facing former World Champion Candidate, Boris Gelfand. After drawing both games with 2369-rated Kareim Wageih, Austrian GM Markus Ragger (2624) won by 1.5:0.5 in the rapid and qualified. Playing Magnus Carlsen in the second round will be Georgian GM Levan Pantsulaia, who bested Indian Bharathakoti Harsha by 1.5:0.5. The other players who qualified for round two after the first tiebreaker were: Mchedlishvili (Georgia), Supi (Brazil), Can (Turkey), Iskandarov (Azerbaijan), Janik (Poland), Asadli (Azerbaijan), Albornoz (Cuba), Bartel (Poland), and Iturrizaga Bonelli (Spain). Among the notable qualifiers in the Women’s section, IM Salome Melia from Georgia (rated 2377) won her rapid tiebreaker against Brazilian 2182-rated Kathie Librelato, with 1.5:0.5. In the first rapid game, Librelato made a basic mistake as early as move eight and was completely lost. The great Peruvian hope, Deysi Cori, qualified after defeating Brazilian Julia Albaredo in the second rapid game. The same applies to Indian Nutakki Priyanka who eliminated Italian IM Marina Brunello. Priyanka will be playing compatriot Humpy Koneru in the second round. The other qualifiers from the first rapid cycle in the women’s event were: Cyfka (Poland), Rudzinska (Poland), Francisco Guecamburu (Argentina), Munguntuul (Mongolia) and Rakhmangulova (Ukraine). The second rapid tiebreaker Players who were still levelled after the first rapid played a second rapid match, but the time control was further shortened to 10 minutes for each player + 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move one. IM Pablo Acosta qualified after defeating the 100-points higher rated GM Kacper Piorun from Poland in the final game. In an even position in the endgame, Kacper misplayed, which cost him a place in the next round. GM Rinat Jumabayev outplayed Luka Paichadze, winning 1.5:0.5. Emre Can from Turkey won the final game against Queseda to qualify after the Cuban made a huge blunder entering a lost position. Ilia Smirin was struggling: In the Sicilian, Santiago Avila Pavas (playing as White) got an extra pawn after an oversight by Smirin and was significantly better, ending with a victory. In the second game, Smirin staged an impressive comeback and won, forcing a third tiebreaker of the day. Three more pairs in the Open section moved to the next stage of tiebreaks. The only pair to go to the second rapid in the Women’s Cup were Pauline Guichard from France (2384) and Assel Serikbay (2139) from Kazakhstan. In the regular part of round one, both sides won a game each, while in the first rapid – both games ended in a draw. Guichard won game five. She was then dominating in the sixth game but in the end, misplayed and entered a drawn opposite-coloured bishops endgame which finished in a draw. In the second round, she will be playing against Vaishali Rameshbabu. The blitz tiebreaks Eight players ended in the third tiebreak. In this tiebreak, the players had five minutes each plus a three-second increment from move one, and they played a mini-match of two games. In the first blitz game, Ilia Smirin scored a victory in just 30 moves, finishing the game with an effective rook sacrifice leading to checkmate. Smirin also won the second game and punched his ticket to the next round, where he will be playing Kirill Shevchenko. Turkey’s Vahap Sanal beat Croatia’s Zdrenko Kozul in both Blitz games to reach the second round. The rapid and the blitz playoffs might prove to be a good training experience for Sanal as in Round 2 he will be playing the 2021 World Rapid champion, Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Croatia’s Ante Brkic managed to qualify after winning a nerve-racking second blitz game against Carlos Matamoros Franco. Although he was dominating, towards the end, Brkic made an error in time trouble, handing the advantage to Black. However, in just one move, Matamoros Franco threw it all away and surrendered. The fourth (and final) tiebreaker: A victory after nine draws There was just one pair of players