Gelfand wins 3rd ACP World Rapid Cup

Boris Gelfand won the 3rd ACP World Rapid Cup today by beating Peter Svidler 3-1 in the final. The first two rapid games had ended in a draw and despite reaching very good positions twice, Svidler lost both games 3 and 4. Scoring 9.5 out of 13 rapid games, Gelfand earned US $ 10,000 in one weekend of chess in Odessa.

The 3rd ACP World Rapid Cup took place May 22-24 in Odessa, Ukraine. The venue was the Odessa National Academy of Law.It was a 16-player knockout tournament with two-game matches, except for the final which had four games. The rate of play was 20 minutes per game with an increment of 5 seconds per move. Traditionally sponsored by the Pivdenny Bank in Odessa, the prize fund was USD $57,000 with US $10,000 for the winner, Boris Gelfand. As the ACP World Cup commentator Viktor Korchnoi decided, Alexander Moiseenko was awarded a special prize for the best game (Moiseenko-Bacrot 1-0), named after the Odessa IM Mikhail Podgaets. Podgaets passed away in Odessa on 14 May 2009.On the second day (Saturday) Jakovenko, Gelfand, Grischuk and Svidler had qualified for the semi-finals. In the all-Russian semi-final, Svidler defeated Grischuk with Black in the first game, using the Alekhine Defence which he had used to kick out Movsesian as well. He then outplayed his opponent with White in a Scheveningen, but didn't press all the way and allowed Grischuk a draw.

Gelfand and Jakovenko needed an Armageddon game to decide their semi-final after the two rapid games had ended in a draw, and both players won one blitz game. In the first Gelfand won a piece in the opening, but he then lost in a Petroff (Jakovenko was successful in the 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 d5 5.Nbd2 line which was also tried by Gashimov and Naiditsch in this tournament). In the Armageddon game White got 5 minutes against 4 for Black, who only needed a draw. Gelfand got the white pieces and won nicely.

The final started peacefully with two quiet draws, and then Svidler got a big advantage with Black in game three. He missed 17...Nb4 and then 23...Nf3+ was probably also better; soon Gelfand's bishops became a killing factor. In the fourth game Svidler blundered horribly with 56.Bxd5?? where 56.Kxh1 Bxc4 57.Rxc4 Rxa5 58.Rb5 is most probably a winning rook ending.Nonetheless winning the 3rd ACP World Rapid Cup is of course an excellent result for Gelfand, who did the same as Shirov yesterday: proving that one can still be at the top in one's late 30s or early 40s!

Results:

Games Day 2 and 3

Click on the pairings at the top of the board to reveal a drop down list of all the games. Click on the arrow under the board just once, then the arrow keys of your keyboard also work.

All photos © Boris Bukhman

Links

• Tournament website
• Games in PGN