Ponomariov in World Cup final too

After Boris Gelfand, today Ruslan Ponomariov also qualified for the final of the 2009 FIDE World Cup. The Ukrainian defeated Vladimir Malakhov in a very exciting rapid tiebreak final: 3-1. Ponomariov lost the first game, but then won three in a row.

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 and will be played December 10th-14th.

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).

Tiebreak round 6

It was a completely new experience for ChessVibes and it's host Merijn van Delft on the live commentary today; first four rapid games, starting from 11:00 CET in the morning, and while the fourth started, by then the first round of the London Chess Classic had also started. Not an easy job, but the result was there: a wonderful coverage of a total of eight high-level chess games, which you can still replay.

Merijn had a nice start of his day as Ponomariov and Malakhov were fighting out a wonderful match. The first game went to Malakhov, and even with the black pieces. Again his Chebanenko Slav looked very solid, and then the Russian sacrificed his knight for a strong attack. Ponomariov could get away with a bad rook ending, but thanks to good technique Malakhov won the game anyway. A great start.

In such a situation one might start to play for a win with Black, but not by running too many risks. For this the Grünfeld is well-suited, and this is what Ponomariov picked. Malakhov however was well prepared and got a highly promising position, but then blew it. A level endgame came on the board in which it seemed like Ponomariov wanted to show that he's an even stronger endgame player than Malakhov. And he did.



In the next game Ponomariov decided to avoid another Chebanenko and he did that by postponing d2-d4 (but making all the other normal moves against the Slav). In the end the move had to be played, and a standard QGA was reached. Malakhov was taken by surprise by the move 10.e4!? and immediately erred. White's attack was very strong, and after the queens were exchanged Ponomariov won his piece back, and then won the endgame easily, two pawns up.

Probably in shock of what was happening, Malakhov again went wrong already in the opening phase of game 4, mixing up the move order. Ponomariov quickly won a pawn, and because of the score Malakhov avoided the exchange of queens, but this led to an even quicker disaster.

You can still replay IM Merijn van Delft's annotations on the live page. We're covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic for free; starting from 2010 our live commentary will be subscription-based. You'll find more info here.

Tiebreak games round 6

Game viewer by ChessTempo

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)
				Karjakin (2723)
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)
					Gelfand (2758)
Meier (2653)
	Vachier-Lagrave (2718)
Vachier-Lagrave (2718)
		Vachier-Lagrave (2718)
Yu Yangyi (2527)
	Yu Yangyi (2527)
Bartel (2618)
			Gelfand (2758)
Amonatov (2631)
	Gelfand (2758)
Gelfand (2758)
		Gelfand (2758)
Polgar (2680)
	Polgar (2680)
Nisipeanu (2677)
				Gelfand (2758)
Iturrizaga (2605)
	Jobava (2696)
Jobava (2696)
		Grischuk (2736)
Grischuk (2736)
	Grischuk (2736)
Tkachiev (2642)
			Jakovenko (2736)
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)
			Ponomariov (2739)
Akobian (2624)
	Ponomariov (2739)
Ponomariov (2739)
		Ponomariov (2739)
Motylev (2695)
	Motylev (2695)
Najer (2695
				Ponomariov (2739)
Li Chao (2596)
	Li Chao (2596)
Pelletier (2589)
		Gashimov (2758)
Gashimov (2758)
	Gashimov (2758)
Zhou Jianchao (2629
			Gashimov (2758)
Caruana (2652)
	Caruana (2652)
Dominguez (2719)
		Caruana (2652)
Alekseev (2715)
	Alekseev (2715)
Fressinet (2653)
					Ponomariov (2739)
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)
				Malakhov (2706)
Zhou Weiqi (2603)
	Kamsky (2695)
Kamsky (2695)
		So (2640)
Ivanchuk (2739)
	So (2640)
So (2640)
			Malakhov (2706)
Inarkiev (2645)
	Eljanov (2729)
Eljanov (2729)
		Malakhov (2706)
Malakhov (2706)
	Malakhov (2706)
Smirin (2662)

Links

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