World Cup: favourites through, Li Chao & Wang Yue forfeited and out

Favourites Gelfand, Gashimov, Svidler and Grischuk all reached the World Cup's 4th round yesterday, winning their minimatches in the tiebreaks. The story of the day was the forfeit of Li Chao and Wang Yue in their second rapid game. They arrived too late at the board, having a smoke in between games.

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 3

Now the proof is there: lighting a cigarette can be really bad for your chess. Having a smoke in between games, Li Chao and Wang Yue arrived too late at their board in yesterday's tiebreaks and so they lost their second rapid game by forfeit. The following is from a brief press conference yesterday:

- How happened that you missed the start of the game? - I don't know what happened, - replies disappointed Wang Yue. – We were smoking with Li Chao and some fellow told us: “Guys, I think you are late for your game”. Of course we rushed into the playing hall . But it was already too late .

- What did you feel at that moment? - I did not understand what happened, - says Wang Yue. But he also added: - Ok, these are the rules, I cannot break them. I was shocked . It seemed that the world has stopped .

- Did you try to speak with the Arbiter? - Sure, we spoke with the Chief Arbiter, - again Wang Yue. – He said: “These are the regulations, we should follow them. The decision is final and nothing can be changed. You should take it, go and prepare for the next game. I think it was a wise advice.”



- Was the decision fair to your mind? Yes, the decision was correct, according to the rules. The only decision that could be taken. But to my mind not fair. We cannot do anything . We just need to accept it . In China at all chess tournaments a big screen with the information about the tournament is used. A player can go to the toilet, to smoke or to do something else. But thanks to this screen he always knows how much time he has before the start of the game. Here there is no screen. But we hope that they will use it in future. Most of all I feel pity for Li Chao: he started smoking here, in Khanty to join my smoking company. (...)

The two Chinese players had started with a draw in the first rapid game, and so both of them were 1.5-0.5 down after this incident. Probably not in their best shape by then, both of them went down with Black in a Petroff ending; Wang Yue lost to Bacrot and Li Chao to Gashimov.

Judit Polgar continued in aggressive style and sacrificed an exchange against Gelfand in game 1, but this time the Israeli grandmaster immediately returned the material, and eventually emerged two pawns up. After a draw in the second game, Gelfand again won with the black pieces, again in a Petroff, in game 3 to reach the next round.



Svidler was on the verge of elimination against his Bundesliga team mate Naiditsch, when he lost the third rapid game with White and then got a lost position with Black in the last one. In a must-win situation Svidler had opted for 1...g6 against Naiditsch' 1.e4, but soon he faced an absolute horror scenario, with a White knight reaching e6.



The simple 16.Nxg7+ and 17.Bxh6 must be winning for White, but instead Naiditsch tried to mate his opponent. Svidler found a series of only moves to stay in the game, and eventually won after Naiditsch first missed 37.Rh4 (winning on the spot: 37...Qc5 38.Rf4+!) and then blundered a rook. A shocking experience for the German grandmaster, who couldn't keep up with his level and lost without a fight in the blitz.

Jakovenko started with a nice queen sac against Areshchenko, then drew twice and finished off with a Black victory. Grischuk and Jobava also reached the blitz stage, where the Russian won both games, the second one in a Petroff where the white queen was caught on move 16.



Viktor Laznicka is having an excellent World Cup; after eliminating Cheparinov he yesterday knocked out Bologan. In game 2 the thematic ...d5 push in a Hedgehog position was killing and in the last game Bologan should probably have preferred 52...Nd7 or 52...Kg5 because in the game the study-like 54.h4!! held at least draw for White, and eventually he did win.



A small upset in this round was Malakhov eliminating Eljanov, although it's not such a big surprise when you realize that Malakhov has been a 2600-high grandmaster for many years already. But his 3-0 in the rapids yesterday was quite impressive! 20...b3! and 21...Nf2! were nice in game 1, followed by a good, technical win in game 2 and a strong piece sacrifice in game 3.

Karjakin also scored a 3-0, against Navara, and in the last match Caruana defeated Alekseev. We haven't yet written much about the Italian American living in Budapest, but he's performing quite well in Khanty-Mansiysk. So far he has opened all his White games with 1.d4, and with it he defeated Bruzon's Bogo-Indian, drew three times against Dominguez' Grünfeld and beat Alekseev's Benoni once.



Today's 4th round, which has already started at the time of writing, sees the following matches: Vachier-Lagrave vs Gelfand, Gashimov vs Caruana, Shirov vs Svidler, Laznicka vs Mamedyarov, Karjakinvs vs Vitiugov, So vs Malakhov, Bacrot vs Ponomariov and Grischuk vs Jakovenko.

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Tiebreak games round 3

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