14 September 2015
Depopulation of Favorites
The World Cup's starting round is reviewed by our correspondent Eteri Kublashvili.
A never-tiring classic
Knockout tournaments rarely avoid early surprises, especially in the recent time when the overall level of players increased enormously. Nevertheless, almost all the main favorites of the World Cup in Baku confidently defeated their opponents (with the exception of Anish Giri, who started with a draw playing against a tenacious player from Uganda, but experienced no problems winning the second game) and on the day scheduled for the tiebreaks were quietly enjoying the leisure time enhanced by the magnificent Fairmont Hotel, where the participants can make use of all kinds of water and health treatment procedures. Someone has probably explored the boulevard or the Old Town, which is very picturesque.
Among the Russian players, who won in the classical part of the first round, are Vladimir Kramnik, who has not accepted the attempts by Deysi Cori of Peru to pass the exam, Peter Svidler, who defeated Emre Can (Turkey), Sergey Karjakin, who surpassed Ermes Espinosa Veloz (Cuba), Dmitry Andreikin, who outplayed the tough Zhou Jianchao (China), and Vladislav Artemiev, who knocked the dangerous Surya Shekhar Ganguly (India) out of the tournament.
Many Russian players have unfortunately dropped out without having to play any more matches. Denis Khismatullin, Alexei Goganov, Ivan Popov, Evgeny Najer and Sanan Sjugirov have to say farewell to the World Cup.
The defeats of Gata Kamsky from Hrant Melkumyan, Ni Hua from Sandro Mareco, and Ray Robson from Yuri Vovk may be called the sensations of the first round.
The aforementioned can be demonstrated by more than a few vivid examples.
Can – Svidler
Round One, Game One
31. Bxd5?!
White consciously agreed to the subsequent tactical complications, but the practice shows that whoever goes with a sword against Peter Svidler will die from the sword.
31…Nxd4 32. Bg2 Nb3 33. Ne4 Nxd2 34. Nxf6 Kxf6 White resigns.
Andreikin – Jianchao
Round One, Game One
Dmitry demonstrates that in the endgame a knight is sometimes superior to a bishop.
49. Ne4+ Ke5 50. b5 Kf4 51. Nf6 Bf7 52. c5! Ke5 52. Nd7+ Kd5 Black resigns.
Artemiev – Ganguly
Round One, Game One
The Anand’s ex-second was defeated by Vladislav in just 26 moves. This is how it happened.
22. dxe6 Ba6 23. e5 Bxb5 24. exf6 Bd6 25. fxg7 Ba4 26. exf7+ Black resigns.
Vachier-Lagrave – Ortiz Suarez
Round One, Game One
White already won a pawn and now a beautiful combination allows him to harvest the full point.
28. Bxf7+ Rxf7 29. Nd5 Bxf2+ 30. Qxf2 Qd8 31. Qb6 Qh4 32. Ra8 Rf8 33. Qxd6 Qf2+ 34. Kh2 Black resigns.
Mamedyarov – Idani
Round One, Game One
There followed a nice blow 31. Ba3, after which Idani resigned immediately.
Kamsky – Melkumyan
Round One, Game One
The black pieces and pawns are placed extremely harmoniously, which indicates that it is high time that a decisive blow be delivered.
35…Bxa3! 36. bxa3 Rd1 37. Rxd1 Rxd1 38. f5 gxf5 39. gxf5 b2 40. Nd2 Rxd2 41. Rxd2 b1Q, and even Gata Kamsky himself is helpless being down a queen.
Although the World champion Maria Muzychuk achieved a draw in the first game against Michael Adams, she was unable to repeat the success in the second game, despite giving a good fight.
Muzychuk – Adams
Round One, Game Two
The amount of accumulated experience and the suffocating nature of the Englishman’s style allow him to win even endgames featuring opposite-colored bishops.
46. Rg4 Rf2 47. Rg5 f6 48. Rg6+ Kh7 49. h5 Rxf5 50. Bf8 Kg8 51. Bb4 Kf7 52. Kh4 Bf3 White resigns.
The following three examples demonstrate the will to win after having lost at the start.
Matlakov – Guseinov
Round One, Game Two
41. Bd5+
The retreat of the black king would leave him with some chances of bailing out, while after 41...Bxd5 42. Nxd5 the knight comes to occupy the key square to contribute a lot to the subsequent success of White.
42…Ba5+ 43. Kd1 Re5 44. c7 Bxc7 45. Nxc7, and soon Maxim converted his extra piece.
Moiseenko – Lu Shanglei
Round One, Game Two
Black lashed out aggressively, and the Ukrainian grandmaster decided to take advantage of it.
18. Nxh6+ Bxh6 18. Nf5 Bf8 18. Bxg5 Kh7 19. Qg4 Kh8 20. Qh5 f6 21. Qxe8 fxg5 22. d6, and White gradually went on to win the game.
Losing Leinier Dominguez after the round one would have been an unforgivable mistake, and the Cuban’s opponent spared no efforts to have this mistake corrected.
Dominguez – Perez Ponsa
Round One, Game Two
Although the black bishop is caught into a cage, it could still be salvaged by 35...Re8 or 35...Rc8. However, the Argentinian decided to centralize his king.
35… Ke7? 40. Ke1, and the strongest Cuban player went on to convert his extra bishop advantage not without difficulties.
The exhausting tie-break
The tie-break of the first round turned out to be really exhausting in terms of both energy and time since it went as far as the Armageddon game. The players were sorting things out on as many as 24 tables. Surprises started to pour already in rapid games.
The winner of the World Cup 2009 and one of the tournament favorites Boris Gelfand lost the second rapid game to the young and little-known up to this day Chilean Cristobal Henriquez Villagra.
Hou Yifan did not lose her bearings in the severe male company and went on to defeat Rafael Leitao.
Hou Yifan – Leitao
Rapid, game one
Black underestimates White’s threats on the queenside and ends up losing material.
54…Rd7? 55. Rb2 f4+ 56. Ke4 Nf5+ 57. d5 and Black was crashed shortly after.
The young Chinese Lu Shanglei, known for his blitz skills, defeated Alexander Moiseenko.
Moiseenko – Lu Shanglei
Rapid, game one
The reckless knight retreat cost the Ukrainian grandmaster the game.
46. Nd4?! Rxd4 47. exd4 b4 48. Rb1 Be4 49. Ra1 b3 50. Re1 a4, when the onsurge of black pawns proved impossible to be thwarted.
In addition to that Leinier Dominguez, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Nikita Vitiugov, Vladimir Fedoseev, Ernesto Inarkiev, Teimour Radjabov, Gadir Guseinov, David Navara, Sergei Zhigalko, Wang Hao, Laurent Fressinet, Lazaro Bruzon and Alexander Onischuk became the winners as a result of the rapid chess two-game matches.
The fate of Lysyj – Lupulescu and Balogh – Safarli was sealed in the course of the 10-minute games.
Lysyj – Lupulescu
Rapid, game three
The knight sacrifice allows White to carry out the swift assault.
11. Nxf7! Kxf7 12. Ng5+ Ke8 13. Qxb3 Nb6 14. Bh3 Qc7 15. Nxe6 Qf7 16. e4, and Black failed to save the game.
It was only in the blitz games that the rating favorites Alexander Grischuk and Dmitry Jakovenko did manage to break stubborn resistance of Yusup Atabayev and Ilia Iljiushenok respectively.
As for Rustam Kasimdzhanov, he went on to lose to Anton Kovalyov altogether.
Kovalyov – Kasimdzhanov
Rapid, game two
Having played 20…bxc5?, Black left the undefended a5-pawn to its fate.
21. Qd2 Rd7 22. Bxa5, and the former World Champion never managed to obtain any decent compensation for the lost material.
Gabriel Sargissian and Mateusz Bartel were the last to leave the battlefield. In the Armageddon the Armenian grandmaster managed to defend the worst ending and achieve a draw as Black, which is equal to a victory.
As a result of the tiebreaks the Russians Maxim Matlakov, Ivan Bukavshin, Boris Grachev, and Ilia Iljiushenok were eliminated from further participation in the tournament.
Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Dmitry Jakovenko, Peter Svidler, Nikita Vitiugov, Dmitry Andreikin, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ernesto Inarkiev Igor Lysyj, Alexander Motylev, Vladimir Fedoseev, and Vladislav Artemiev all advanced to the second round of the World Cup.
