Grischuk To Face Svidler In World Cup Final

Alexander Grischuk beat Vassily Ivanchuk in the semi-final tie-break to set up a showdown with his Russian compatriot Peter Svidler in the final.

Vassily Ivanchuk lost a theoretically drawn ending in the first tie-break game, but recovered to level the scores in the next. Game three was decided by more Ivanchuk blunders, and this time Grischuk held the next game to win the match.

So Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk will play the final match over FOUR games, from 16-19 September. Tie-breaks, if needed, are on 20 September.

Tomorrow (15 September) is the first and only rest day in the World Cup!

The match between Ruslan Ponomariov and Vassily Ivanchuk for 3rd/4th place will run concurrently with the final, and since only the top 3 finishers qualify for next year's Candidates Tournament, this match is arguably even more significant than the final.

Chucky trips at the last hurdle, but will he miss out on the Candidates as well?

The completed semi-final scores:

Each round starts at 15:00 local time (09:00 UTC). The time control for the regular games is 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30 second increment from the start. Rapid games are at 25 minutes plus 10 second increment, and if scores are still level then 10 minutes plus 10 second increment, 5 minutes plus 3 second increment, and finally sudden-death 5 min v 4 min with a 3 second increment after move 60.

The official website with live coverage and commentary in Russian and English is here.

Photo from the official website.