World Cup Final: Games 2 and 3 Drawn

Both games 2 and 3 of the World Cup final in Tromsø, Norway ended in draws. On Saturday Dmitry Andreikin got an advantage out of the opening, but then he underestimated his chances and didn't play the critical continuation. On Sunday Vladimir Kramnik didn't get much out of the opening and an endgame was drawn on move 27. The last classical game is scheduled for Monday, September 2nd at 15:00 CET / 09:00 EDT. Andreikin must win, to force a tiebreak on Tuesday.

After two draws over the weekend, the chess world is awaiting an exciting and tense last game in Tromsø on Monday. The score is 2-1 in favour of Vladimir Kramnik, and so Dmitry Andreikin is in a must-win situation! The youngest of the two Russians (Andreikin is 23, Kramnik 38) will have the white pieces and will surely try everything he's got.

On Friday the final started with an excellent win for Kramnik, and so the question was what Andreikin was capable of with the white pieces the next day. In a Queen's Gambit Declined (5.Bf4 variation) he got a slight advantage. With the moves 8.Qc2 and 9.Nxd4 he managed to get Kramnik out of his preparation. The move 11...e5 looks somewhat dubious, especially when Andreikin found the critical reply 12.Nc6! However, Kramnik quickly played 14...Bxa3 and this caused some confusion on Andreikin's part. Instead of taking on d7, which gives White winning chances, he let his opponent escape with a draw.

Although it got him closer to tournament victory, Kramnik wasn't 100% happy with his draw on Sunday.

“In general I'm not totally happy with a draw with any player, but I couldn't see what to do.”

In a Chebanenko Slav, the former World Champion was annoyed with himself for trading queens too quickly. After the game he suggested the move 12.bxc4, with which White hopes to put pressure on b7 with Rb1 and Bf3. The reason he didn't play it was the position of his queen, and so he took on d8, only to discover that 13.bxc4 was also problematic: 13...Rd2 14.Rfc1 and now 14...e5 (14...Bxc3? 15.Bxc3 Rxe2 16.Nd4!) 15.Bf3 Bf5 16.e4 Bg6 17.Nd5 Nc6 and Black is already slightly better. In the game Kramnik had to take with the bishop on c4, and in the resulting symmetrical position Andreikin equalized without problems.

FIDE World Cup 2013, Final | Score

Held every two years, the World Cup is part of the World Championship cycle. The winner and the runner-up will qualify for the 2014 Candidates Tournament. The World Cup takes place August 10th-September 3rd in Tromsø, Norway. Photos by Paul Truong courtesy of the official website; games via TWIC.