No big surprises in World Cup R2 tiebreaks; Ivanchuk says he'll 'leave professional chess'

In the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, many of the higher-rated players went through to the third round in today's tiebreaks of round 2. Leinier Dominguez however was eliminated by Fabiano Caruana. But the biggest news might be Ivanchuk's declaration yesterday that he'll leave professional chess.

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).

Tiebreaks round 2

After a loss and a win in the regular games, Svidler easily set aside Nyback by scoring two smooth wins with White in the Ruy Lopez, and a draw in a Grünfeld. Ponomariov won two and drew two against Akobian; especially the first game with White was very impressive play by the Ukrainian.



His compatriot Eljanov, who started his second round with a loss on Tuesday, eventually reached the third round today thanks to one victory with Black. This game unfortunately doesn't seem to have been recorded till the end.



Like his former compatriot, Karjakin reached the next round with three draws and one win. In game 2, a Bb5 Sicilian, he won the bishop pair thanks to a trick known from the 8.d4 Ruy Lopez and subsequently outplayed his opponent nicely. Interestingly, where half a point was enough, Karjakin played game 4 in very sharp style, following the unwritten rule 'if you want a draw, play for a win'.



American Italian Caruana and Cuban Dominguez continued their interesting theoretical discussion in the current main line of the Exchange Grünfeld, which Dominguez kept drawing in this minimatch. The match was decided in game 2 in which Caruana used the Archangelsk Ruy Lopez to win with Black; the same variation used by Shirov. After what looked like an unnecessary loss yesterday, today the Spanish Latvian made clear who was the strongest in his match with Fedorchuk, winning three games in a row (the last in just 14 moves!).



Another very tight match was Vachier-Lagrave-Meier. After three draws, a very interesting King's Indian in game 4 should also have ended in a draw, but Meier decided to continue with 35.Re2? which was just losing. Alekseev won two games and drew one against Fressinet while Tomashevsky defeated Khalifman by winning one White game.



Viktor Bologan was the slight favourite in his match against Cheparinov, and indeed defeated the Bulgarian. He was 1.5-0.5 down after two rapid games, but then won the last two. Polgar needed four rapid games and two blitz games to beat Nisipeanu.



Navara won two games against Shabalov and then got tricked in the opening to lose the third, but then the Czech held the draw with Black to qualify.



On the tournament website already a number of interesting interviews have been published so far, but today a disturbing one was added. At yesterday's press conference, apparently Ivanchuk announced that he'll quit (professional) chess:

It has nothing to do with the number of games! Unlucky days started when I could not win Vladimir Kramnik in the finals of Memorial Tal. But I could. The real tragedy started then. I was so much unlucky at the Moscow blitz, as I have never been unlucky in my life. I blundered all possible pieces: queen, rooks, and pawns. At that blitz tournament I was as if I was thrown out of a saddle. And plus, I was losing.



To my mind I should leave the professional chess now. Chess becomes hobby for me from now on. As for the signed contracts, yes, I will play in all tournaments where I have to. Perhaps I will even participate in a tournament before the New Year. I should win SOMETHING! And that will be the end. No serious plans, no professional goals.

After the disappointing course of events in Moscow and Khanty-Mansyisk, it's understandable that Ivanchuk suffers some sort of chess depression right now. And hey, he's human too - finally fed up with chess for a moment. Let's hope he'll quickly take back his words and will play for many years more, because the chess world wouldn't be the same without our beloved Chuky.

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Tiebreak games round 3

Game viewer by ChessTempo








Players in bold have reached the third round; players in italics have been eliminated.

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

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN