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Navara, Naiditsch, Ponomariov, Wojtaszek Early Victims At FIDE Chess World Cup
The venue on day two, already for the last time with all 128 players. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Navara, Naiditsch, Ponomariov, Wojtaszek Early Victims At FIDE Chess World Cup

PeterDoggers
| 14 | Chess Event Coverage

David Navara, Arkadij NaiditschRuslan Ponomariov and Radek Wojtaszek are the biggest names that have to leave the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk after just two days of play. Thursday will see tiebreaks in 23 of the 64 matches.

You can follow the games here as part of our live portal Chess.com/events. There is daily coverage by our Twitch partner, the Chessbrahs.

GMs Yasser Seirawan, Eric Hansen and Aman Hambleton are covering the tournament each day on their channel Twitch.tv/Chessbrah. Play starts at 3 p.m. local time, which is 12:00 (noon) CEST, 6 a.m. Eastern and 3 a.m. Pacific.

None of the rating favorites that started with a loss managed to win on demand. Radek Wojtaszek was the highest-rated player that didn't even make it to the tiebreaks of the first round, as he faced a young Norwegian grandmaster who happened to be in great shape.

It didn't help that Wojtaszek got caught in a sharp line of the Sicilian Najdorf where White sacrifices an exchange and the most Black can hope for is a draw.

Christiansen Wojtaszek 2019 FIDE World Cup
Daniil Dubov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are much interested in the sharp Najdorf played in Christiansen vs. Wojtaszek. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

It's unclear whether it was part of the "Magnus effect" mentioned yesterday, but Johan-Sebastian Christiansen wasn't even happy with that draw and decided to just beat his world-class opponent another time.

It's hard not to be a fan of a player who comes up with a quote like this: "I needed a draw but still I played some crazy variation because to play boring is not my style really," said Christiansen.

FIDE's interview with Christiansen.

Two other players who had beaten higher-rated opponents on the first day, Nihal Sarin and Niclas Huschenbeth, scored impressive wins yet again versus Jorge Cori and Arkadij Naiditsch. After winning the first game, Andrey Esipenko held the draw against a "World Cup gangster," Peter Svidler's nickname for Ruslan Ponomariov. The latter didn't have a very pleasant experience after his first game.

Czech number-one David Navara had started with a draw, but an unexpected loss in the second game sent him home early as well. The 22-year-old Russian GM Daniil Yuffa came up with a strong pawn push in the center, and Navara might have missed the main point behind it.

After that he was looking at a positional disaster. Without a g-pawn, White couldn't fight the beast on f5.

Navara Yuffa 2019 FIDE World Cup
Unlike earlier World Cups, David Navara has to leave early. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Of the top nine seeds, eight won their matches 2-0: Ding Liren, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Leinier Dominguez and Alexander Grischuk. Sixth seed Levon Aronian, who escaped with a draw yesterday, won convincingly as Black on day two.

The top seed won very quickly this time:

The Colombian GM Alder Escobar had Dominguez on the ropes in his white game and almost forced a tiebreak:

Alder Forero Dominguez 2019 FIDE World Cup
Alder Escobar got close to beating Leinier Dominguez on day two. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

The upset of the day was the 37-year-old Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami winning on demand against the 25-year-old top grandmaster Yu Yangyi in a marathon game. It was a truly great performance by Ghaem Maghami that lasted 132 moves.

Yu Yangyi 2019 FIDE World Cup
Yu Yangyi slipped, and now needs to play a tiebreak. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Four other players managed to win on demand to take their match to tiebreaks: Narayan S.L. vs. David AntonSethuraman S.P. vs. Tamir Nabaty, Shekhar Ganguly vs. Vladimir Fedoseev and Constantin Lupulescu vs. Igor Kovalenko.

Below Yu, the highest-rated player that went to playoffs was Hikaru Nakamura. Following his draw in the first game, he split the point even more quickly in the next (after just 16 moves), probably happy to show his quick-play skills against the 21-year-old Bilel Bellahcene of Algeria.

Stage 2019 FIDE World Cup
The top boards are played on a separate stage. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

It was a good day for Iranian chess. Besides Ghaem Maghami's win, there was Alireza Firouzja, who got his desired draw to advance, and Parham Maghsoodloo who won one of the most exciting games of the day against Russia's Maksim Chigaev to make 2-0.

Maghsoodloo Chigaev 2019 FIDE World Cup
Strong attacking play by Parham Maghsoodloo. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

From the longest we go to one of the shortest games of the day. Much earlier, after starting with a draw, Svidler of Russia had won an attractive miniature against the 19-year-old Cuban GM Carlos Daniel Albornoz

It was not without any hiccups, because after the game people told him that 11.Nc3 is preferred these days over what he played.

"It probably is advisable to know some openings," Svidler said. He called Black's 13...f5 a "very large present" after which he proved himself to be the strongest calculator of the two.

Svidler with GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko going through his game.

In another example of a strong GM outcalculating his opponent, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov used different knight forks to beat the 20-year-old IM Fy Antenaina Rakotomaharo of Madagascar.

Rakotomaharo 2019 FIDE World Cup
The player with arguably the most beautiful name has to leave the tournament: Fy Antenaina Rakotomaharo of Madagascar. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

FIDE World Cup | Round 1 results

Seed Fed Title Player Seed Fed Title Player G1 G2 TB
1 GM Ding Liren - 128 FM Press 1-0 1-0 .
2 GM Giri - 127 FM Mohammad 1-0 1-0 .
3 GM Vachier-Lagrave - 126 IM Anwuli 1-0 1-0 .
4 GM So - 125 IM Duran 1-0 1-0 .
5 GM Nepomniachtchi - 124 Gan-Erdene 1-0 1-0 .
6 GM Aronian - 123 GM El Gindy ½-½ 1-0 .
7 GM Mamedyarov - 122 IM Rakotomaharo 1-0 1-0 .
8 GM Dominguez - 121 GM Escobar 1-0 1-0 .
9 GM Grischuk - 120 IM Pultinevicius 1-0 1-0 .
10 GM Radjabov - 119 GM Ziska 1-0 ½-½ .
11 GM Artemiev - 118 GM Iljiushenok ½-½ 1-0 .
12 GM Yu Yangyi - 117 GM Ghaem Maghami 1-0 0-1 .
13 GM Karjakin - 116 GM Megaranto 1-0 1-0 .
14 GM Nakamura - 115 GM Bellahcene ½-½ ½-½ .
15 GM Andreikin - 114 GM Mekhitarian ½-½ ½-½ .
16 GM Wojtaszek - 113 GM Christiansen 0-1 0-1 .
17 GM Harikrishna - 112 GM Gonzalez  1-0 1-0 .
18 GM Duda - 111 GM Henriquez 1-0 ½-½ .
19 GM Svidler - 110 GM Albornoz ½-½ 1-0 .
20 GM Vitiugov - 109 GM Urkedal ½-½ 1-0 .
21 GM Wei Yi - 108 GM Santos ½-½ 1-0 .
22 GM Le - 107 GM Aleksandrov ½-½ ½-½ .
23 GM Navara - 106 GM Yuffa ½-½ 0-1 .
24 GM Bu Xiangzhi - 105 GM Xu Xiangyu ½-½ ½-½ .
25 GM Wang Hao - 104 GM Pridorozhni ½-½ ½-½ .
26 GM Shankland - 103 GM Safarli ½-½ ½-½ .
27 GM Matlakov - 102 GM Abdusattorov ½-½ ½-½ .
28 GM Tomashevsky - 101 GM Petrov ½-½ ½-½ .
29 GM Vidit - 100 GM Pichot ½-½ 1-0 .
30 GM Jakovenko - 99 GM Martinez 1-0 1-0 .
31 GM Xiong - 98 GM Lysyj 1-0 1-0 .
32 GM Firouzja - 97 GM Pashikian 1-0 ½-½ .
33 GM Dubov - 96 GM Cordova 1-0 ½-½ .
34 GM Amin - 95 GM Tabatabaei ½-½ ½-½ .
35 GM Jones - 94 GM Flores 1-0 ½-½ .
36 GM Grandelius - 93 GM Rakhmanov ½-½ 0-1 .
37 GM Adams - 92 GM Aravindh ½-½ ½-½ .
38 GM Gelfand - 91 GM Lu Shanglei ½-½ ½-½ .
39 GM Cori - 90 GM Nihal 0-1 0-1 .
40 GM Rodshtein - 89 GM Bartel 1-0 ½-½ .
41 GM Inarkiev - 88 GM Karthikeyan Mrali ½-½ 1-0 .
42 GM McShane - 87 GM Delgado ½-½ ½-½ .
43 GM Korobov - 86 GM Gupta ½-½ ½-½ .
44 GM Anton - 85 GM Narayanan 1-0 0-1 .
45 GM Naiditsch - 84 GM Huschenbeth 0-1 0-1 .
46 GM Ponomariov - 83 GM Esipenko 0-1 ½-½ .
47 GM Nabaty - 82 GM Sethuraman 1-0 0-1 .
48 GM Fedoseev - 81 GM Ganguly 1-0 0-1 .
49 GM Alekseenko - 80 GM Nguyen ½-½ 1-0 .
50 GM Berkes - 79 GM Jumabayev ½-½ 0-1 .
51 GM Nisipeanu - 78 GM Parligras ½-½ ½-½ .
52 GM Sevian - 77 GM Tari 1-0 ½-½ .
53 GM Adhiban - 76 GM Iturrizaga 1-0 ½-½ .
54 GM Cheparinov - 75 GM Adly 1-0 ½-½ .
55 GM Sjugirov - 74 GM Mareco ½-½ ½-½ .
56 GM Saric - 73 GM Bok ½-½ ½-½ .
57 GM Piorun - 72 GM Abasov ½-½ ½-½ .
58 GM Kasimdzhanov - 71 GM Bareev 1-0 ½-½ .
59 GM Maghsoodloo - 70 GM Chigaev 1-0 1-0 .
60 GM Sarana - 69 GM Predke ½-½ ½-½ .
61 GM Demchenko - 68 GM Hovhannisyan 1-0 ½-½ .
62 GM Kovalenko - 67 GM Lupulescu 1-0 0-1 .
63 GM Gledura - 66 GM Najer ½-½ 0-1 .
64 GM Movsesian - 65 GM Oparin ½-½ 1-0 .

The FIDE World Cup takes place Sept. 9-Oct 4 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Each round consists of two classical games and a tiebreak on the third day. The final consists of four classical games. Both finalists will qualify for the 2020 Candidates' Tournament. The total prize fund is $1.6 million (1.45 million euros). Sept. 19 and 29 are rest days. You can find more background info in our preview article.


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