Svidler & Mamedyarov start with wins, Ivanchuk says he won't quit

In his tiebreak match against Arkadij Naiditsch, Peter Svidler was almost dead and burnt yesterday. But like a phoenix he immediately struck on the first day of round 4, beating Alexei Shirov with Black. Like in his first three matches (!), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov started with a win as well today. Vassily Ivanchuk, by the way, now says he won't quit chess. Phew.

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 1

We don't know about you, but we kind of missed that Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is having a, well, fantastic tournament so far in Khanty-Mansiysk. He started all his matches with a victory, didn't need any tiebreak and is now on a 6.5/7 score and a 3042 performance rating! Acccording to co-editor Merijn van Delft, playing (and enjoying) board 4 at the European Team Championship must have done Shakh very well. Today he outplayed Laznicka with the black pieces.



Alexei Shirov is feeling less happy after today. After reaching a small plus against Svidler's Grünfeld around move 20, he miscalculated terribly and was soon looking at a lost position. We're not sure what he missed, but Svidler's 23...Qa7! followed by a few more accurate moves left Black material up.

Several other games ended in quick draws today, probably because of yesterday's tiresome tiebreaks. Especially Grischuk, Jakovenko, Bacrot and Ponomariov didn't feel like playing, while Karjakin-Vitiugov wasn't much of a game either.

Vachier-Lagrave and Gelfand played on a bit longer, but half of that game was theory. Perhaps Gelfand should have played on, because according to endgame expert Karsten Müller only two results were possible there: 1/2 or 0-1.

The final phase of Caruana-Gashimov was interesting, although all the exchanges led to equality. The best draw was So-Malakhov; a Slechter / Chebanenko hybrid that was slightly better for White all the time, but in the ending there was no way to make progress. Malakhov's drawing combination was cute.

Ivanchuk

Today ChessPro published the following, comforting letter by Vassily Ivanchuk:

Please forgive me, my fans, friends and colleagues in arms and many chess fans for an emotional interview. I was very upset after the defeat, but in any case I'm not going to quit chess! And I want to refute what appeared in the media about my resignation...

Sincerely, Vassily Ivanchuk

Games round 4, day 1

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)
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)
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)
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