Big upsets on first day round 2 World Cup

The first day of the World Cup's second round saw quite a number of big upsets. Svidler lost with Black against Nyback, Morozevich went down with the white pieces against Laznicka, Sakaev defeated Radjabov, Ivanchuk lost to So and Inarkiev defeated Eljanov.

The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place November 20th-December 15th inn Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It's a seven-round knockout with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round. The final seventh round consists of four games.

Round 1 (November 21-23): 128 players	Round 5 (December 3-5): 8 players
Round 2 (November 24-26): 64 players	Round 6 (December 6-8): 4 players
Round 3 (November 27-29): 32 players	Round 7 (December 10-14): 2 players
Round 4 (November 30-December 2): 16 players

The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time (11:00 CET).

Round 2, day 1

It was the world upside down today in Khanty-Mansyisk. The first seven rating favorites scored only 1.5 points and big names such as Ivanchuk, Svidler, Morozevich and Radjabov are in danger of an early knockout!

Top seeded player Boris Gelfand was again the first to finish his game today. Besides his famous "game after game" approach, his strategy in Khanty-Mansyisk is clear: draw with Black, try to win with White, and save energy wherever possible. His Petroff against Amonatov lasted just twelve moves, so the Israeli grandmaster clearly bets on his White game. And why not.

Many of the underdogs did well or very well today. Zhou Jianchao played an excellent game against Gashimov; in a Berlin Wall the Chinese 21-year-old even played a positional exchange sacrifice that kind of forced the draw immediately when Gashimov decided to go for an ending with opposite-coloured bishops.

Peter Svidler lost to Finnish grandmaster Tomi Nyback (against whom yours truly once managed to draw in a King's Indian; perhaps a better choice than the Grünfeld for a Peter? ;-) ) and here too all credits should go to the lower-rated player for what looks like a fine game. Nyback grabbed his chance at the right moment with the strong 30.e6!.



The third upset was Alexander Morozevich going down against Viktor Laznicka from the Czech Republic. The world's number 10 tried to trick his opponent but Laznicka gladly fell for it: he got a pawn and the bishop pair for the lost exchange, and then duly won when got a passed pawn on the queenside.



Radjabov was the next to falter on this crazy first day of round 2. Sakaev ran with his king from e1 to b3, but with all the important squares and the centre protected, White was fine. Soon an ending was reached where Black should have been fine as well, but suddenly Radjabov couldn't prevent the loss of a piece on the kingside.



The biggest surprise perhaps was the loss of Vassily Ivanchuk, the favourite to win this World Cup according to the ChessVibes visitors, against super-talent Wesley So. It seemed that the Ukrainian was totally outplaying his Pinoy opponent, but when he couldn't find the knockout blow he should probably have taken the draw. Instead, in terrible timetrouble already, Chuky decided to play on but then lost in the ending.

Ernesto Inarkiev, who was a bit lucky to qualify in yesterday's tiebreaks against Gustafsson, continued very well by defeating 84 points higher rated Pavel Eljanov - White powerplay in the Berlin Wall this time. Yu Yangyi proved to be more than a one-day fly and beat Polish GM Mateusz Bartel.



World Cup 2007 finalist Shirov and winner Kamsky won their first game while Polgar, who had qualified without playing, started with a draw against Nisipeanu. Tomorrow 11:00 CET is the start of day 2 of round 2.

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Games round 2, day 1

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Name	NAT	G1	G2	R1	R2	R3	R4	B1	B2	B3	B4	B5	B6	B7	B8	B9	B10	SD	Tot
Round 2 Match 01
Amonatov, Farrukh	TJK	½																	0.5
Gelfand, Boris	ISR	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 02
Gashimov, Vugar	AZE	½																	0.5
Zhou, Jianchao	CHN	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 03
Nyback, Tomi	FIN	1																	1.0
Svidler, Peter	RUS	0																	0
Round 2 Match 04
Morozevich, Alexander	RUS	0																	0.0
Laznicka, Viktor	CZE	1																	1
Round 2 Match 05
Sakaev, Konstantin	RUS	1																	1.0
Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	0																	0
Round 2 Match 06
Ivanchuk, Vassily	UKR	0																	0.0
So, Wesley	PHI	1																	1
Round 2 Match 07
Akobian, Varuzhan	USA	½																	0.5
Ponomariov, Ruslan	UKR	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 08
Grischuk, Alexander	RUS	1																	1.0
Tkachiev, Vladislav	FRA	0																	0
Round 2 Match 09
Sandipan, Chanda	IND	0																	0.0
Jakovenko, Dmitry	RUS	1																	1
Round 2 Match 10
Wang, Yue	CHN	1																	1.0
Savchenko, Boris	RUS	0																	0
Round 2 Match 11
Inarkiev, Ernesto	RUS	1																	1.0
Eljanov, Pavel	UKR	0																	0
Round 2 Match 12
Karjakin, Sergey	UKR	½																	0.5
Timofeev, Artyom	RUS	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 13
Milov, Vadim	SUI	0																	0.0
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	AZE	1																	1
Round 2 Match 14
Shirov, Alexei	ESP	1																	1.0
Fedorchuk, Sergey A.	UKR	0																	0
Round 2 Match 15
Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	½																	0.5
Dominguez Perez, Leinier	CUB	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 16
Yu, Yangyi	CHN	1																	1.0
Bartel, Mateusz	POL	0																	0
Round 2 Match 17
Meier, Georg	GER	½																	0.5
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	FRA	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 18
Alekseev, Evgeny	RUS	½																	0.5
Fressinet, Laurent	FRA	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 19
Khalifman, Alexander	RUS	½																	0.5
Tomashevsky, Evgeny	RUS	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 20
Wang, Hao	CHN	1																	1.0
Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	IND	0																	0
Round 2 Match 21
Shabalov, Alexander	USA	½																	0.5
Navara, David	CZE	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 22
Malakhov, Vladimir	RUS	½																	0.5
Smirin, Ilia	ISR	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 23
Sasikiran, Krishnan	IND	0																	0.0
Bacrot, Etienne	FRA	1																	1
Round 2 Match 24
Rublevsky, Sergei	RUS	½																	0.5
Areshchenko, Alexander	UKR	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 25
Iturrizaga, Eduardo	VEN	½																	0.5
Jobava, Baadur	GEO	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 26
Motylev, Alexander	RUS	1																	1.0
Najer, Evgeniy	RUS	0																	0
Round 2 Match 27
Zhou, Weiqi	CHN	0																	0.0
Kamsky, Gata	USA	1																	1
Round 2 Match 28
Vitiugov, Nikita	RUS	½																	0.5
Milos, Gilberto	BRA	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 29
Cheparinov, Ivan	BUL	½																	0.5
Bologan, Viktor	MDA	½																	0.5
Round 2 Match 30
Naiditsch, Arkadij	GER	1																	1.0
Onischuk, Alexander	USA	0																	0
Round 2 Match 31
Li, Chao	CHN	0																	0.0
Pelletier, Yannick	SUI	1																	1
Round 2 Match 32
Polgar, Judit	HUN	½																	0.5
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter	ROU	½																	0.5

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