As Wesley So is the most favorite in my region, his tie break will be the most thrilling one tonight.
I also have high hope for Hou Yifan. And also hope Khalifman can get thru. Then I am rooting for the rest of US especially Shabalov.
Yes the Shulman game looks not right. perhaps 32..Rxe7 and then draw.
svidler, radjabov, eljanov, karjakin, shirov and vachier-lagrave are my favorites. It's a pitty that nakamura short and adams aren't playing at the world cup couse they play a tourney in london.
Wow, Akobian and Tregubov are really going the distance!
Just two more blitz games to go and then we'll see whether they go down to an Armageddon game!
I don't think draw odds will be a major factor in the Armageddon game (if there isn't a winner after the next two blitz games), because they haven't had an indecisive game since their second rapid game!
Good news, yullian, Wesley So made it through--and will face Ivanchuk tomorrow!
This event would be sooo much better if it hadn't conflicted with the London Chess Classic! I can think of at least four more players (Kramnik, Nakamura, Carlsen, Ni Hua, are there any others?) that would be in this, and they're some of the most exciting to watch!
Update: Akobian has defeated Tregubov in their fifth and final blitz match and will play Ponomariov tomorrow. If Tregubov had won their final game, an Armageddon game would have been played!
yes So make it the easiest tie break.
Akobian going to play ponomariov and Shaba - Navara which is I think shaba have promising chance.
The next two days' games are going to be interesting to watch!
Off-hand thought: What if there were a tournament composed entirely of armageddon games?
That would be cool, if it were double-round-robin or a two-game match tournament. It seems to me that the controversy that surrounds Armageddon tiebreaks is based on the question of how to balance the contest so that one player does not have a huge advantage. Should it be 6 minutes for White and 5 for Black (like in Topalov-Kamsky, if I remember correctly), or 5 for White and 4 for Black (like in the World Cup)? What about an increment (there's a 3-second increment from Move 61 onward at the World Cup)? This could be eliminated in an Armageddon tournament by playing double round robin.
I think it's a great idea:)
As for the World Cup, today was quite a day of upsets! I couldn't help but notice that Wesley So's defeat of Vassily Ivanchuk (with the black pieces, no less!) was one move before the time control. Is it possible that Ivanchuk fell victim to his habitual time trouble (sometimes caused by his habit of waiting until after the cameramen are gone to make his first move)?
It's going to be interesting to see whether Ivanchuk can come back against the young Filipino star!
Also, I notice that Akobian has drawn his game as White against Ponomariov; apparently he was able to recoup his mental energy after hanging on through a grueling tiebreak match that was filled with must-win situations, and his victory was not a Pyrrhic one (so far).
As Ray Robson (one of the main players I was following) was knocked out by Jobava earlier, I am left to root for his coach, Onischuk, who lost with the black pieces against Naiditch today. The players are only five seeds apart, so Game 2 of that match could go either way tomorrow (although it's probable that Naiditch knows how to make good use of his effective draw odds).
Speaking of draw odds, I'd say that Kamsky, with his Black win today, will advance to Round 3 to play the winner of So-Ivanchuk, because when Kamsky says, "Draw," then it's really hard for the other player to say no.
many upsets, svidler lost to dangerous finnish player Nyback, moro to laznicka, but moro can lost to anyone.
radjabov to sakaev. ivanchuck-so must take a note that at some point ivanchuck can forced a perpetual draw, but ivanchuck went for win but failed to did it.
so again thrilling game 2 fight for today. Kamsky is maybe taking advantage of Sutovsky knowledge now, as Zhou was the one who faced Sutovsky earlier.
Morozevich and Ivanchuk have gotten themselves into difficult spots. They are exciting players but I see why they have a reputation for being unsteady.
Svidler and Radjabov got their versions of 2...g6 bashed. With white, the star power might shine through and they could win on demand.
Between Svidler, Morozevich, Ivanchuk, and Radjabov, who will win on demand in game 2?
He's in a high-stakes game: the outcome of the game is the outcome of the match (win, lose, or draw=win, lose or go into tiebreaks). He has the black pieces.
I think the case of the Kamsky match is interesting, because if Sutovsky had won (as he was expected to do), he would have been facing Kamsky. This would have been an interesting matchup, because Sutovsky was Kamsky's second during the match with Topa, and probably knows some of Kamsky's preparation as a result of this.
On the other hand, is it possible that Sutovsky attempted to use some of his "Kamsky prep" against Zhou?
Between Svidler, Morozevich, Ivanchuk, and Radjabov, who will win on demand in game 2?
...And it was Svidler!
I wonder how he and Nyback are at rapid!
Not to mention Shabalov and Akobian (I wonder whether he and Pono will go the distance; that would make Akobian the most exciting player of the tournament so far!).
How could Morozevich have played that way in the opening as black in a must win situation?
I've decided to start a forum for kibitzing about the World Cup.
Here's the Results page with links to all games: http://cup2009.fide.com/results.php
Here are the brackets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_World_Cup_2009
You'll have to scroll down a bit on the Wikipedia page to get to the brackets.
Here's a discussion starter:
What's up with the finish of Shulman-Savchenko (Game 2, Match 55)?
Savchenko blunders a Rook in a drawish position, Shulman takes it, and the game is immediately drawn?
Perhaps there was some sort of issue during the game that we don't know about, where Shulman offered a draw for the sake of sportsmanship, or perhaps the move list on the java board is erroneous (there are 128 games posted; it's not all that unlikely that one of them contains that sort of error).
There are 19 pairs of players that are going to be decided by tiebreaks.