Karjakin, Mamedyarov & Svidler in quarter-finals World Cup

Sergey Karjakin, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Peter Svidler are the first three players who have reached the quarter-finals of the 2009 World Cup. On day 2 of round 4, Karjakin defeated Vitiugov with Black while Mamedyarov drew very quickly with Laznicka. Shirov tried against Svidler, but he was never close to more than equality. The second draw between Ponomariov and Bacrot was a real thriller.

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 4, day 2

The first player to reach round 5, which equals the quarter-finals, was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. His opponent Viktor Laznicka went for the Queen's Gambit Accepted, which can't be considered a serious winning attempt. Logically, the Azeri grandmaster chose an unambitious but risk-free variation and the draw was a fact already on move 13.



Peter Svidler's task was the same: drawing with White. Again Alexei Shirov went for one of his favourite defences, the Archangelsk Ruy Lopez, but Svidler naturally avoided the sharpest variations. In fact, his 9.Nxe5 looks like a solid way to reach a small advantage in this line and the Russian easily drew the game.



Like yesterday, compatriots Dmitry Jakovenko and Alexander Grischuk played a quick draw - apparently the two preferred to battle it out in rapid and possible blitz games. Boris Gelfand and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave needed a bit longer, but there too the balance was never disturbed.

Slightly more interesting was Wesley So vs Vladimir Malakhov, where the Philippine deviated from one of his opponent's tiebreak games against Eljanov, of only two days ago - but there Malakhov was Black! This time there were no big mistakes, just many exchanges.



For the second time in this World Cup, Vugar Gashimov was clearly in trouble with the black pieces. Fabiano Caruana reached a dream position after the first time control, with the bishop pair, an active rook and a well protected passed pawn, but eventually he couldn't break his opponent's stiff defence.

The game between Nikita Vitiugov and Sergey Karjakin seemed to be heading to a draw as well, until Vitiugov suddenly blundered with 31.Qe4?, obviously missing Karjakin's nasty reply. Black suddenly won a pawn, and the subsequent queen ending was very easy.

The longest game of the round was Ponomariov-Bacrot; an absolute thriller with mutual mistakes and a final position with only two bare kings. After a harmless opening choice by Ponomariov, Black was doing fine (17...Rb5 makes 18...c5 possible and a draw is near) but after some inaccurate moves by Bacrot, White was suddenly clearly better.



However, Ponomariov didn't profit (especially 25.a3? is a very strange move) and the knight ending was drawn. However, after Bacrot's 64...Nd5? the tablebase gives a win for White. Ponomariov was the last to err with 82.Kf7? when it's a draw again, and so Bacrot is entering the tiebreaks with a small psychological advantage tomorrow...

Games round 4, day 2

Game viewer by ChessTempo

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
Shabalov (2606)
	Navara (2707)
Navara (2707)
		Karjakin (2723)
Karjakin (2723)
	Karjakin (2723)
Timofeev (2651)
			Karjakin (2723)
Sakaev (2626)
	Sakaev (2626)
Radjabov (2748)
		Vitiugov (2694)
Vitiugov (2694)
	Vitiugov (2694)
Milos (2603)
Cheparinov (2671)
	Bologan (2692)
Bologan (2692)
		Laznicka (2637)
Morozevich (2750)
	Laznicka (2637)
Laznicka (2637)
			Mamedyarov (2719)
Milov (2652)
	Mamedyarov (2719)
Mamedyarov (2719)
		Mamedyarov (2719)
Wang Hao (2708)
	Wang Hao (2708)
Ganguly (2654)
Meier (2653)
	Vachier-Lagrave (2718)
Vachier-Lagrave (2718)
		Vachier-Lagrave (2718)
Yu Yangyi (2527)
	Yu Yangyi (2527)
Bartel (2618)
Amonatov (2631)
	Gelfand (2758)
Gelfand (2758)
		Gelfand (2758)
Polgar (2680)
	Polgar (2680)
Nisipeanu (2677)
Iturrizaga (2605)
	Jobava (2696)
Jobava (2696)
		Grischuk (2736)
Grischuk (2736)
	Grischuk (2736)
Tkachiev (2642)
Sandipan (2623)
	Jakovenko (2736)
Jakovenko (2736)
		Jakovenko (2736)
Rublevsky (2697)
	Areshchenko (2664)
Areshchenko (2664)
Sasikiran (2664)
	Bacrot (2700)
Bacrot (2700)
		Bacrot (2700)
Wang Yue (2734)
	Wang Yue (2734)
Savchenko (2644)
Akobian (2624)
	Ponomariov (2739)
Ponomariov (2739)
		Ponomariov (2739)
Motylev (2695)
	Motylev (2695)
Najer (2695
Li Chao (2596)
	Li Chao (2596)
Pelletier (2589)
		Gashimov (2758)
Gashimov (2758)
	Gashimov (2758)
Zhou Jianchao (2629
Caruana (2652)
	Caruana (2652)
Dominguez (2719)
		Caruana (2652)
Alekseev (2715)
	Alekseev (2715)
Fressinet (2653)
Khalifman (2612)
	Tomashevsky (2708)
Tomashevsky (2708)
		Shirov (2719)
Shirov (2719)
	Shirov (2719)
Fedorchuk (2619)
			Svidler (2754)
Nyback (2628)
	Svidler (2754)
Svidler (2754)
		Svidler (2754)
Naiditsch (2689)
	Naiditsch (2689)
Onischuk (2672)
Zhou Weiqi (2603)
	Kamsky (2695)
Kamsky (2695)
		So (2640)
Ivanchuk (2739)
	So (2640)
So (2640)
Inarkiev (2645)
	Eljanov (2729)
Eljanov (2729)
		Malakhov (2706)
Malakhov (2706)
	Malakhov (2706)
Smirin (2662)

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN