World Cup: Nepomniachtchi & Polgar Sent Packing

Ian Nepomniachtchi and Judit Polgar were both eliminated on the second day of the FIDE World Cup. Nepomniachtchi lost to the youngest grandmaster in the world, Wei Yi of China, while Polgar drew with Cuban GM Isan Reynaldo Ortiz Suarez, who won the first game. Peter Svidler surprisingly lost game 2 to Women's World Champion Anna Ushenina, who thus secured a playoff, like Alexander Morozevich, who won the second game against Bator Sambuev convincingly.

After the two classical games of the first round, the seven top seeded players have qualified for round 2: Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura and Boris Gelfand. Not all elite players had an easy time; Caruana and Karjakin couldn't beat their 2300 opponents in the second game, and Grischuk was clearly worse for quite a while against Igor Bjelobrk of Australia:

Boris Gelfand won the first game, but almost lost the second. His 21...fxg4 was a huge mistake, and he ended up with two rooks vs. a queen but a pawn down and an open king. White was surely winning at some point, but in the end the Israeli could avoid the loss.

Gata Kamsky is the highest rated player to score 1-1. His opponent Lou Yiping, one of several relatively unkown Chinese talents, managed to draw both games. 

Ruslan Ponomariov was the first 2700 player to reach the second round. After the game ChessVibes spoke with the former FIDE World Champion:

Peter Svidler didn't lose a single game at the 2011 World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, but in his second game against Anna Ushenina it suddenly went horribly wrong. In a very theoretical Grünfeld, Black should be fine after 28...Bxf2+ but instead Svidler blundered heavily.

ChessVibes spoke with Ushenina, who tells about both the first and the second game, and also looks forward to the tiebreak on Tuesday.

Wan Yunguo is another Chinese talent who managed to draw both games against a 2700 player: Dortmund winner Michael Adams. Alexander Morozevich also played 1-1, as he levelled the score after his surprising loss yesterday.

Anish Giri won his first game with Black, and then had no trouble "not losing the second". Here's another interview by ChessVibes:

Ian Nepomniachtchi's elimination was the biggest upset in this first round. He was simply outplayed by Wei Yi, who only became a grandmaster in February this year and who seems to have a bright future ahead of him:

Larry Christiansen had exellent chances to level the score in his match with Laurent Fressinet, but the American grandmaster mixed up the move order. First 27...cxb2 and then 28...Rxf2 would have won for Black.

Hou Yifan managed to draw both games with Alexei Shirov, and so they will also have to play the tiebreak on Tuesday.

Judit Polgar, however, is already knocked out. She failed to win against Isan Reynaldo Ortiz Suarez of Cuba. According to the computer, both 36.Rh4 and 61.Kb6 would have won for White.

Ray Robson played the higher rated Andrey Volokitin of Ukraine, but the 18-year-old American grandmaster duly won both games! Here are both, followed by an interview:

Of the 32 matches in round 2, only 11 are known already: Aronian-Lysyj, Mamedyarov-Matlakov, Le Quang Liem-Vallejo Pons, Jakovenko-Eljanov, Malakhov-Fressinet, Gelfand-Filippov, Bacrot-Moiseenko, Dominguez-Onischuk, Vachier-Lagrave-Ortiz Suarez, Ivanchuk-Robson and Ponomariov-Dubov. 28 matches were undecided after two games at the classical time control and so 56 players will continue the fight at 3 p.m. local time on August 13th.

FIDE World Cup 2013 | Round 1 results

Held every two years, the World Cup is part of the World Championship cycle. The winner and the runner-up will qualify for the 2014 Candidates Tournament. The World Cup takes place August 10th-September 3rd in Tromsø, Norway. Photos by Paul Truong courtesy of the official website; games via TWIC.